| MSNBC's Katy Tur Calls Out Ted Cruz's Hypocrisy For Opposing Hurricane Sandy Relief Posted: 28 Aug 2017 09:57 PM PDT  As the unprecedented Hurricane Harvey's aftermath continues to pummel Texas, lawmakers in New York and New Jersey have been criticizing their Texas colleagues for potential hypocrisy ― asking for aid for their state when they were unwilling to support relief for storm victims in another part of the country. At the time, all but one Texas Republican in Congress voted against a $50.5 billion Hurricane Sandy relief package in 2013. "I covered those people," Tur continued, speaking of the victims of Hurricane Sandy.
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| Police find van of family of 6 believed to have been swept away by Hurricane Harvey Posted: 30 Aug 2017 11:07 AM PDT  Officials announced on Twitter they have located a van they believe may have belonged to a family of six who was swept away by raging flood waters brought by Hurricane Harvey on Monday.
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| Senior citizens in viral photo pose after rescue from Harvey floodwaters Posted: 29 Aug 2017 01:45 PM PDT  A disturbing photo taken Sunday at La Vita Bella nursing home in Dickinson, Texas, showed assisted living patients, some of them in wheelchairs, sitting stone-faced in the rising, murky water as Tropical Storm Harvey caused severe flooding.
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| Texas Mother Dies Saving 3-Year-Old Daughter From Harvey Floods Posted: 30 Aug 2017 12:33 AM PDT  A 41-year-old woman who was trying to save herself and her child died on Tuesday afternoon after being swept away by floodwaters in Beaumont, Texas, police said.
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| Trevor Noah: 'Buddy' Email On Russia Deal Could Hit Trump In The 'Trunk' Posted: 30 Aug 2017 11:52 AM PDT  Reports that a Donald Trump associate tried to forge a real estate deal in Russia that he said would help Trump become president got Trevor Noah buzzing Tuesday on "The Daily Show."
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| Erdogan guards face three new indictments over Washington DC brawl Posted: 30 Aug 2017 05:18 AM PDT  The US Justice Department has issued three new indictments for members of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's security detail for attacking peaceful protesters in an incident in Washington DC earlier this year. Tuesday's grand jury decision means that a total of 19 people – 15 identified as Turkish security officials – have now been charged over their roles in the violence on 17 May during Mr Erdogan's state visit to the US. Nine people were hospitalised and two members of the Turkish leader's security detail initially arrested in the brutal altercation with Kurds, Yazidis and Armenians protesting Mr Erdogan's human rights record and Syria policy.
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| Illinois Dad Returns Home to Find Wife and Twin Daughters Dead in Apparent Murder-Suicide Posted: 30 Aug 2017 02:01 PM PDT  Police in Joliet, Illinois, are investigating an apparent murder-suicide after a woman there shot her twin daughters on Monday before turning the gun on herself, PEOPLE confirms
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| US airstrikes block evacuation of Islamic State militants Posted: 30 Aug 2017 01:02 PM PDT  BEIRUT (AP) — U.S. airstrikes blocked the advance of an Islamic State convoy carrying militants toward Iraq on Wednesday, derailing a Hezbollah-negotiated deal that removed the extremists from the Lebanon-Syria border, where they have been for years.
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| J.Lo And A-Rod Will Each Donate $25,000 To Hurricane Harvey Victims Posted: 30 Aug 2017 08:06 AM PDT  Rodriguez adds that it's their "opportunity to come together as one to help all the great families in distress down in Houston. Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas on Friday as a Category 4 storm. By Sunday, it had returned to tropical storm status and continues to deliver the record-setting rainfall that has inundated Houston and other cities. At least 30 people have died in relation to the storm and the continuing rainfall poses further risk for those in the region.
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| Chris Christie: Ted Cruz Is 'Dead Wrong' for Defending Superstorm Sandy Vote Posted: 30 Aug 2017 07:11 AM PDT  "He should just stand up now and say, 'You know what, I was wrong."
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| 2019 Bentley Continental GT: Going Ballistic Posted: 29 Aug 2017 12:45 PM PDT  Technology meets tradition in this all-new, 207-MPH plaything for the few.
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| Black MMA Fighter Says He Saved Stranded Harvey Victim With Confederate Flag Posted: 30 Aug 2017 10:21 AM PDT  Hurricane Harvey has affected millions in Texas and Louisiana, leaving many displaced and in desperate need of food, help and shelter.
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| Joy-Anna Duggar announces pregnancy with baby bump photo Posted: 30 Aug 2017 09:13 AM PDT  Joy-Anna Duggar, who wed Austin Forsyth earlier this summer, is already pregnant with her first child, the two announced Wednesday.
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| Harvey Survivor Criticizes Media For Lack Of Empathy In Heartbreaking TV Interview Posted: 29 Aug 2017 02:26 PM PDT  Jorge Sedano (@SedanoESPN) August 29, 2017 A Houston resident displaced by Hurricane Harvey made a heartbreaking statement during a live interview with CNN on Tuesday.
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| Message from North Korean missile over Japan 'loud and clear': Trump Posted: 29 Aug 2017 03:27 PM PDT  By Susan Heavey and Jack Kim WASHINGTON/SEOUL (Reuters) - President Donald Trump warned on Tuesday that all options are on the table for the United States to respond to North Korea's firing of a ballistic missile over northern Japan's Hokkaido island into the sea in a new show of force. The missile test further increased tension in east Asia as U.S. and South Korean forces conducted annual military exercises on the Korean peninsula, angering Pyongyang which sees the war games as a preparation for invasion. North Korea has conducted dozens of ballistic missile tests under its leader, Kim Jong Un, in defiance of U.N. sanctions, but firing projectiles over mainland Japan is rare.
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| Jewellery company volunteers to save Houston residents stranded by Hurricane Harvey floods Posted: 29 Aug 2017 08:57 AM PDT  A Good Samaritans group has joined the emergency services in the Hurricane Harvey rescue effort. Jewellery company Shields of Strength, led by company founder Kenny Vaughan, was asked by the Houston Sheriff's office to help save stranded residents on Monday. Footage shows the company, aided by volunteers, venturing out on boats to assist trapped residents. Unfortunately, amid the chaos, Mr Vaughan had also become stranded in Houston. Shields of Strength venture out to rescue residents Credit: Shields of Strength He said: "I have never, ever, ever seen anything so vast and so bad. The people are amazingly courageous. We pray for them as we rescue them, and they stop us and pray for us. This nation is a people who love one another: all religions, all colours, all kinds. Jesus built this nation, but hate and selfishness can tear it down. No selfishness in south east Texas the last two days. Please pray for us." Mr Vaughan on Tuesday was trying to return to his home in China, Texas, where he plans to aid other rescue groups and check in on his family. At least 1,000 people have been rescued from the Houston area by local police since the floods, while the coast guard has assisted in rescuing at least 3,000. Hurricane Harvey: US coast guard airlifts dozens to safety 01:16
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| Aerial Photos Show True Scale Of Flooding Catastrophe In Houston Posted: 30 Aug 2017 10:18 AM PDT  Plenty of images of heroic rescues and flooded homes have emerged over the past few days, but nothing shows the scale of the devastation caused by Tropical Storm Harvey than a picture from the air.
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| New Mexico officials: 2 dead, 4 injured in library shooting Posted: 28 Aug 2017 08:04 PM PDT  CLOVIS, N.M. (AP) — Two people were killed and four others were injured when gunfire erupted inside a public library on Monday, throwing an eastern New Mexico community into a panic as officers swarmed the building with their guns drawn.
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| Houston's Massive Rafts of Fire Ants Are Even More Dangerous Than Usual Posted: 29 Aug 2017 01:06 PM PDT  Floods make "spicy boys" even spicier.
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| Chris Christie: Ted Cruz Is Lying About Hurricane Sandy Relief Bill Posted: 30 Aug 2017 02:01 AM PDT  New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) didn't hold back in attacking Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) for saying he opposed a Hurricane Sandy relief package because "two-thirds of the bill" had nothing to do with the disaster.
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| GOP Rep Tells Black Attorney She May 'Go Missing' For Protesting Confederate Statues Posted: 30 Aug 2017 12:14 PM PDT  Georgia's Republican state Rep. Jason Spencer told his former colleague on Tuesday that she and others supporting the removal of state-sponsored Confederate monuments and landmarks could "go missing."
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| Louise Mensch retweets hoax claims Donald Trump's company is being investigated for sex trafficking Posted: 29 Aug 2017 07:25 AM PDT  False allegations retweeted by Louise Mensch about a criminal inquiry into Donald Trump's former modelling agency were made by a hoaxer claiming to work in New York law enforcement, it has emerged. Writer and former Clinton staffer Claude Taylor tweeted fake details of a criminal inquiry into a fashion modelling agency on possible sex trafficking charges by the New York Attorney General but allegedly did not check whether the details were genuine.
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| Sea Shepherd pulls plug on Japan whale hunt Posted: 28 Aug 2017 09:45 PM PDT  Activist group Sea Shepherd on Tuesday pulled the plug on its annual campaign to disrupt Japanese whaling, saying it can no longer match the country's military and economic power. The organisation has waged an often violent 12-year high-seas battle against whaling in the Southern Ocean, claiming success for saving thousands of the giant mammals and bringing the slaughter to world attention. "What we discovered is that Japan is now employing military surveillance to watch Sea Shepherd ship movements in real-time by satellite and if they know where our ships are at any given moment, they can easily avoid us," he said in a statement.
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| U.S. troops risk inflaming clan conflict after deadly Somalia raid Posted: 30 Aug 2017 08:32 AM PDT  By Abdi Sheikh MOGADISHU (Reuters) - A raid involving U.S. troops in Somalia has caused a rift between the precarious U.S.-backed government and a powerful clan that says innocent farmers were massacred, months after President Donald Trump approved stepped-up operations there. The U.S. Africa command, Africom, has acknowledged that U.S. forces participated in a ground operation in support of Somali troops in the village of Bariire last week, and says it is investigating reports of civilian deaths. It did not reply to further questions from Reuters about the incident, the second mission in Somalia this year in which it has acknowledged the participation of U.S. ground troops.
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| Finland Denies Deal for U.S. Jets Trump Announced Posted: 30 Aug 2017 03:41 AM PDT  Finnish President Sauli Niinistö said there was no deal with Boeing, though did not correct Trump when he announced it at a joint press conference.
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| Joel Osteen Says Megachurch Didn't Open Earlier Because Houston 'Didn't Ask' Posted: 30 Aug 2017 07:53 AM PDT  Pastor Joel Osteen can't seem to get his story straight about why he didn't offer his 16,800-seat megachurch in Houston as a shelter sooner for those displaced by Hurricane Harvey.
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| Houston Police Chief Breaks Down in Tears as He Death of Officer Responding to Harvey Post Posted: 29 Aug 2017 03:25 PM PDT  The 34-year police veteran's wife tried to convince him to stay home.
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| Bakery Says No To Same-Sex Weddings Because 'Our Business Is God's Business' Posted: 30 Aug 2017 08:42 AM PDT  In what's become a familiar scenario, a California bakery is facing a backlash after reportedly refusing to prepare same-sex wedding cakes.
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| Wildfire forces half of popular Montana town to evacuate Posted: 29 Aug 2017 05:01 PM PDT  HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Authorities in Montana ordered the evacuation of nearly 600 homes after a fire burning on a mountain ridge suddenly changed direction and threatened a popular destination for boaters, anglers and hikers.
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| South Korea threatens Kim Jong-un with 'extermination' after missile launch over Japan Posted: 29 Aug 2017 05:53 AM PDT  South Korea responded to North Korea's missile launch over Japan today with an aggressive show of force, conducting a live-fire drill on a shooting range close to its border with the North, and threatening the leaders of the hermit state with "extermination". Four F-15 fighter jets dropped eight MK-84 bombs that accurately hit targets at a military field in Gangwon-do, near the northeast coast of South Korea, Seoul's presidential spokesman Park Su-hyun said. Each bomb weighs 2,000 lb and can penetrate 11 metres of earth and 11 feet of concrete. South Korea's defence ministry released footage of the drill along with a video of its own ballistic missile tests conducted last week. Map: North Korean missile test over japan "If North Korea threatens the security of the South Korean people and the South Korea-US alliance with their nuclear weapons and missiles, our air forces will exterminate the leadership of North Korea with our strong strike capabilities," South Korean Colonel Lee Kuk-no warned in the video. The images showed a powerful bomb striking a mock target, sending earth flying into the air, at the Pilseung Firing Range on Tuesday morning, just a few hours after Pyongyang fired a ballistic missile across Japanese airspace into the Pacific Ocean. Japan's warning system kicked in, advising citizens on its northern Hokkaido island to take precautions. According to South Korea's Yonhap news, the bombing was intended to show off the country's "overwhelming force", sending a message to dictator Kim Jong-un that Seoul was ready to defend itself. South Korea respond to North's missile launch with its own show of force 01:15 The bombing was ordered personally by President Moon Jae-in, who has previously pressed for peace talks with Pyongyang. A statement from Seoul earlier today stressed that South Korea was "fully ready for any threat from the North and will make unwavering efforts to protect the lives of our people and the security of our nation." South Korea is nearing the end of a ten day long joint military exercise with the US, that Pyongyang has strongly condemned and cited as a reason for its own missile tests. North Korea's ambassador to the United Nations, Han Tae Song, blamed the US for "driving the peninsula towards an extreme level of explosion." Speaking at a UN Security Council meeting in Geneva, he said: "My country has every reason to respond with tough counter-measures as an exercise of its right to self defence."
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| Sore at Macron's 'dictatorship' criticism, Venezuela blasts France Posted: 30 Aug 2017 09:22 AM PDT  Venezuela accused France on Wednesday of joining an "imperialist" campaign after President Emmanuel Macron portrayed the widely criticized socialist government as dictatorial. Adding to criticism from Washington, the United Nations and major Latin American nations, Macron on Tuesday called President Nicolas Maduro's administration "a dictatorship trying to survive at the cost of unprecedented humanitarian distress." Many countries are outraged at the Venezuelan government's overriding of the opposition-led congress, crackdown on protests, jailing of hundreds of foes and failure to allow the entry of foreign humanitarian aid to ease a severe economic crisis. Authorities say local opposition leaders want to topple Maduro in a coup with U.S. support, but its new Constituent Assembly will guarantee peace.
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| Muslims Opening Their Doors To Flood Victims: 'We Feel And Suffer The Same' Posted: 30 Aug 2017 11:00 AM PDT  Shazia Ashraf watched from a boat as her mattress floated in six feet of water in her Houston home.
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| Rohingya men answer call to arms against Myanmar's forces Posted: 28 Aug 2017 11:51 PM PDT  Cox's Bazar (Bangladesh) (AFP) - Heavily pregnant and confined to a squalid Bangladeshi refugee camp, Ayesha Begum does not regret that her husband will miss the imminent birth of their sixth child as he fights alongside Rohingya militants in Myanmar. Begum, 25, joined the exodus of Rohingya fleeing troubled Rakhine State in recent days as fresh violence erupted between Myanmar's security forces and militants fighting for the stateless Muslim minority.
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| Man who said he was stabbed over his neo-Nazi haircut made up story and actually impaled himself Posted: 28 Aug 2017 11:53 PM PDT  Joshua Witt, 26, has now been arrested on false reporting charges after he admitted he lied to officers in Sheridan, Colorado, by alleging a black man had attacked him for having a haircut associated with white supremacists. In a now-deleted Facebook post, Witt said: "Soooooooo apparently I look like a neo-Nazi and got stabbed for it. Witt told police his attacker was a black man in his mid 20s, who was wearing a green shirt and blue trousers and ran towards a bike path that runs along a nearby river.
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| Military Son Surprises Mom by Popping Out of Car's Trunk After Years Apart: 'It Made Everything Worth It' Posted: 29 Aug 2017 02:11 PM PDT  He hadn't seen his mom in two and a half years.
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| Mom's Heartfelt Post Begs Parents To Not Let Their Kids Be 'Jerks' Posted: 30 Aug 2017 07:21 AM PDT  A Texas mom of three is spreading a simple but important message about inclusion.
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| Will California Become The First State To Decriminalize Psychedelic Mushrooms? Posted: 29 Aug 2017 09:11 AM PDT  Kevin Saunders doesn't believe the state of California should lock up people for offenses related to psychedelic mushrooms, a broad category of fungi that contains the psychoactive compound psilocybin.
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| Whale gets entangled in cruise ship anchor for half a day Posted: 29 Aug 2017 01:49 PM PDT  JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A humpback whale became entangled in an anchor line on a small cruise ship in southeast Alaska, getting stuck for roughly 12 hours while federal authorities and the boat's crew worked to free it.
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| Japan’s Empty Menu of Options to Stop North Korea Posted: 29 Aug 2017 09:30 AM PDT  Hawkish Prime Minister Shinzo Abe seems to have few choices save strong words of condemnation for the Kim regime's missile tests. But he's working the long game.
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| Transgender members in U.S. military may serve until study completed: Mattis Posted: 29 Aug 2017 05:17 PM PDT  U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Tuesday current policy regarding transgender personnel serving in the military would remain in place until he advises President Donald Trump on how to implement his directive on a transgender ban. Mattis said in a statement he would set up a panel of experts serving in the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security to provide recommendations on implementing the ban. A White House official who briefed reporters about the memo on Friday declined to specify whether transgender men and women who are currently active in the military could continue to serve based on such criteria.
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| When Rescues In This Texas City Stopped, Residents Cried Out For Help On Social Media Posted: 30 Aug 2017 06:13 AM PDT  Floodwaters in Texas continue to rise, creating conditions so severe that people trapped in their homes had no chance of being rescued overnight.
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| Woman Gets Life In Prison For Killing Husband Whose Parrot Repeated 'Don't Shoot' After His Death Posted: 29 Aug 2017 02:54 PM PDT  A Michigan woman was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of her husband, whose last words may have been repeated by his pet parrot, Bud.
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| Isil militants dressing up as US-backed forces to capture fleeing civilians in Raqqa Posted: 30 Aug 2017 05:53 AM PDT  Islamic State jihadists in Raqqa are dressing up as US-backed forces and setting up fake checkpoints to catch civilians trying to escape the "capital" of the group's caliphate, residents say. The militants are posing as liberating Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Arab and Kurdish fighters, and capturing anyone that approaches. "They took several families today, we do not know if they have killed them yet," Tim Ramadan, an activist with the anti-Isil group Sound and Picture living in the northern Syrian city, told the Telegraph on Wednesday. "They set up checkpoints in the al-Murour neighbourhood in the south of Raqqa and were waving Kurdish flags," said Ramadan, who uses a pseudonym to protect his identity. "The families thought they had reached safety but then realised they had been fooled." Isil is using as human shields the remaining civilians - estimated to number somewhere between 7,000-20,000 - and threatening anyone who tries to leave with execution. Damaged building are pictured during the fighting with Islamic State's fighters in the old city of Raqqa Credit: Reuters "The other day Isil dumped four corpses in one of the streets with a sign that said: 'They were killed because they tried to escape', people are too scared to leave their homes," Ramadan said. There are believed to be between 700 and 1,000 militants left in Raqqa, holed up in the centre. Most of the Western fighters left the city for the Isil-held province of Deir Ezzor before the offensive, leaving the battle to Arab militants. The SDF has encircled them and captured around 60 percent of the city. But the jihadists have been putting up a fierce fight for what had been Isil's most important territory, using mortars, suicide bombs, and snipers. Ramadan described the dire situation for those trapped. Effectively besieged, nothing is getting in to areas still under Isil control and residents have had to resort to boiling grass and weeds for food. "Some families gather in the evenings in one of their homes, and every family brings the food that they have to share, even if it is just grass soup: often that is the only meal they eat that day," Ramadan said. Water has been cut off for two months and residents are relying on old wells. An internally displaced girl who fled Raqqa city sits inside a camp in Ain Issa, Raqqa Governorate, Credit: Reuters He said he has been unable to leave his street for several weeks as Isil has booby-trapped the routes out and the US-led coalition has been bombarding his neighbourhood with air strikes. As many as 700 civilians have been killed since the SDF-led offensive began in June, according to AirWars, a UK-based monitoring group. Ramadan, who accuses the coalition of indiscriminate bombing, fears the real number is much higher. "We have seen incidents in which entire families have been wiped out. The scale of things is increasing significantly," said Alex Hopkins, a researcher at AirWars. There has been a "worrying increase in the rate of mass casualty incidents" in recent weeks, he said, with disproportionate numbers of children being reported killed. Ramadan says civilians are sheltering together in homes, which is why there has been a high numbers of casualties from single strikes. Meanwhile in neighbouring Iraq, troops are battling the last hold out of Isil fighters outside the city of Tel Afar, northwest of Mosul. Fighters have entrenched themselves, said one Iraqi officer, who claimed the fighting there is "multiple times worse" than in Mosul's old city, which itself was one of the most complicated and bloody battles in a generation. Colonel Kareem al-Lami described breaching the militants' first line of defense in al-'Ayadiya as like opening "the gates of hell". Sniper shots, mortars, heavy machine guns, and anti-tank rockets were fired from every single house, he said. Raqqa, a dusty city lying on flat land in the desert, has proven much more difficult for Isil to defend than Mosul and its surrounds. SDF officials are hopeful it will be liberated within the coming two months.
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| These Ridiculous Wedding Reception Stories Will Make You Cringe Posted: 30 Aug 2017 02:16 PM PDT  Note to self: Don't invite moonshine to the party.
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