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Aug 22, 2019
Chinese state media on Friday hit back at claims by U.S. officials that China was failing to crack down on the flow of fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances into the United States, saying that responsibility for opioid abuse lay with users. The United States was "pushing responsibility" for fentanyl abuse to China and ignoring that Beijing had implemented strict controls on the highly addictive synthetic opioid, reported The People's Daily newspaper, published by the ruling Communist Party.
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Aug 22, 2019
The campaign manager for Bernie Sanders emphasized Thursday that New Hampshire is a critical presidential primary state he expects Sanders to win, but he's leaving room for a scenario in which Sanders falls short. Faiz Shakir said he doesn't "like the language of must-win," though he does believe it is an important early voting state.
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Aug 22, 2019
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday raised concern about private firearm sales but didn't commit to crack down on them or act on gun control issues following a meeting on ways to prevent mass shootings such as the El Paso attack that killed 22 people. While lawmakers are feeling pressure to respond quickly to the Aug. 3 shooting at a Walmart, Abbott signaled that Texas would take a long and careful look at gun laws and other safety measures before its Legislature next meets in 2021. Scrutinizing private guns sales was among a list of ideas Abbott rattled off after emerging from a four-hour, closed-door meeting about the El Paso shooting with lawmakers, police and representatives from Google, Facebook and Twitter.
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Aug 22, 2019
Stephanie Grisham has taken an unconventional approach to her White House post, and hasn't held a single on-camera briefing since taking over in July.
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Aug 22, 2019
Only America has more guns than people. Follow the lead of moms demanding action and students marching for their lives, writes candidate Beto O'Rourke
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Aug 22, 2019
The chief executive of the e-commerce firm Overstock.com stepped down Thursday over his relationship with an alleged Russian intelligence operative jailed for meddling in US politics. Patrick Byrne only recently admitted that he had a close relationship with Maria Butina for three years, during the period when she beguiled top Republican and National Rifle Association officials with talk of strengthening Moscow-Washington relations and her flair with guns.
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Aug 22, 2019
A fast-moving wildfire that broke out on Thursday on the outskirts of a National Forest in Northern California has prompted the evacuation of a community college, a major highway and some residents, officials said. The Mountain Fire, which erupted about noon PDT just north of the town of Bella Vista in Shasta County, had raced across some 600 acres (240 hectares) within a few hours, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) said on its incident website. Photos of the blaze posted on Twitter by the Shasta County Sheriff's Office showed thick black and gray smoke billowing into the area over a highway near the Shasta-Trinity National Forest.
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Aug 22, 2019
Two ex-military officers were notified Thursday that they will join more than a dozen others in being prosecuted for the 1981 El Mozote massacre, a particularly infamous moment from El Salvador's nation's civil war. A judge in San Francisco Gotera, about 100 miles (170 kilometers) east of the capital, summoned former Cols. Roberto Antonio Garay and José Antonio Rodríguez to inform them they will be tried on the charges of torture, forced disappearance and forced displacement.
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Aug 22, 2019
The scheduled execution of a Florida serial killer who targeted older gay men awaited a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court on his final appeals. The high court was mulling a last-ditch appeal Thursday from 57-year-old Gary Ray Bowles, whose lawyers contended he is too intellectually disabled to be executed. Bowles was set to die by lethal injection at the Florida State prison in Starke.
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Aug 22, 2019
The United States will aggressively enforce its sanctions to prevent the private sector from assisting an Iranian oil tanker that is traveling through the Mediterranean and that Washington wants seized, a State Department official said on Thursday. "The shipping sector is on notice that we will aggressively enforce U.S. sanctions," the official told Reuters days after warning countries not to allow the tanker to dock. Ship tracking data has shown the ship, Adrian Darya, formerly called Grace 1, last heading toward Greece, although Greece's prime minister said it was not heading to his country.
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Aug 22, 2019
Abortion-rights advocates on Thursday sued Missouri's top election official, alleging his actions and state laws denied them the right to put one of the nation's most restrictive abortion laws to a public vote. No Bans on Choice Committee and the American Civil Liberties Union sought to put the law on the 2020 ballot in hopes that voters would overturn it. Attorneys for those who sued put the blame on Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft.
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Aug 22, 2019
Mexico's government appears to be split about whether it should talk to armed vigilante groups, or treat them as criminals. President Andres Manuel López Obrador said Thursday he disagreed with his assistant interior secretary's decision to attend a ceremony with vigilantes, who often call themselves "self-defense" groups. The debate came to a head Wednesday when Ricardo Peralta, an assistant secretary of the interior, attended the groundbreaking of an agricultural processing plant in the vigilante-dominated community of La Huacana in the western state of Michoacan.
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Aug 22, 2019
(Bloomberg) -- Indians should stop buying from Chinese companies and the government should reconsider trade concessions to its biggest neighbor after China allied with Pakistan on Kashmir, according to an economic policy group linked with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.Companies like technology giant Huawei Technologies Co. should be barred from accessing the Indian market in the future and Chinese companies should be banned from state tenders, Ashwani Mahajan, co-convenor of the Swadeshi Jagran Manch, affiliated to the ruling party's ideological parent, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh said in an interview Thursday."Not just in Kashmir, we believe that Chinese companies are a security threat to India especially in telecom," Mahajan said by phone. "Not just in consumer goods, they're a threat in telecom because their companies have massive support from the state, are allowed to vastly underbid Indian companies and win tenders for critical infrastructure."The group met Indian telecom companies on Aug. 17 to discuss strategies to be used to curb Chinese industry. The organization had also written a letter to Prime Narendra Modi seeking action against China, Mahajan said. Calls made to the Prime Minister's Office seeking comment went unanswered.This isn't the first time that the Swadesh Jagran Manch has called for a ban on Chinese goods and companies. The group, along with the Confederation of All India Traders had called for a similar ban in March this year after China blocked the blacklisting of Pakistan-based Maulana Masood Azhar, founder of the militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed, at the U.N. Security Council.A ban called by both organizations during the festival of Diwali in 2016 w
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Aug 22, 2019
(Bloomberg) -- The analyst who issued a report warning investors to dump shares of embattled Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. before they tumble to their lowest levels since 1998, is getting a lot of blowback after his controversial call."Never before in my 12 years of investment analyst career have I received this much pressure on a particular stock rating," Zhao Dongchen, who last week issued his inaugural report on Cathay with a "strong sell," said in an emailed response to Bloomberg queries. "Never before in my 36 years of life am I under such heavy pressure."Zhao, who's head of equity research at the investment-banking arm of state-run giant Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., issued his report as Cathay was under fire from China and facing boycotts from government-run businesses because the carrier's employees joined the anti-Beijing protests in Hong Kong. No other analyst is advising investors to sell Cathay and Zhao's HK$6 target price is more than 40% below the stock's current price."We have one of China's biggest state banks issuing an especially bearish and unusual sell recommendation on a private company in H.K. that is already the target of the Chinese state," said George Magnus, a former UBS Group AG chief economist and author of "Red Flags: Why Xi's China Is in Jeopardy." "You don't have to try hard to conclude that the interests of Chinese state banking institutions and the government are closely aligned."Since Zhao's report, which preceded the abrupt resignation of Cathay's chief execut
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Aug 22, 2019
Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne stepped down Thursday amid the backlash to his disclosure of a romantic relationship with Russian agent Maria Butina.Byrne caused Overstock's shares to plummet last week after he admitted to carrying on a romantic relationship with Butina from 2015 to 2016. The fallout from his disclosure complicated "all manner of business relationships," he said in a statement announcing his resignation."Thus, while I believe that I did what was necessary for the good of the country, for the good of the firm," he wrote, "I am in the sad position of having to sever ties with Overstock, both as C.E.O. and board member."Byrne issued a statement on August 12th confirming a series of articles by Fox News contributor Sara Carter that exposed his relationship with Butina, a Russian national who pleaded guilty to acting as an unregistered foreign agent in the U.S. earlier this year.Carter's work detailed how Byrne became involved in the FBI's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election due to his relationship with Butina. Byrne said he felt compelled to go public with his role in the investigation after becoming concerned about the way in which the Department of Justice was handling the investigation into Butina's conduct.The Overstock executive met Butina at a libertarian conference in 2015 and subsequently contacted the FBI when she began to express interest in meeting with individuals associated with the Clinton and Trump pre
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Aug 22, 2019
A suspect arrested in the stabbing death of a man at the California State University, Fullerton campus was a co-worker of the victim, police said Thursday. Chuyen Vo, 51, was arrested Wednesday night at his home in Huntington Beach, officials announced at a news conference near the killing scene in a campus parking lot. The victim, Steven Shek Keung Chan, 57, worked as the director of budget and finance and student services for university extended education but retired in 2017.
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Aug 22, 2019
A North Carolina man has been arrested after holding a woman and her 8-month-old baby captive for over a month, authorities said.The Pender County Sheriff's department said in a press release they received an emergency call on 9 August from a woman who said she was being held against her will at a home in Willard, North Carolina.
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Aug 22, 2019
A three-judge panel found a convicted murderer innocent of the 1979 murder that sent him to prison.
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Aug 22, 2019
Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast / Photos GettySpeaking to reporters on the White House's South Lawn in late July, President Donald Trump revealed that he was "looking at" a stop in Denmark after an upcoming trip to Poland to attend a World War II commemorative ceremony.For officials in Copenhagen, the comment came as a surprise. Although it is customary in Denmark for there to be a standing invitation for the U.S. president—and though officials in both countries had been discussing the possibility of an American delegation visiting—no formal invitation had actually been extended to Trump, according to two senior Danish officials and an individual who works closely with the Trump administration in Copenhagen.By the next day, Queen Margrethe II had issued the invite, and the White House had officially announced the president's plans to visit the country. Over the subsequent days, much planning went into preparing for the president's visit, which was supposed to include meetings with high-level officials from Denmark, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands. It was designed to be a decadent affair: the Queen's staff was in the midst of ordering the crystal for the tables and flowers for the palace for the big state dinner with Trump. Danish business leaders had finalized plans for roundtable discussions with White House officials about increasing investments in the U.S. Officials in the country's ministry of foreign affairs were preparing talking points to promote increased cooperation between the U.S.
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Aug 22, 2019
A judge overstepped by giving a life prison sentence to a man whose girlfriend cut the baby from the womb of an unsuspecting neighbor, the North Dakota Supreme Court ruled Thursday, ordering that the man be resentenced. William Hoehn, of Fargo, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit kidnapping in the August 2017 attack on Savanna Greywind, who died of her injuries but whose baby survived. Hoehn's girlfriend, Brooke Crews, admitted that she sliced Greywind's baby from her womb.
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Aug 22, 2019
A rescue ship carrying 356 people, mostly Africans, rescued in the Mediterranean off Libya is nearing two weeks at sea without being assigned a safe port to offload its traumatized passengers — a situation one charity worker decried as "the new normal" as Europe fails to devise a systematic response. It is inhumane," Jay Berger, project coordinator for Doctors Without Borders on the ship, the Ocean Viking, said by satellite phone Thursday. The Ocean Viking conducted four rescues off Libya from Aug. 9-12, and is in its 13th day without being permitted to disembark the rescued people in a safe harbor, as dictated by maritime law.
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Aug 22, 2019
(Bloomberg) -- A looming U.S. sanctions deadline is threatening to clobber Venezuela's dwindling oil-rig fleet and hamper energy production in the nation with the world's largest crude reserves.Almost half the rigs operating in Venezuela will shut down by Oct. 25 if the Trump administration doesn't extend a 90-day waiver from its sanctions, according to data compiled from consultancy Caracas Capital Markets. That could further cripple the OPEC member's production because the structures are needed to drill new wells crucial for even maintaining output, which is already near the lowest level since the 1940s.A shutdown in the rigs will also put pressure on Nicolas Maduro's administration, which counts oil revenues as its main lifeline. The U.S. is betting on increased economic pressure to oust the regime and bring fresh elections to the crisis-torn nation, a founding member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and Latin America's biggest crude exporter until recent years.Venezuela had 23 oil rigs drilling in July, down from 49 just two years ago, data compiled by Baker Hughes show. Ten of those are exposed to U.S. sanctions, according to calculations by Caracas Capital Markets. The Treasury Department extended waivers in July for service providers to continue for three more months, less than the six months the companies had sought.Most other government agencies involved in the deliberations opposed any extension, a senior administration official said last month, adding that another reprieve will
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Aug 22, 2019
You don't have to be black to see the importance of slavery to the American story. It has fundamentally shaped who we are. Erasing that erases history.
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Aug 22, 2019
The White House decided Thursday not to move forward with a broadly unpopular proposal to cut billions of dollars in foreign aid, according to multiple reports.The Office of Management and Budget had planned a package of $4.3 billion in cuts to foreign aid, but the White House backed off the plan amid concerns that it would jeopardize the sweeping, bipartisan budget deal Congress passed earlier this month.Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Republican members of Congress had reportedly warned Trump that the move would threaten national security and not be popular with either party. On the other side, arguing in favor of the plan, were acting budget director Russ Vought and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney."We're talking to Republicans and Democrats about it and certain things we could save," Trump told reporters on Tuesday. "Certain things, it could probably be a pennywise," he added, implying the cuts could be smaller than first thought.Both Democrats and Republicans objected to the proposal, albeit for different reasons."We strongly urge the Administration to refrain from sending a rescission message to the Congress," Representative John Yarmuth and Senator Bernie Sanders, influential members of their respective chambers' budget committees, wrote in a letter Monday to Mulvaney. The two Democrats expressed concern that the funds for foreign-aid programs could be frozen until the end of the fiscal year unless Congress explicitly rejected the cuts.The top Republicans on
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Aug 22, 2019
A federal judge in Kansas has ruled that a law making it a crime to "encourage" or "induce" immigrants to enter or live in the country illegally is unconstitutional. KCUR-FM reports that U.S. District Judge Carlos Murguia issued his ruling from the bench Wednesday before throwing out the convictions of Jose Felipe Hernandez-Calvillo and Mauro Papalotzi. Kansas isn't governed by the Ninth Circuit, but Murguia found the argument persuasive.
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Aug 22, 2019
Mount Everest has become littered with trash and bodies as more adventurers try their luck at scaling the natural wonder.
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Aug 22, 2019
Wildfires in the Amazon rainforest in northern Brazil have ignited a firestorm on social media, with President Jair Bolsonaro on Wednesday suggesting green groups started the blazes. Images of fires purportedly devouring sections of the world's largest rainforest have gone viral on Twitter. "No matter how successful we are, if our Earth dies, we all die," posted one Twitter user.
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Aug 22, 2019
Kevin HagenA major organization for Hispanic journalists on Thursday gave Fox News the boot from its upcoming conference in response to the network's use "invasion" rhetoric when discussing immigration.Fox News was set to appear as a sponsor at the National Association of Hispanic Journalists' confab next month in San Antonio, but in a letter to the group's members, NAHJ President Hugo Balta said that invitation has been revoked."The line between commentary and journalism was crossed long ago by Fox News and is no longer even in sight," wrote Balta, who is currently an MSNBC senior producer. "To accept financial support from an entity that perpetuates the spread of disinformation to the public about the Hispanic and Latino community risks the integrity and credibility of NAHJ's 35 year mission."As such, the NAHJ head wrote, the journalist org will return $16,666 in sponsorship funds back to Fox News."It is unfortunate the country's main organization for Hispanic journalists has chosen to exclude FOX News from their upcoming convention," Marsheila Hayes, Fox News's vice president of diversity and inclusion, wrote in a statement. "As the leading news network in the country, we are committed to fostering a diverse and collaborative workplace environment, and have been recognized in the industry for our advancement in this area, most notably with our multimedia reporter program. We are proud of our inclusive team and their achievements in journalism."Balta explained that the final stra
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Aug 22, 2019
Photographs snapped by a shoebox-sized probe that explored the near-Earth asteroid Ryugu have offered new clues about its composition, insights that will help scientists understand the formation of our solar system. The German-French Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT) hitched a ride on Japan's Hayabusa2 spaceship, touching down on the 900-meter (3,000 feet) wide asteroid, whose orbit lies mostly between Earth and Mars, on October 3, 2018. Ryugu's gravity is 66,500 times weaker than Earth's, and the forward motion of wheels would have launched MASCOT back into space.
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Aug 22, 2019
A death row inmate who always maintained his innocence has been executed for the abduction, rape and murder of a student more than 20 years ago.
Larry Swearingen received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in the Texan city of Huntsville for the 1998 killing of 19-year-old Melissa Trotter.
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Aug 22, 2019
China purchased a comparatively small amount of U.S. soybeans several days ago after promising to boycott U.S. farm products amid deteriorating trade negotiations with the Trump administration.Beijing reached agreements last week to buy 9,589 metric tons of American soybeans for the current marketing year and 66,000 metric tons for the following year, which starts September 1, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture released Thursday.An August 5 statement from China's Ministry of Commerce said Chinese companies would boycott American farm products in response to the Trump administration's heavy tariffs on Chinese products. In May, the White House upped tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports from 10 percent to 25 percent, claiming Beijing had reneged on the previously agreed terms of a trade deal. The U.S. also currently has a 25 percent tariff on $50 billion worth of Chinese high-tech products.In response, China has slapped 25 percent tariffs on tens of billions in U.S. goods, including cars, planes, propane, soybeans, beef, and whiskey. The duties caused a steep drop in American farm exports, and the Trump administration has since compensated farmers up to $28 billions for their losses.Despite apparently breaking its boycott, China, which is the world's largest soybean importer, is still not purchasing anywhere near as many American soybeans as it has in the past. Last year, American sales of soybeans to China dropped 74 percent as Beijing gave its busine
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Aug 22, 2019
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two Democratic governors who recently abandoned their long-shot presidential bids announced their next steps on Thursday, with both opting to run for office in the friendlier political territory of their home states. Former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, who dropped out of the 2020 Democratic presidential race last week, said he would run for a Senate seat instead. Washington Governor Jay Inslee, who ended his White House campaign on Wednesday, announced he would seek a third four-year term next year.
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Aug 22, 2019
The race for the White House could get a little more crowded. Former Chicago area Congressman turned radio host Joe Walsh says he's seriously considering running against President Trump in the 2020 Republican Primary.
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Aug 22, 2019
Lawyers for a man charged with killing a University of Mississippi student withdrew their request Thursday for a judge to set bail, instead seeking a psychiatric evaluation. Defense lawyer Tony Farese said after the brief hearing that lawyers had obtained new information Wednesday about Brandon Theesfeld. "We received some new information," Farese told The Oxford Eagle after the hearing.
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Aug 22, 2019
A bear that is raiding beehives, attacking livestock and startling hikers in the Dolomite mountains of Italy is now wanted dead or alive. The brown bear is known to scientists as M49 but was nicknamed Papillon, after the Henri Charrière novel about escaping from Devil's Island in French Guiana, when it managed to climb over a 16ft-high fence and flee an enclosure last month. It had been captured just a few hours before after being identified as a problem bear which posed a threat to farm animals. Since escaping the enclosure in a wildlife sanctuary in the province of Trentino on July 15, it has been slowly moving northwards, disemboweling a cow and encountering hikers. The province of South Tyrol has now issued an order which calls for the capture or, if necessary, the killing of the 140kg, three-year-old bear. It is normally illegal to kill or capture Italy's bears, which were introduced from Slovenia in the 1990s. The order was signed on Wednesday by Arno Kompatscher, the president of the autonomous, German-speaking province, which was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire until the end of the First World War when it passed to Italy. "We want to capture the bear in order to protect other bears, and also wolves, because if it continues to be a nuisance, then bears and wolves will never be accepted by the population," said Arnold Schuler, the deputy president of the province. The bear is roaming the Dolomites in northern It
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Aug 22, 2019
The birthday celebration for Bei Bei -- his name is pronounced "Bay Bay" -- could be viewed live thanks to the zoo's "Panda Cam," which broadcasts scenes of the four-year-old and his siblings and parents from their enclosure round-the-clock. Bei Bei will soon be returned to China, under terms of the agreement that brought him to the US zoo on loan. Under the loan agreement, the zoo pays China $500,000 a year to support conservation efforts there, and any panda cubs born at the zoo may stay until age four, according to the Smithsonian website.
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Aug 22, 2019
"There were several hundred thousand white Americans who died in the Civil War in order to free the slaves," Gingrich argued.
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Aug 22, 2019
North Carolina's Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, vetoed a bill Wednesday that would have required local and state police to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.Under the legislation, which passed the state House along party lines on Tuesday, local and state police would be required to detain illegal immigrants in their custody until Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents could retrieve them."This legislation is simply about scoring partisan political points and using fear to divide North Carolina," Cooper said in a Wednesday statement. "This bill, in addition to being unconstitutional, weakens law enforcement in North Carolina by mandating sheriffs to do the job of federal agents."Republican state senator Chuck Edwards accused Cooper of prioritizing the interests of illegal immigrants over the safety of North Carolinians in response to the veto."Law-enforcement officers have a sworn responsibility to protect their citizens -- and that includes cooperating with federal authorities," Edwards told the Raleigh News & Observer. "Unlike Governor Cooper, who prefers to pander to his far-left supporters, we will protect North Carolinians and plan to override his irresponsible veto."Edwards went on to cite a recent case in which the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office, whose jurisdiction includes the city of Charlotte, ignored an ICE detainer request for a Honduran man who was arrested on rape and child-sex-abuse charges.Republicans enjoy a majority in both the
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Aug 22, 2019
Donald Trump has renewed his criticism of the Federal Reserve, accusing it of "moving like quicksand" compared to Germany's central bank, despite insisting the US economy is "strong", refuting analysts' fears a recession is imminent and backing away from tax cuts.The attack follows the president's address to the American Veterans 75th National Convention in Kentucky on Wednesday evening, where he joked about awarding himself the Medal of Honor and trailed the idea of dumping thousands of captured Isis fighters on Europe.
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Aug 22, 2019
Donald Trump joked about trading Puerto Rico for Greenland during a year-long private discussion about purchasing the Danish territory, a report has claimed.It comes amid an international row over the president's handling of Denmark‘s opposition to the deal, during which he has lashed out wildly at the Scandinavian nation despite previously saying it was "not number one on the burner".
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Aug 22, 2019
A rocket that's the last of its kind delivered the newest, most powerful GPS satellite to orbit for the Air Force on Thursday. The Delta IV Medium ended its 17-year run with 29 launches. Denver-based United Launch Alliance said it will be replaced by the still-in-development Vulcan rocket.
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Aug 22, 2019
From climbing fences in Florida to swimming in a Chicago lagoon, here are 11 of the best gator stories so far this year.
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Aug 22, 2019
Jair Bolsonaro hopes to sabotage conservation efforts in the Amazon, leaked documents show.A series of powerpoint slides reveal that Brazilian government officials intend to build a bridge, motorway and hydroelectric plant through the rainforest.
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Aug 22, 2019
Four people, two of them children, died and more than 100 were injured during a thunderstorm in Poland's Tatra mountains on Thursday, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said. A fifth person was killed by the storm in the West Tatras in neighbouring Slovakia, mountain rescue services reported. Lightning hit a group of tourists on Giewont, a 1,894-metre mountain in Poland, after a sunny morning turned stormy, according to witnesses quoted on private broadcaster TVN24.
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Aug 22, 2019
Interpol on Thursday issued a red notice for a fugitive Colombian lawmaker and former FARC rebel commander who the United States wants extradited for alleged conspiracy to export 10 tonnes of cocaine. Seuxis Paucias Hernandez - known best by his guerrilla nom de guerre Jesus Santrich - was indicted in 2017 by a U.S. grand jury, setting off a legal saga that has seen him twice arrested and released. Hernandez has denied the U.S. allegations.
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Aug 22, 2019
US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper has confirmed the death of Hamza Bin Laden, the son and designated heir of Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden. "That's my understanding," Esper said in an interview late Wednesday with Fox News, when asked if Hamza bin Laden was dead. "I don't want to comment on it," Trump told reporters when asked.
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Aug 22, 2019
China snapped up a small volume of U.S. soybeans last week after pledging to halt purchases of American farm products due to the escalating trade war between Washington and Beijing, U.S. Department of Agriculture data showed on Thursday. The world's largest soybean importer struck deals from Aug. 9 to 15 to buy 9,589 tonnes for delivery in the current marketing year and 66,000 tonnes, approximately one cargo, for the next year, the data showed. China's Commerce Ministry said on Aug. 5 that Chinese companies stopped buying U.S. farm products in the latest escalation of the trade war between the world's two largest economies.
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Aug 22, 2019
China has purchased about only half the U.S. soybeans it pledged to buy earlier this year, a U.S. Department of Agriculture official said on Thursday, after a small sale was reported amid the two countries' escalating trade war. U.S. President Donald Trump has vowed to impose new tariffs on Beijing starting in September, prompting China to say it had halted imports of all U.S. agricultural goods in a trade dispute that threatens growth in the world's two largest economies. U.S. officials have said repeatedly they expect China to buy large quantities of soybeans as a gesture of goodwill while the two sides negotiate a trade deal.
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Aug 22, 2019
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has released a $16.3 trillion climate plan that builds on the Green New Deal and calls for the United States to move to renewable energy across the economy by 2050 and declare climate change a national emergency. While the Vermont senator had already endorsed the sweeping Democratic proposal to combat climate change and had teamed up with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York on climate legislation, Sanders' climate plan provides the most detail yet on how he envisions the climate change moonshot taking shape if he is elected president.
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Aug 22, 2019
A German court sentenced a Syrian asylum seeker to nine and a half years in prison on Thursday over the fatal stabbing of a man in the eastern city of Chemnitz last year that triggered the worst far-right riots Germany had seen for decades. The verdict handed down in the city of Dresden in the high profile case comes barely a week before elections in the region in which the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is expected to make big gains. The AfD welcomed the verdict.
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Aug 22, 2019
The US has walked away from a missile pact with Russia, and that allows the military to focus on what Esper called its "number 1 priority:" China.
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Aug 22, 2019
Jeffrey Epstein was accused of using his wealth, connections, and island to prey on minors. He wasn't the first millionaire to be accused of doing so.
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Aug 22, 2019
China's embassy in Canada said on Thursday that bilateral ties were suffering "gross difficulties," and demanded Ottawa free Huawei Technologies Co Ltd Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou. Relations have been icy since Meng was detained in Vancouver last December on a U.S. warrant. China has since charged two Canadians with spying and halted imports of canola seed and meat products from Canada.
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Aug 22, 2019
Many analysts believe that a recession would tank US President Donald Trump's chances of reelection in 2020, but that's not necessarily the case.
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Aug 22, 2019
Police say the six people, five men and an 85-year-old woman, were involved in lewd and sexual activity in the woods in Connecticut.
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Aug 22, 2019
South Korea will stop exchanging classified intelligence on North Korea with Japan amid a bitter trade dispute, Seoul said Thursday in a surprise announcement that is likely to set back U.S. efforts to bolster security cooperation with two of its most important allies in the Asian region. South Korea's decision to cancel the intelligence-sharing pact will also further aggravate its ties with Japan, which are already at their lowest point since the two countries established diplomatic ties in 1965.
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Aug 22, 2019
(Bloomberg) -- India's former finance minister and a senior leader of the main opposition Congress party, Palaniappan Chidambaram, was sent to the custody of the country's federal investigative agency for four days by a local court on Thursday following his arrest by for alleged corruption during his tenure.Ajay Kumar Kuhar, a special judge appointed to the case, allowed the Central Bureau of Investigation custody of Chidambaram until Aug. 26. He will be allowed regular medical examinations and permission to meet family and lawyers, the court said.Chidambaram was taken Wednesday night from his residence in New Delhi, soon after he appeared at Congress party offices to address reporters, saying he had not been hiding for the past 24 hours -- as many believed -- but seeking protection of the law.Flanked by party colleagues and senior lawyers he said no charge had been filed in a court by the investigating agencies. "Yet, there is a widespread impression that grave offences have been committed and my son and I have committed those offences," said Chidambaram. "Nothing can be further from the truth."When Chidambaram returned to his residence after addressing the media, a team from the CBI arrived and whisked him away.A lawyer with a degree from Harvard Business School, Chidambaram is one of the most prominent members of the Congress party and is a lawmaker in the upper house of parliament.He's been facing allegations since May 2017, when the CBI registered a case against his son and unknown officials f
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Aug 22, 2019
An Iranian tanker which the United States wants seized is not heading towards Greece as it sails through the Mediterranean, Greek Prime Minister Kyrikos Mitsotakis told France 24 TV on Thursday. The Adrian Darya, formerly called Grace 1, left Gibraltar on Sunday. Ship-tracking data on Tuesday showed it was heading toward the Greek port of Kalamata on the southern coast of the Peloponnese and was scheduled to arrive next Monday.
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Aug 22, 2019
A 24-year-old Syrian man was sentenced to nine and a half years in jail Thursday for a knife killing that sparked racist street violence and far-right protests in the eastern German city of Chemnitz. The court found that Alaa Sheikhi, together with an Iraqi man still at large, stabbed to death 35-year-old German Daniel Hillig in the early hours of August 26 last year. The manslaughter conviction comes at a sensitive time, one year after thousands of neo-Nazis and enraged citizens marched through Chemnitz, and 10 days before state elections in the ex-communist region.
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Aug 22, 2019
The Bolt goes from 238 miles to 259 and leapfrogs rival EVs from Tesla, Hyundai, and Kia.
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Aug 22, 2019
Police in North Macedonia say they have detained 45 migrants in a van close to the border with Serbia and arrested the driver on suspicion of people-smuggling. A police statement Thursday said 42 of the migrants are Pakistanis, two are Afghans and one is Syrian. The van driver was identified as a man from North Macedonia.
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Aug 22, 2019
Donald Trump has renewed his criticism of the Federal Reserve, accusing it of "moving like quicksand" compared to Germany's central bank, despite insisting the US economy is "strong", refuting analysts' fears a recession is imminent and apparently backing away from tax cuts.The attack follows the president's address to the American Veterans 75th National Convention in Kentucky on Wednesday evening, where he joked about awarding himself the Medal of Honor and trailed the idea of dumping thousands of captured Isis fighters on Europe.
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Aug 22, 2019
German Chancellor Angela Merkel says a suggestion she made that a solution to the Brexit dispute be solved in 30 days shouldn't be interpreted as a strict deadline. Some commentators in Britain had interpreted her comment as a deadline to Johnson, who wants to take Britain out of the European Union by the end of October — whether a solution to the Irish border issue is agreed or not. French President Emmanuel Macron says the Irish backstop is "indispensable" in a Brexit deal.
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Aug 22, 2019
The Daily Mail reports that tourists can sometimes bring back more than they bargained for from their vacations. According to the British newspaper, the site Sickholiday.com has been ranking the top 10 destinations for food poisoning, with Hurghada, Egypt coming in first. After steering its industry back into the favors of worldwide travelers, the Egyptian tourism bureau might have to work overtime to counter the effects of a recent ranking putting successful Red Sea resort destination Hurghada first in food poisoning cases since the start of of 2017.
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Aug 22, 2019
Hong Kong university student leaders said Thursday they'll call for a boycott of the start of classes to pressure the government to respond to the protest movement gripping the city since June. Young people have been at the forefront of the Chinese city's protest movement, which was sparked by calls for the withdrawal of an unpopular extradition bill. "Two weeks should be enough for the government to really think through how to respond to the five demands," said Davin Wong, acting president of the Hong Kong University Students' Union.
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Aug 22, 2019
A former Danish prime minister on Thursday lashed out at U.S. President Donald Trump for his tweet about military spending, saying defense willingness is not just about the amount of money spent. Lars Loekke Rasmussen's comment is the latest in an escalating spat between the U.S. and Denmark after Trump scrapped a visit to the country, saying current Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was "nasty" when she rejected his idea of buying Greenland as an absurdity. Loekke Rasmussen, who led the country until June, tweeted Thursday to Trump: "We have had (proportionally) exactly the same numbers of casualties in Afghanistan as US.
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Aug 22, 2019
Fears for the Amazon's future have been heightened under Brazil's new far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, who encourages industry in the region.
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Aug 22, 2019
(Bloomberg) -- Want the lowdown on European markets? In your inbox before the open, every day. Sign up here.China detained a U.K. consulate staffer from Hong Kong for visiting a prostitute, a Chinese newspaper alleged, a new twist in a case that has raised concerns Beijing is trying to warn the British government against meddling in its former colony.Police in the border city of Shenzhen said Simon Cheng, 28, "violated the 66 article of China's law on administrative penalties for public security, which states that people who engage in prostitution or visit prostitutes shall be detained for no less than 10 days but no more than 15 days," the Communist Party's Global Times reported Thursday. Cheng's 15th day of detention is Friday.Cheng told the police not to notify his family about his detention, the newspaper said, adding that he faces a potential 5,000 yuan ($705) fine. It gave no evidence against Cheng. The UK consulate in Hong Kong did not answer a phone call seeking comment on the allegation. Cheng's girlfriend did not immediately respond to a question on the charge.Before the Global Times story was published, the consulate said it had raised the issue with authorities in China and Hong Kong and was in contact with Cheng's family and providing support.Allegations of visiting prostitutes have later proved false in other instances where Hong Kong residents have been detained in China. A Hong Kong lawmaker apologized after accusing bookseller and Communist Party critic Lee Bo of visiting prostitutes, the South Chi
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Aug 22, 2019
Rick Gates was thrust into public view in August 2017 when he and Manafort were indicted in the first case publicly brought by Mueller's office.
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Aug 22, 2019
Iran is prepared to work on French proposals to salvage the international nuclear deal that Tehran signed with world powers in 2015 but it will not tolerate U.S. interference in the Gulf, its foreign minister said on Thursday. At a time of heightened friction between Tehran and Washington, Iran also on Thursday displayed what it described as a domestically built long-range, surface-to-air missile air defense system.
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Aug 22, 2019
Cardinal George Pell is likely to be transferred from a high-security Melbourne prison for first-time inmates to a medium-security prison for pedophiles in nearby Ararat after he lost a court appeal on Wednesday of convictions on charges of molesting two choirboys. Chaplain Andrew Hayes said he was nervous about meeting Pope Francis' former finance minister in the Ararat prison. "It will be nerve racking for me to have the No. 3 in the world sitting there and I'm the person there to look after him," Hayes told Ten Network television.
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Aug 22, 2019
The Carnival Splendor is one of the flashiest cruise ships afloat.
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Aug 22, 2019
French President Emmanuel Macron says the Irish backstop is "indispensable" in a Brexit deal. Welcoming British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to the courtyard of his Elysee Palace Thursday with a big smile and little pats on the back, Macron remained firm on his position that renegotiating the deal for Britain to leave the European Union is not an option.
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Aug 22, 2019
Mount Everest has become littered with trash and bodies in recent years as more adventurers try their luck on scaling the natural wonder.
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Aug 22, 2019
A serial killer who preyed on older, gay men during an eight-month spree that left six dead on or near the U.S. East Coast a quarter century ago is scheduled to be executed Thursday evening. Gary Ray Bowles, 57, is set to receive a lethal injection at Florida State Prison in Stark. Many of the victims were found not far from the East Coast's most heavily traveled interstate.
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Aug 22, 2019
Donald Trump has again mused about serving more than the legal limit of two terms as US president, during an extraordinary back and forth with reporters outside the White House."What they're doing, is they're trying the racist deal. And that's not going to work, because I am the least racist person ever to serve in office, OK?" Mr Trump said on Wednesday in reference to the New York Times, which has angered him over its renewed focus on racial division in America.
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Aug 22, 2019
James Stavridis: I commanded the U.S. Southern Command, and I am skeptical that there is a military solution to the border challenges.
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Aug 22, 2019
Krestina, Angelina, and Maria, Khachaturyan stabbed their father 36 times. Their lawyer says they suffered years of abuse, and acted in self-defense.
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Aug 22, 2019
A Russian humanoid robot was making its way on Thursday to the International Space Station after blasting off on a two-week mission to support the crew and test his skills. Known as FEDOR, which stands for Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research, the Skybot F-850 is the first humanoid robot to be sent to space by Russia. NASA sent humanoid robot Robonaut 2 to space in 2011 to work in hazardous environments.
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Aug 22, 2019
Hong Kong student leaders on Thursday announced a two-week boycott of lectures from the upcoming start of term, as they seek to keep protesters on the streets and pressure on the government. The financial hub has been rocked by three months of unrest, with students making up a large number of the pro-democracy protesters taking to the streets almost daily. Student leaders representing most of the city's major universities said students will miss lectures between September 2 -- the planned start of the new term -- and September 13.
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Aug 22, 2019
Beijing on Thursday accused Ottawa of worsening bilateral relations after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vowed to stand up to China amid deepening diplomatic and trade disputes. The two countries have been locked in a feud since last December, when Canada detained top Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou and -- in apparent retaliation -- China detained two Canadian nationals over espionage-linked accusations. On Wednesday, Trudeau pushed back against Beijing in a speech that promised to "always defend Canadians and Canadian interests" and to not "back down".
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Aug 22, 2019
An employee of the British consulate in Hong Kong has been detained in China for involvement in prostitution, the state-backed Global Times newspaper said on Thursday, as Britain said it continued to urgently seek information. China's foreign ministry confirmed on Wednesday that the employee, Simon Cheng, had been detained in the border city of Shenzhen neighbouring Hong Kong. In a report on its English-language website, the paper, published by the ruling Communist Party's official People's Daily, cited Shenzhen police as saying Cheng had been detained for 15 days for "solicitation of prostitution".
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Aug 22, 2019
It's been another odd couple of days for Donald Trump.There's been that strange situation with him wanting to buy Greenland; whispers of a possible recession that have led to more angry tweets about the media; and as questions about the impact of his trade war with China ramped up, he stood in front of a group of reporters on Wednesday and said: "I am the chosen one."Strange, strange times.Last night, Stephen King -- who once basically predicted the rise of Donald Trump in a 1979 novel -- took to Twitter to share a fairly bleak forecast for the future. Questions of Trump's possible impeachment aside; questions of his possible re-election aside; he has besmirched and devalued the American Presidency so severely it will take at least a generation to recover. -- Stephen King (@StephenKing) August 21, 2019"He has besmirched and devalued the American Presidency so severely it will take at least a generation to recover."SEE ALSO: Stephen King really, really, really wants you to know he's not Steve KingKing has tweeted countless criticisms of Trump over the past few years, but that has to be one of his most damning sentences so far. WATCH: Stephen King condemns President Trump after racist tweets, comments about 'The Squad'
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Aug 22, 2019
VicePazuzu Algarad (real name: John Lawson) was a self-proclaimed Satanist who reveled in extremeness. With a moniker borrowed from The Exorcist, a face covered in tattoos and his teeth sharpened to fine points, Pazuzu spent his days and nights in his Clemmons, North Carolina, home cutting himself and his buddies, drinking the blood of birds, doing copious drugs, performing ritual sacrifices of rabbits, staging nude orgies, and letting people do whatever they pleased to his abode—including popping a squat in the corner of a room, and then leaving the mess to be eaten by one of his many dogs."You know, all around having a good time," as one former friend puts it.Pazuzu was, it's safe to say, an unhinged lunatic. But when he began boasting that he had committed murders, and had stored a body in his basement, covered in cat litter and bleach to hide the stench—a tactic that didn't work, as most attest to the house reeking of filth and death—no one initially took him seriously. Including the cops.That turned out to be a terrible mistake, as recounted by The Devil You Know, a five-part true-crime series premiering on Viceland Aug. 27. Its story is an inherently sensationalistic one filled with gory tales about Pazuzu's heavy metal-scored psychosis, which drove him to recruit willing acolytes (including female lovers he donned "fiancées") into his "fake Charles Manson" cult, and compelled him, post-9/11, to wear Islamic garb and claim Iraqi descent. "He wanted to be the bad guy," says a form
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Aug 22, 2019
Iran unveiled its new home-grown air defence system on Thursday at a time of increased tensions with the United States. Iranian officials have previously called Bavar-373 the Islamic republic's first domestically produced long-range missile defence system. Tehran began making Bavar -- which means "believe" -- after the purchase of Russia's S-300 system was suspended in 2010 due to international sanctions.
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Aug 22, 2019
Six people aged 62 to 85 have been arrested after police officers went into the woods to watch them having sex.The group was arrested in a conservation area in Fairfield, Connecticut, which is some 87 acres in size.
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Aug 22, 2019
(Bloomberg) -- The atmosphere at Buunni Coffee in the Bronx is thick with the aroma of roasted Ethiopian beans and anti-establishment fervor.The shop is in the Riverdale neighborhood represented for more than 30 years in the House by Democrat Eliot Engel, a close ally of Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Wielding their personal laptops and cell phones, a crew of volunteers mostly in their 20s and 30s is trying to change that."Hello, I'm calling on behalf of Jamaal Bowman," begin most calls from a make-shift phone bank upstairs, introducing a progressive candidate few people in the district have ever heard of. A lot of the connections end abruptly. But occasionally, interest is piqued, and another potential voter's name is logged for the middle school principal endorsed by Justice Democrats, the progressive activist group that backed Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a neighboring district.The group is hoping to repeat Ocasio-Cortez's stunning 2018 Democratic primary victory over Joe Crowley, who was a member of House leadership and a 20-year incumbent. Energized by that upset, the Justice Democrats who has endorsed candidates in Massachusetts, Texas and Ohio to challenge Democratic incumbents they deem as too moderate to reflect the progressive energy animating voters in solidly blue districts.It's a major 2020 headache for Pelosi. She often reminds her caucus that their House majority depends on defending and flipping swing districts where middle-of-the-road voters are turned off by progressive causes like Me
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Aug 22, 2019
Donald Trump joked about awarding himself the Medal of Honor and trailed the idea of dumping thousands of captured Isis fighters on Europe in an address to the American Veterans 75th National Convention in Kentucky on Wednesday evening.The speech followed a particularly wild day for the president in which he retweeted praise from an evangelical broadcaster likening the affection in which he is held by Israeli Jews to "the second coming of God", referred to himself as a "the chosen one" in discussion with reporters and labelled the prime minister of Denmark "nasty" over her refusal to consider selling Greenland to him.
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Aug 22, 2019
The White House has praised Denmark as a US ally, as American officials scramble to repair the damage from Donald Trump's cancellation of his state visit to the Scandinavian nation.Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, told his Danish counterpart that Washington appreciated the country's "cooperation as one of the United States' allies and Denmark's contributions to address shared global security priorities", according to a State Department spokesman.
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Aug 22, 2019
A defendant standing trial for attacking a corrections officer punched his own lawyer during a hearing in an Arizona courtroom.Footage of Lamont Payne's violent assault in Maricopa County was caught on court camera and released by officials.
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Aug 22, 2019
Pressure is mounting on Pakistan to contain militants itching for a fight with arch-nemesis India amid growing calls for action in its escalating dispute with New Delhi over Kashmir. Just last week, hundreds rallied in Pakistani Kashmir, calling for armed retaliation over India's decision to revoke the special autonomy granted to its portion of the Muslim-majority region. Delhi's move earlier this month upended a decades-old paradigm with nuclear-armed rival Pakistan, which also claims the former princely state, and left Islamabad scrambling for international support against the move.
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Aug 22, 2019
A sniper opened fire at a Los Angeles County sheriff's station on Wednesday afternoon, wounding a deputy and sending police SWAT teams hunting for a gunman on the loose in buildings nearby. The deputy, Angel Reinosa, 21, was shot in the chest as he walked outside the Lancaster City, California, station about 2:45 p.m. (2145 GMT), headed for his car parked near the station's helicopter landing pad. "We have a gunman out there targeting law enforcement but have no ID, no suspect description," he said.
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Aug 22, 2019
A 24-year-old Syrian man is expected to face a court verdict Thursday over a knife killing that sparked far-right street violence and protests in the eastern German city of Chemnitz. The ruling comes at a sensitive time, one year after thousands of neo-Nazis and enraged citizens marched through Chemnitz, and just over a week ahead of state elections in the ex-communist region. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which has railed against immigrants and Islam, is forecast to poll strongly in the state of Saxony and neighbouring Brandenburg on September 1.
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Aug 22, 2019
After a surge in mass shootings and reports of scandalous spending on his own luxury needs, Wayne LaPierre's time as Washington's preeminent power-broker appeared to be up. After two shocking massacres at the beginning of August, Trump initially promised tougher gun controls, a pledge which quickly melted away after he spoke on the phone Tuesday with LaPierre. Suddenly, Trump was again a hardliner defending the most absolutist interpretation of the US Constitution's Second Amendment guarantee of firearms ownership.
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Aug 22, 2019
A sniper opened fire at a Los Angeles County sheriff's station on Wednesday afternoon, wounding a deputy and sending police SWAT teams hunting for a gunman on the loose in buildings nearby. The deputy, Angel Reinosa, 21, was shot in the chest as he walked outside the Lancaster City, California, station about 2:45 p.m. (2145 GMT), headed for his car parked near the station's helicopter landing pad. Police sources told the Los Angeles Times that the bullets came from a high-velocity rifle.
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Aug 21, 2019
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits Paris on Thursday, a day after Berlin offered a glimmer of hope that an agreement could be reached to avoid a chaotic "no deal" Brexit. On the second leg of his first foreign visit since taking office, Johnson will meet his French counterpart at the Elysee palace to press home his message that elements of the UK's impending divorce from the European Union must be renegotiated. Macron on Wednesday dismissed Johnson's demands that the EU reopen negotiations on the Irish border, saying that the bloc had always been clear it would not agree.
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Aug 21, 2019
A report commissioned by Yale says a professor assaulted at least five students, and an investigation in 1994 failed to stop him.
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Aug 21, 2019
Young men sit beside a pile of rocks and a bonfire, protecting the only entrance to a besieged neighbourhood they call "Kashmir's Gaza" as a mosque loudspeaker broadcasts slogans of liberation. In an act of defiance against New Delhi's controversial decision to strip the Muslim-majority region of its autonomy, Soura neighbourhood on the outskirts of Kashmir's main city of Srinagar has sealed itself off from security forces. Since early August, residents have erected ramshackle barricades of tin sheets, wooden logs, oil tanks and concrete pillars, and dug trenches to keep soldiers at bay amid daily protests against India.
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