| White House officials, Washington Post spar over coverage of Trump Posted: 06 Sep 2019 11:53 AM PDT ![White House officials, Washington Post spar over coverage of Trump]( "White House officials, Washington Post spar over coverage of Trump") White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said on Twitter on Friday the Post had not reported on a Trump measure. Others pointed out that it had.
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| Protests flare in Hong Kong despite bill's withdrawal Posted: 06 Sep 2019 08:59 AM PDT  Hong Kong protesters besieged a police station and a subway stop Friday, prompting police to fire tear gas and rubber bullets as new violence erupted despite the government's promise to drop a proposed law that sparked months of demonstrations in the semiautonomous Chinese territory. About 2,000 angry protesters surrounded the police station in the crowded, working-class district of Mong Kok late Friday for a second straight night, demanding accountability over a violent police raid on the nearby Prince Edward subway station on Aug. 31. Police set up barriers at the entrance of the police station and later fired tear gas and rubber bullets to ward off the crowd, many of whom wore masks and used umbrellas to shield themselves.
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| Trial opens of US cop who killed neighbor in his own apartment Posted: 06 Sep 2019 09:14 AM PDT  A white policewoman went on trial in Dallas Friday for shooting and killing a black man in his own apartment, having mistaken it for hers. Exactly one year after Amber Guyger, 31, killed Botham Shem Jean, 26, jury selection in the racially charged murder case began in the Texas city. Guyger's attorneys have sought to move the case to another jurisdiction, on grounds that potential jurors in Dallas may already have strong views on the case, given the heavy media coverage it has fuelled.
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| Hurricane Dorian updates: After making landfall in North Carolina, the storm is moving up the coast. At least 30 people have died in the Bahamas. Posted: 06 Sep 2019 02:45 PM PDT  Hurricane Dorian is moving away from North Carolina and Virginia. The storm passed over North Carolina's Outer Banks at 8:35 a.m. ET on Friday.
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| Jeffrey Epstein accuser denies Prince Andrew photo is a 'fake' in letter to the Duke of York Posted: 06 Sep 2019 11:47 AM PDT  Lawyers for the Jeffrey Epstein accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre have denied claims that a photograph showing the Duke of York with his hand around her waist is a fake. Two attorneys for Ms Roberts wrote to Prince Andrew in a letter dated Tuesday to push back on "troubling" suggestions that the image was doctored. Their letter countered comments from "sources close to" the Duke which circulated in the UK press recently suggesting he is taller and has "much chubbier" fingers than in the photograph. Ms Roberts Giuffre has claimed she was made to have sex with the Duke when she was 17 after being recruited by Epstein, a US financier and multimillionaire. The Duke has always vehemently denied the allegation. Ms Roberts Giuffre's lawyers, Brad Edwards and David Boies, wrote: "While your recent press statements indicate your sincere desire to help the victims of sexual abuse, we are concerned that certain statements attributed to you (which we hope do not reflect your actual views) are quite inconsistent with a desire to deal responsibly with the serious allegations that have been made. "We now see, for instance, a troubling assertion attributed to you that a well-documented photograph depicting you, Virginia Roberts Giuffre and Ghislaine Maxwell in each other's company is a 'fake'." Jeffrey Epstein in 2017 Credit: New York State Sex Offender Registry via AP, File They also request a meeting with the Duke to discuss the photograph and Ms Roberts Giuffre, suggesting a meeting in New York, London or another venue could be arranged. The lawyers noted they had approached the Duke years ago for a meeting about the "long-held photograph", writing: "We were puzzled and, we must admit, disappointed that you did not cooperate at that time. They added: "Nevertheless, given your new attention to the subject and your pledge to cooperate, we renew our request for your cooperation." The photograph first emerged in 2011 when the Mail on Sunday published the image and detailed Ms Roberts Giuffre's account of meeting Prince Andrew. It is said to have been taken at the home of Ghislaine Maxwell, the daughter of media tycoon Robert Maxwell, in London in 2001, when Ms Roberts Giuffre was 17. The allegation against the Duke is facing renewed attention after Epstein, 66, killed himself in prison last month following an arrest over sex trafficking of underage girls. Prince Andrew was one spotted at the door of Jeffrey Epstein's New York home in 2010 Credit: Mail on Sunday/2010 by Mail on Sunday The Duke released a statement last month saying it was "a mistake and an error" to see Epstein after the financier had pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution in 2008. The Duke said he did not "see, witness or suspect any behavior of the sort that subsequently led to his arrest and conviction". He added: "I deplore the exploitation of any human being and would not condone, participate in, or encourage any such behaviour." Epstein's death in prison has triggered an investigation in the US Department of Justice given he had been taken off suicide watch just days before. Guards who were meant to be checking in on him every 30 minutes failed to do so. He was also meant to have another prisoner sharing his cell but was alone. US prosecutors have vowed not to drop the investigation despite Epstein's death, insisting that if there are any co-conspirators in his crimes they will be brought to justice. A Buckingham Palace spokesman declined to comment on the letter. The spokesman reissued a previous statement: "It is emphatically denied that The Duke of York had any form of sexual contact or relationship with Virginia Roberts. Any claim to the contrary is false and without foundation."
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| Nigerian Ruling Party Demands Takeover of South African Firms Posted: 06 Sep 2019 09:01 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Nigeria's ruling party urged the government to nationalize South African companies operating in the West African nation in retaliation for xenophobic attacks on its nationals.Relations between Africa's two biggest economies have been tense following attacks on businesses run by migrant Africans in Johannesburg, which sparked reprisal raids by mobs on the offices of the South African mobile-phone company MTN Group Ltd. and stores operated by Shoprite Holdings in the commercial hub of Lagos and the capital, Abuja."Whereas South Africans continue to benefit from the Nigerian business environment and repatriating billions of dollars, the South African authorities appear jealous of the menial jobs which some Nigerians and other black people are involved in," All Progressives Congress party Chairman Adams Oshiomhole said in a video clip broadcast on Friday by Lagos-based Channels Television. "It is worth it for the Nigerian government to take steps to take over the remaining shares of MTN that are owned by South Africans."The APC chairman recommended similar measures for other South African companies, the boycott of their products and the revocation of landing rights for South African Airways.To contact the reporter on this story: Tope Alake in Lagos at talake@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Osae-Brown at aosaebrown2@bloomberg.net, Dulue Mbachu, Paul RichardsonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Texas man first person charged nationwide since bump stock ban Posted: 06 Sep 2019 07:48 AM PDT  A 43-year old Texas man has been indicted for possessing a machine gun after police say they found a rifle with a bump stock in his home.
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| Mexico president says El Chapo's drug wealth should go to Mexico Posted: 05 Sep 2019 11:17 AM PDT  Mexico's president on Thursday welcomed a proposal to give the alleged fortune of drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman to the country's indigenous people, and said the wealth of Mexican criminals in the United States should be returned to Mexico. Jose Luis Gonzalez Meza, a lawyer for Guzman, said this week his client had proposed that billions of dollars in revenue that U.S. authorities had attributed to his business operations should be handed to indigenous communities in Mexico. Speaking at his regular morning news conference, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who earlier this year announced the creation of a "Robin Hood" institute to return ill-gotten wealth to the Mexican people, gave his approval to the idea.
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| 'I don’t see any path for Biden to win the nomination without South Carolina' Posted: 06 Sep 2019 02:01 AM PDT  The former vice president is betting it all on the black vote.
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| ‘A beautiful soul’: Mourners gather to remember 15-year-old victim of Texas shooting Posted: 06 Sep 2019 03:31 PM PDT  Upwards of 1,000 people gathered in Odessa to mourn15-year-old Leilah Eliana Hernandez, the youngest person to die in Saturday's shooting rampage
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| The Latest: Family stunned after verdicts in warehouse fire Posted: 05 Sep 2019 04:04 PM PDT  A family of a man who died when a fire tore through a party at a California warehouse says they're stunned and frustrated that a jury acquitted one defendant and couldn't reach a verdict for another charged with involuntary manslaughter. Alberto Vega, whose brother Alex Vega died, said Thursday that he was "in shock" and felt "sick to his stomach" after a jury found Max Harris not guilty and a judge declared a mistrial for Derick Almena. Alex Vega's mother, Mary Vega, says she's angry at the outcome but doesn't regret that a judge threw out a plea agreement last year after families protested that the sentences were too lenient.
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| Trump reportedly told a Coast Guard admiral to give a statement defending his Hurricane Dorian confusion Posted: 05 Sep 2019 05:43 PM PDT  "I showed the President the official National Hurricane Center forecast," US Coast Guard Rear Admiral Peter Brown said in a statement.
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| After Robert Mugabe's death, what next for Grace? Posted: 06 Sep 2019 10:02 AM PDT  Shorn of her late husband's protection, Grace Mugabe is likely to be feeling more than a little exposed as she begins her widowhood. Often derided as Zimbabwe's Lady Macbeth, her reputation for greed and her ruthless determination to succeed Robert Mugabe helped destroy both his presidency and her ambitions. For the military coup that overthrew Mr Mugabe in November, 2017 might never have taken place had he not let himself be persuaded to ditch his most loyal lieutenants in the ruling Zanu-PF party and make her his heir. Mrs Mugabe was by her husband's side when he died in Singapore and she will almost certainly be allowed pride of place during his funeral. But, after the mourning ends, her many enemies could well begin circling. Emmerson Mnangagwa, Zimbabwe's president and the man who overthrew her husband, promised last year that the Mugabes would be "left in peace", but he pointedly ruled out granting them immunity. He is certainly no fan of the former first lady, accusing her of trying to kill him by poisoning his ice-cream as they jostled to be named Mr Mugabe's successor in the months before the coup. Out of deference to his former boss, President Mnangagwa left her alone. With him gone, he may be less circumspect. Few politicians or ordinary Zimbabweans would rally to her cause. From the moment the former typist, 40 years her husband's junior, married Mr Mugabe in 1996, excess seemed to follow excess. When white-owned farms were seized, ostensibly to be redistributed to the poor, she allegedly received 20 of the very best, becoming one of Zimbabwe's largest landowners. Mr Mugabe's three children adored their father, who lavished them with presents, such as luxury homes, and a fabulous lifestyle. In a country brought to penury by her husband's misrule, Mrs Mugabe's extravagance will not be forgotten quickly. Mr Mnangagwa would also welcome the distraction a trial of the former first lady would bring from the continuing financial woes Zimbabwe is suffering. Criminal charges would not come without risk, however. If Mrs Mugabe is placed in the dock, there is no knowing what uncomfortable secrets about Zimbabwe's ruling elite she may reveal.
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| Kamala Harris Supports Mandatory Buyback of Assault Weapons Posted: 06 Sep 2019 03:18 PM PDT ![Kamala Harris Supports Mandatory Buyback of Assault Weapons]( "Kamala Harris Supports Mandatory Buyback of Assault Weapons") (Bloomberg) -- Kamala Harris said Friday she supports a mandatory buyback of military-style assault weapons, taking a more aggressive position than her main rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination."I think it's a good idea," she told reporters after a campaign event in Londonderry, New Hampshire."We have to work out the details -- there are a lot of details -- but I do" support a forced buyback, Harris said when asked about the policy. "We have to take those guns off the streets."Harris's higher-polling rivals Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren back banning sales of semi-automatic rifles like those used in recent mass shootings but stop short of calling for a forced buyback of guns already owned. Beto O'Rourke has said he would require owners of such weapons to sell them to the government.A recent Quinnipiac poll found that 49% of Americans oppose a mandatory buyback of assault weapons while 46% favor the idea. But among Democrats, 71% support the idea while just 23% are against it.To contact the reporter on this story: Sahil Kapur in Washington at skapur39@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Laurie Asséo, Joe SobczykFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Southern US to feel like middle of summer as record heat builds into this weekend Posted: 06 Sep 2019 04:45 AM PDT  Record-challenging heat will make it feel like the middle of summer across the southern United States through the weekend.Dry conditions and plenty of sunshine will stretch from eastern Texas to Georgia on Saturday as an area of high pressure settles over the region.Temperatures across much of this area will climb into the middle to upper 90s F, while farther west in Louisiana and eastern Texas, highs are expected to peak near 100 F."In fact, record highs may be challenged in several locations, such as Dallas, Houston and Shreveport, Louisiana, just to name a few," AccuWeather Meteorologist Ryan Adamson said.Several cities from Texas to Florida set new record high temperatures for the date on Friday, including New Orleans and Miami. Sweltering heat will spread farther north across the Southeast on Saturday in the wake of Hurricane Dorian.Heat will peak in most places on Saturday with high temperatures ranging from the middle 90s along the Southeast coast to the lower 100s in eastern Texas.Normal highs for the beginning of September across this region range from the middle 80s to lowers 90s.It will feel even hotter across the region as AccuWeather RealFeel® Temperatures reach above 100 F. It may even feel as hot as 110 F away from the coast. Several record highs were tied or broken across the south on Thursday. In Vero Beach, Florida, which had been at risk from impacts from Dorian earlier in the week, the high temperature of 97 broke the old Sept. 5 record of 96 set back in 1996. New Orleans tied its record of 97; the last time the city hit 97 on Sept. 5 was in 2000.Those along the Southeast coast left without power in the wake of Dorian will need to take extra precautions, such as drinking plenty of water to stay hydrated and taking frequent breaks in the shade during strenuous activity.While Sunday will still be hot, the arrival of some spotty showers and thunderstorms can help to keep temperatures a couple of degrees lower from eastern North Carolina to the panhandle of Florida.Temperatures will remain on the higher side into the beginning of next week, but more widespread showers and thunderstorms will knock temperatures down by a couple degrees in most locations."Temperatures should fall below 100 degrees in most areas by Sunday and Monday," added Adamson, "but it will still likely be above normal for early September, with widespread mid-90s."Download the free AccuWeather app to keep track of temperature trends in your area. Keep checking back for updates on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
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| At destroyed airport, Bahamians tell stories of survival and death Posted: 06 Sep 2019 10:17 AM PDT  After Hurricane Dorian destroyed her home in Central Pines, she needed food for her two-year-old daughter. What she found first, it turned out, was a bloated body by the store's entrance. Later, Smith and a friend went to a trailer park to check on a coworker who lived there.
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| Ex N.Korea prisoner says he was CIA spy: German media Posted: 06 Sep 2019 08:07 AM PDT  A former prisoner in North Korea has told German media that he used to spy for the CIA, seeking out nuclear secrets and taking pictures with a concealed wristwatch camera. In a TV report by public broadcaster NDR, South Korean-born US citizen Kim Dong-chul, 67, recounts his former espionage operations, arrest and the abuse and torture he suffered behind bars. Kim Dong-chul was one of three American detainees freed by Pyongyang in May 2018, in the lead-up to the first summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
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| Pope Francis says it is ‘an honour that the Americans attack me' Posted: 06 Sep 2019 03:28 AM PDT  In an offhand remark on the papal plane en route to Mozambique, Pope Francis acknowledged the sharp opposition he has faced from conservative Catholic detractors in the United States, calling it an "an honour that the Americans attack me".His remark came at the start of a six-day trip to Africa, as the pope shook hands in the back of the plane with a French reporter who handed him a copy of his new book How America Wanted to Change the Pope.
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| Agency reverses course on Trump's Alabama hurricane claim Posted: 06 Sep 2019 05:37 PM PDT  A federal agency reversed course Friday on the question of whether President Donald Trump tweeted stale information about Hurricane Dorian potentially hitting Alabama, upsetting meteorologists around the country. The National Weather Service in Birmingham, Alabama, tweeted in response: "Alabama will NOT see any impacts from #Dorian.
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| Photos show the mangled airplanes and buildings at Grand Bahama airport that Hurricane Dorian left behind Posted: 05 Sep 2019 12:21 PM PDT  Buildings and airplanes at Grand Bahama Island's only international airport were left mangled and shattered following the storm.
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| NASA Stumped by Weird Green Blobs Posted: 06 Sep 2019 08:25 AM PDT  What are they doing up there?
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| 2019 Honda Civic Type R vs. 1991 Acura NSX in Photos Posted: 06 Sep 2019 04:59 AM PDT |
| U.S. Treasury warns anyone fueling Iran tanker risks being blacklisted Posted: 05 Sep 2019 01:33 PM PDT  The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday warned that anyone around the world who helps fuel Iranian vessels blacklisted by Washington runs the risk of being designated as well. The Treasury Department blacklisted the Adrian Darya, a tanker at the center of a confrontation between Washington and Tehran, on Aug. 30. Washington has warned that it would regard any assistance given to the ship as support for a terrorist group, namely, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
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| US opens probe of 4 automakers over California emissions pact Posted: 06 Sep 2019 11:41 AM PDT  The US Department of Justice has opened an antitrust probe of California's agreement with four automakers on fuel efficiency standards that circumvented the Trump administration's plans, automakers said Friday. The agreement announced in July increases the fuel economy standards on autos sold in California.
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| America's 'democratic experiment' is inextricably tied to the history of slavery Posted: 05 Sep 2019 07:10 AM PDT  The year 1619 laid out rough boundaries of citizenship, freedom, and democracy that are still being policed'What we politely refer to as the 'legacy' of slavery is a political and economic system built on racial exploitation and the theft of black labor.' Photograph: Carlos Barría/ReutersThis year marks 400 years since enslaved Africans from Angola were forcibly brought to Jamestown, Virginia. This forced migration of black bodies on to what would become the United States of America represents the intertwined origin story of racial slavery and democracy. This year also marks what would have been the 90th birthday of Martin Luther King, the most well-known mobilizer of the civil rights movement's heroic period between 1954 and 1965.While Americans are quick to recognize Jamestown as the first episode of a continuing democratic experiment, the nation remains less willing to confront the way in which racial slavery proved crucial to the flourishing of American capitalism, democratic freedoms, and racial identity. The year 1619 laid out rough boundaries of citizenship, freedom, and democracy that are still being policed in our own time.Although we hardly remember this today, King often discussed how the imposing shadow of slavery impacted the civil rights struggle, perhaps most notably on 28 August 1963, during the March on Washington.Addressing a quarter of a million people in front of the Lincoln Memorial, King acknowledged racial slavery's uncanny hold on the American imagination. A century earlier, Abraham Lincoln, whom King called "a great American", signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Yet 100 years later, black people remained marginalized from the American dream. "Instead of honoring this sacred obligation," King said, African Americans had received a "bad check" – one that the nation would have to pay in full to overcome the tragic dimensions of a racial past that continued to constrain its future.King longed to reconcile the fundamental contradiction of American democratic traditions: the existence of racial slavery alongside individual freedom and liberty. What King interpreted as a contradiction, Malcolm X recognized as ironic symmetry. According to Malcolm, racial slavery in America helped to undergird a system of racial democracy that became the exclusive provision of whites.In his stinging denunciations of white supremacy and his bold support for revolutionary violence against anti-black racism, Malcolm often invoked African Americans' experience of 400 years of racial oppression. 2019 is the exact anniversary of the date that Malcolm often extolled in speeches, televised debates, and jaw-rattling interviews.Both Malcolm and Martin understood the intimate connection between the struggle for black dignity and citizenship during the civil rights and Black Power era and the movement to end racial slavery in the nineteenth century.Perhaps no single figure more elegantly represents that century's struggle over racial slavery, freedom, and citizenship than Frederick Douglass, whose reputation has swelled in the aftermath of the historian David Blight's recent Pulitzer-winning biography.A former enslaved African American from Maryland's Chesapeake Bay, Douglass narrated his escape from slavery to freedom as a journey emblematic of the nation's entire democratic experiment. A brilliant writer and public speaker, Douglass became the 19th century's most-photographed American, the nation's leading abolitionist, and a proponent of the violent overthrow of slavery by any means necessary. Douglass, no less than Abraham Lincoln, came to represent the freedom dreams that animated not only the struggle for black citizenship but the destiny of democracy.Racial slavery – a ruthless system of bondage closely tied to the rise of global capitalism – collapsed in 1865 only after the deaths of over 700,000 Americans in the civil war. Black soldiers' patriotism in the face of white supremacy was only begrudgingly, if ever, acknowledged by northern politicians. New constitutional amendments designed to settle the debate over black freedom by abolishing slavery and establishing birthright citizenship and the vote competed with the rise of political, economic, and racial terror against black Americans.Reconstruction between 1865 and 1896 found black women and men on the cutting edge of new interracial democratic experiments that helped to establish public education, historically black colleges, churches, businesses, civic groups, and mutual aid societies and elect black officials. Yet those triumphs were challenged by violence, political betrayal, and legal and legislative assaults on black citizenship. In 1896, the supreme court's Plessy v Ferguson decision made segregation the law of the land and ushered in a dark period of history.Contemporary black-led social movements such as Black Lives Matter confront not only the racial ghosts of the Jim Crow south memorialized in popular culture. They face the larger specter of racial slavery that our society often still refuses to acknowledge. What we politely refer to as the "legacy" of slavery represents the evolution of a political and economic system built on racial exploitation, the theft of black labor, and the demonization and dehumanization of black bodies.What is all the more remarkable is the way in which black folk have embraced an expansive vision of democracy even when the nation refused to recognize it as legitimate. Ida B Wells, the 19th-century anti-lynching crusader, was a trailblazing social justice activist whose work anticipated the rise of mass incarceration in America. Ella Jo Baker, the founder of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), understood the sit-in movement to be less about gaining access to white lunch counters than about eradicating oppressive and anti-democratic systems that had flourished since the bullwhip days of antebellum slavery.Similarly, King's Letter From Birmingham Jail extolled the heroism of black schoolchildren jailed for violating Jim Crow laws in Alabama. Those young people, King argued, would be one day recognized as heroes for having transported the entire nation back to those "great wells of democracy" that were dug deep by the founding fathers.The relationship between slavery and freedom and our contemporary understanding of this history remains at the core of the American democratic experiment, one that has global reverberations for a sprawling communities of indigenous and immigrant people around the world who, in the best of times, have looked to America as a beacon of liberty. Barack Obama's extraordinary rise to the presidency in 2009 burnished the United States as a symbol of racially transcendent freedom even as Trump has tempered such celebrations as premature.Perhaps the most important lesson from Jamestown for the present is the indefatigable nature of the black freedom struggle. Courageous individual acts of resistance during slavery inspired collective rebellions that transformed American democracy. Yet this change, as we are painfully experiencing today, remains fraught with the weight of a history rooted in racial slavery. Contemporary debates over racial privilege, white supremacy, and identity politics flow from political, economic, and social relations that have become normalized by our history but are far from normal.Confronting slavery's indelible impact on conceptions of freedom, citizenship, and democracy offers us essential tools for confronting our contemporary age – what might be considered a Third Reconstruction – where efforts to embrace racial justice and an expansive vision of democracy compete alongside movements for racial bigotry rooted in ancient hatreds dressed up in new clothes. * Peniel E Joseph is the founding director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin
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| A$AP Rocky's Swedish lawyer was shot in the head and the shooting suspect is still at large Posted: 06 Sep 2019 09:46 AM PDT  The Swedish Police Authority wrote on its website that "several" people have been taken into custody for questioning in connection to the shooting.
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| 'Bye, Mom. I love you!' Family torn apart in aftermath of Hurricane Dorian Posted: 06 Sep 2019 05:42 AM PDT  On the Abacos Islands of the Bahamas, Alicia Cook held her daughters, Lacy, 8, and Lyric, 4, close -- and then, surrounded by devastation as far as the eye could see, said a heart-wrenching goodbye to her girls.The sisters soon boarded a helicopter with their aunt to be evacuated to Nassau, the capital city of the Bahamas. Their parents would be staying behind, as there was no room for them on the helicopter."Bye, Mom. I love you!" one of the girls called from the helicopter."I had to send them with my sister. I couldn't fit. My babies, I had to send them. This is just a disaster. Everything's gone. There's just so much heartache and death everywhere. I just don't know what we're going to do," Cook told AccuWeather correspondent Brandon Clement through tears. "[I'm] leaving my hearts. Don't know when I'll see them again." Alicia Cook hugs her daughter Lyric as they say goodbye. Cook and her husband are having their two daughters evacuated from the Abacos Islands after Hurricane Dorian. (Brandon Clement) The family of four survived Hurricane Dorian, which dealt a historic blow to the Bahamas on Sunday, Sept. 1, when it made landfall as Category 5 hurricane. With sustained winds of 185 mph at the time of landfall, Hurricane Dorian was tied for the second most powerful hurricane by wind speed in the Atlantic basin since 1851 behind Hurricane Allen in 1980 with 190 mph winds.The death toll in the Bahamas has risen to around 30 and is expected to rise as search and rescue operations continue.Cook told Clement that she had to get her children off of the island, which was in a state of "total devastation." The flight was paid for by the Discovery Land Company, a real estate developer that is currently sharing resources like private helicopters.The powerful winds of Hurricane Dorian had stripped even concrete buildings of their integrity. Supposedly sturdy buildings were broken like pottery pieces, the long bent fingers of rebar stripped of the concrete and exposed."This isn't cheap construction. This is one-inch rebar [reinforcement bar], eight-inch-thick concrete, just pulverized," Clement said while filming.That's just what the buildings in the Abaco Islands are after Dorian: pulverized.A woman stood crying on the second story of a building: the walls and roof having been torn away during the Category 5 storm. Around the skeleton of the house lay the carnage of debris, trees stripped of all leaves and an overturned boat. The beach is nowhere in sight. A pickup truck and an SUV were strapped to a barge to keep them tied down. Though battered, they remain remain in place. The same could not be said of the beached boat. A handful of small boats were deposited on the shore, a few landing at the doorsteps of houses. A pickup truck and an SUV were strapped to a barge to keep them tied down. The vehicles were damaged during the storm, and the boat they were aboard beached. (Brandon Clement) Some of the cars on the island made it out of the storm with just some shattered glass, while others sit partially submerged in ponds of water that have yet to recede. Footage shows residents of the Bahamas walking down a street, their belongings in plastic bags. The still partially flooded road is littered with tree debris and downed power poles."I've been through many, many hurricanes and seen devastation, but nothing ever, ever compared to this," Cook said. "I've never even experienced anything -- I watched movies and I see this on the news, but you don't know it until you go through it. You lose everything in an instant. Just everything you've ever worked for, your whole life's gone," Cook said. "Just what do you do? And nobody should have to go through this. It's like a bad dream. You just can't wake up."The people of the Bahamas pick through what has become marshes of debris, trying to find any of their belongings that they could salvage.Clement stopped to speak with a woman who had been looking around the remains of her home, trying to find a scrap of the life that had been torn from her by Dorian: a backpack with her passport. People in the Bahamas scour through the wreckage that Hurricane Dorian left behind in its wake, trying to find any of their belongings they can savage. This woman was looking for a backpack with her passport in it, which she had lost in the chaos of the storm. (Brandon Clement) "Harbour View Marina collapsed, and the water came to my roof," a woman told Clement, standing in front of the demolished walls of her baby blue house. She, her son, her best friend and two others staying with her escaped out the back window and clung to a Suzuki until the eye passed two hours later."It was awful," the woman said after Clement asked what it had been like. While hanging on for their lives, a young boy with them suffered a five-inch gash in the back of his head and fell unconscious. She said debris beat up against them all, bruising them.When the water subsided and the worst of the wind calmed, Dorian had left behind a skeleton of what she once had."I have nothing. Everything is gone. It's either there," the woman said, gesturing off at the debris to one side of her, "there ..." she gestured to more debris behind her. "And I don't know, it's just awful," she said, beginning to cry. Homes flattened by Hurricane Dorian are seen in Abaco, Bahamas, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2019. The storm's devastation has come into sharper focus as the death toll climbed to 20 and many people emerged from shelters to check on their homes. (AP Photo/Gonzalo Gaudenzi) "I've been through many of a hurricane, this was, I don't know. A tidal wave, a tornado, a hurricane, everything in one," she said. "I've never seen anything like this in my life. It's just devastating. I don't know if we'll ever come back from it. I don't know if I want to leave, if I want to stay. I don't know."For the Cook family, the aftermath of Dorian brought the most heartache as they said their goodbyes. After the helicopter doors slammed shut, Cook and her husband watched as the craft lifted off, taking their children away from the carnage left behind by Dorian.Reporting by Brandon Clement and Jonathan Petramala in the Bahamas.
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| Police: Family worried after finding military weapons in elderly couple's Montgomery County home Posted: 06 Sep 2019 10:37 AM PDT  Family members helping an elderly couple clean out their home became concerned when they discovered multiple military ordnance items and firearms inside, police said.
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| The head of the Navy SEALs sacked 3 SEAL Team 7 leaders after team members were kicked out of Iraq Posted: 06 Sep 2019 05:00 PM PDT  Rear Adm. Collin Green removed three senior SEAL Team 7 leaders "due to a loss of confidence that resulted from leadership failures."
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| UPDATE 1-India loses contact with spacecraft on mission to the moon Posted: 06 Sep 2019 03:59 PM PDT ![UPDATE 1-India loses contact with spacecraft on mission to the moon]( "UPDATE 1-India loses contact with spacecraft on mission to the moon") India lost contact with a spacecraft it was attempting to land on the moon on Saturday, the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said, in a setback to the nation's ambitious plans to become the first country to probe the unexplored lunar south pole. The lander of India's Chandrayaan-2 moon mission was attempting a "soft," or controlled, landing near the south pole of the moon where scientists believe there could be water ice. ISRO lost communication with it just as it was about to land on the moon.
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| The U.S. in Afghanistan, Talking Peace and Waging War, Doesn’t Count All The Civilians It Slaughters Posted: 05 Sep 2019 01:22 PM PDT  WAKIL KOHSARLOY MANDA, Afghanistan–Bloodied and broken, 13 members of an extended family were lifted, one by one, from a minibus and placed in wheelchairs and on hospital beds with clean white sheets. The out patient department at Emergency Hospital in Helmand's capital Lashkar Gah was soon beyond capacity. Nurses from throughout the building rushed to assist. The victims ranged in age from four to fifty. They'd been at home on the afternoon of November 24, 2018, when two Taliban fighters entered their compound in the village of Loy Manda, in Helmand's Nad-i Ali District. Obaidullah, the patriarch of the family, pleaded with the fighters to leave, but before they did, they fired over a wall at a passing Afghan and American military convoy. In response, an American warplane—an A-10 "Warthog"—made two strafing runs over the house. Hundreds of rounds of ammunition—bullets the size of large carrots—fired by a weapon designed to disable armoured tanks, poured out of the plane's Gatling gun. The two Taliban fighters had fled. Instead, Obaidullah and his 15-year-old son Esmatullah were killed; 13 others suffered broken bones and shrapnel injuries from head to toe. One boy, 14-year-old Ehsanullah, lost both his eyes. In May this year, The U.S. Department of Defense released its Annual Report on Civilian Casualties. In table format, an entry for Helmand on the same date states: "Operation Type: Air. Killed: 0. Injured: 4." * * *DEATH BY THE NUMBERS* * *The war in Afghanistan will soon enter its 19th year. In Qatar, U.S. and Taliban representatives have been hashing out a preliminary agreement that would see a withdrawal timeline for international troops in return for a Taliban guarantee that it would disavow terrorist groups with transnational aspirations seeking to use Afghanistan as a base.The Taliban Scoff at Trump's Afghan Peace Talks BluffIn contrast, on the battlefield, both sides are ramping up their military campaigns in an effort to strengthen their negotiating positions. As a result, the number of civilians caught in the crossfire is increasing, too. In its latest report on civilian casualties, the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA) found that this year, for the first time since it began counting, pro-government forces, including international forces, were responsible for more civilian deaths than the Taliban and the so-called Islamic State's Afghanistan branch combined. The primary reason for this is an escalation of the U.S. air war in Afghanistan.In a conflict that has been unpopular with the American public—and now its president—for years now, the downplaying of the number of Afghan civilians killed in the crossfire is one way the U.S. military—which one senses is more committed to Afghanistan than its political leaders—can mitigate opposition at home. Today, the rented house Obaidullah's family was in when it was struck by the warplane last November, is empty. During the day, columns of sunlight pour through a dozen watermelon-sized holes in the roof: evidence of the missile-like bullets that also tore holes through its inhabitants. After they were discharged from hospital, Obaidullah's two wives and their surviving children moved to the village of Shawal, which is under Taliban control, further north in the same district, with Obaidullah's brothers. Day to day security in most rural parts of Afghanistan isn't so much dictated by who controls the area as by how far it is from the front line. Nor does the side of a front line one chooses to live on necessarily indicate sympathy for one faction or the other.Loy Manda, where the family lived when their house was struck, was the front line. They hoped moving farther from it, even though that meant going deep into Taliban territory, would be safer. The escalation of the air war, however, means that calculation is no longer a reliable measure of safety.* * *'TENDENTIOUS PRONOUNCEMENTS'* * *Ehsanullah was 14 when he was brought into the emergency hospital last November. His face was a mess of raw flesh and dried, rusty blood. He had already lost one eye; the other was ruptured and would later be removed by surgeons. The rest of his body was bruised, broken, burned and punctured by debris thrown out as the rounds impacted around him.Without sight, his hearing has become increasingly sensitized, and the sound of aircraft terrifies him. Air strikes are even more common in Shawal now than they were in Loy Manda. "I'm always scared of the aircraft now," he says. "I'm scared they're going to target us again."Ehsanullah, 14, has two ruptured eyes and several leg and abdominal injuries. His uncle, Sardar Wali, sits with him in the garden at Emergency hospital for the war wounded in Lashkar Gah, Helmand. Sardar Wali wept at times while crouching beside his nephew. 13 members from two families, including his, were admitted on November 24, 2018 at around 4:30PM.\n\n13 in total were admitted to Emergency hospital for the war wounded in Lashkar Gah, Helmand, on the evening of November 24, 2018, after an airstrike on their home in the village of Loy Manda in Nad-i Ali District. Obaidullah, the patriarch of the family, and another of his sons, Esmatullah, were killed in the strike. In total, 12 women and children were injured and brought to Emergency, including a pregnant mother, Qarara, and an elderly man, all of whom had suffered shrapnel injuries to various parts of their bodies. \n\nFamily members explained that Taliban fighters had sought shelter from military aircraft in their home despite the residents pleading for them to leave. The next thing they knew their compound, home to two families, was being \"bombed\" by an aircraft which they identified, after I showed some family members video footage of one, an American A-10 \"Warthog\" warplane. \n\nA spokesperson for the International Resolute Support military mission in Kabul, SFC Debra Richardson provided me with a statement in response to my enquiries that read as follows: \"We are still looking into the details. We know U.S. forces, accompanying their Afghan security partners, called in self-defense air support against a building from which the Taliban were shooting. Too often the Taliban use civilians as hostages and human shields. It is often difficult to discern the presence of non-combatants inside structures when the Taliban are shooting from those locations. Enough violence, the Taliban should seriously engage in talks for a political solution instead of engaging in more pointless fighting. We have the duty to be precise. We own every munition we fire--the bullets from our rifles as well as the rockets on each strike. We are the most precise force in the history of warfare, ever, but this is not enough for us--we seek to improve and match higher standards every day.Andrew QuiltyOn top of this, Ehsanullah requires help with even the simplest of tasks. "Now I can't do anything; I can't even find my way," he says. "Even when I want to move I need the help of someone." That job has fallen to his younger brother, Rahmatullah, who never leaves his brother's side. Rahmatullah himself arrived in the emergency room that day with his intestines resting on his stomach.The U.S.-led Resolute Support military mission in Afghanistan refused to respond to several recent enquiries about the incident and the DOD's accounting of civilian victims. The U.S. military maintains that it makes condolence payments to civilian victims of its operations, but a Resolute Support spokesperson was unable to confirm whether such a payment had been made to Obaidullah's family. The family says they received nothing. The DoD report states its "assessments seek to incorporate all available information... DoD updates existing assessments if new information becomes available, including new information received from NGOs or other outside organizations." The details of this and The Daily Beast's January report were both supplied to Resolute Support's public affairs office, which again refused to address the issue. How U.S. Bombs Tore One Family to Shreds in AfghanistanUNAMA, which has sparred with both Resolute Support and the Taliban over methodologies concerning the assessment of civilian casualty figures, issued an unusually biting statement in an August 3 press release: "... all parties to the conflict have a poor track record on investigating, publicly reporting their findings and taking appropriate follow-up measures to address incidents in which civilians are killed or injured." The statement continued: "UNAMA recognizes that in the context of the war in Afghanistan, all parties are prone to issue tendentious pronouncements." Andrew J. Bacevich, professor emeritus of history and international relations at Boston University told The Daily Beast, "The U.S. military is deeply invested in a self-image that is undermined by evidence that it has caused civilian casualties. U.S. forces want to be seen as using violence with great precision–killing only those they intend to kill. Evidence to the contrary damages the prestige of the armed services and can undercut their standing in the eyes of the American people. In that sense, the issues here go well beyond Afghanistan per se."This isn't an isolated case.When Obaidullah's family moved to Shawal after leaving the hospital, in the very same village was another family who had also been bombed. On October 10 last year, six weeks before the Loy Manda strike, Abdul Ahad was at home with his family in the farming village of Shawal when the sounds of fighting began nearby. Shawal was on the northern—Taliban-controlled—side of a wide irrigation canal that still marks the front line in Nad-i Ali district today, so while airstrikes were common, ground engagements like this were rare. He told the story under the shade of a tree outside Shawal recently; it was so hot that steam didn't rise from his cup of boiling green tea. The jet engines of American bombers could be heard wavering on the wind miles above. L to R: Qarara and her son Hedayat 94) recover in the female and children's ward at Emergency Hospital for the war wounded in Lashkar Gah, Helmand Province. They were admitted on November 24, 2018, after Taliban fighters had used their house to fire on a passing American and Afghan Army convoy in Loy Manda, Nad-i Ali District, Helmand Province and the Americans called in an airstrike. Two family members were killed, the husband and father, Obaidullah, and his son Esmatullah, while 13 in total were injured. The soldiers provided first aid for the wounded before they were brought by Loy Manda locals to Emergency in Lashkar Gah.\n\nIn a statement by a spokesperson for the International Resolute Support military mission provided to me after alerting them to the incident, said:\n\n\"We are still looking into the details. We know U.S. forces, accompanying their Afghan security partners, called in self-defense air support against a building from which the Taliban were shooting. Too often the Taliban use civilians as hostages and human shields. It is often difficult to discern the presence of non-combatants inside structures when the Taliban are shooting from those locations. Enough violence, the Taliban should seriously engage in talks for a political solution instead of engaging in more pointless fighting. We have the duty to be precise. We own every munition we fire--the bullets from our rifles as well as the rockets on each strike. We are the most precise force in the history of warfare, ever, but this is not enough for us--we seek to improve and match higher standards every day.Andrew QuiltyAhad's house was one point of a triangle, with American and Afghan special forces on a second point and Taliban fighters on a third. Both groups were shooting across, but not toward his house. The soldiers were a quarter mile away, the Taliban, he said, about twice that distance. Some 70-80 yards away was another large compound, inside which four families lived in separate houses. Haji Salaam was in one of them with two of his brothers and their wives and children. When he sensed the fighting getting close he told everyone to stay inside. Out of nowhere, Abdul Ahad felt the thump of two almost simultaneous explosions. But the airstrikes hadn't hit the compound from which the Taliban were firing. They'd struck Haji Salaam's house, where he and his family had been sheltering, and it was now engulfed in a cloud of smoke and dust. Ahad waited until the fighting finished and then made his way quickly across the field to his neighbor's compound. The outer walls were still intact but once inside he saw that at least one of the houses had been completely levelled. Afghan and American soldiers arrived in more than a dozen armoured vehicles within minutes, as did other neighbors. Haji Salaam had survived. "When they came to the house," he says, "they claimed there was Taliban in the house firing at us. I told them we are not Taliban, we are all civilians."The Americans and their Afghan counterparts stayed for almost an hour. Some helped while others stood guard in case of a Taliban ambush. By the time they'd left, 11 dead bodies had been pulled from the rubble. Seven of them were less than nine years of age. Five under the age of 15 were injured but survived. According to the DOD report, no one was injured in the strike, and only one civilian was killed. Read 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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| Florida inmate says beating by guards left her paralyzed Posted: 05 Sep 2019 02:00 PM PDT  A female inmate at a Florida prison is suing the state corrections agency, saying she was left paralyzed after being beaten by four guards. Cheryl Weimar and her husband, Karl, said in their lawsuit that her civil rights were violated when she was nearly beaten to death by guards last month at the Lowell Correctional Institution in Ocala, Florida. Weimar was left with a broken neck and is now a paraplegic because of the guards' use of force, according to the lawsuit.
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| Cheerleader accused of killing newborn told her dad 'I tried to cremate the baby' Posted: 06 Sep 2019 01:27 PM PDT  Skylar Richardson is charged with aggravated murder and involuntary manslaughter. She's accused of deliberately killing her baby and burying her.
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| Bill de Blasio: We've got to end the availability of assault weapons in this country Posted: 05 Sep 2019 06:04 PM PDT  Democratic presidential candidate and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio takes on gun control, discusses his campaign plans on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight.'
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| Business class passenger racially abuses Asian crew member and demands to be served by 'white girl', court hears Posted: 06 Sep 2019 09:47 AM PDT  An IT consultant racially abused a female British Airways cabin crew member and demanded he be served only by a "white girl," a court has heard.Peter Nelson, 46, became irate after being woken up by Sima Patel-Pryke while flying business class from London's Heathrow to Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil, jurors were told.
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| A US Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt accidentally fired off a rocket over Arizona Posted: 06 Sep 2019 07:08 AM PDT  It happened again. This is the second time this year an A-10 has unintentionally released munitions in an area where it shouldn't have.
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| UPDATE 1-Lebanon's Aoun warns Israel would bear results of any attack Posted: 06 Sep 2019 03:51 AM PDT ![UPDATE 1-Lebanon's Aoun warns Israel would bear results of any attack]( "UPDATE 1-Lebanon's Aoun warns Israel would bear results of any attack") Lebanon's President Michel Aoun warned on Friday that Israel would bear the consequences of any attack, days after a flare-up at the border between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah. The frontier between the two countries has remained calm since Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah traded fire on Sunday. Israel's military said it had responded with fire into south Lebanon after anti-tank missiles targeted an army base and vehicles.
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| CDC Warns against Vaping after Third Recorded Death from Mystery Illness Posted: 06 Sep 2019 11:22 AM PDT  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday warned against using e-cigarettes, amid 450 potential cases of a mysterious lung ailment related to vaping, which has now claimed three lives."While the investigation is ongoing, the CDC has advised that individuals consider not using e-cigarettes because as of now, this is the primary means of preventing lung disease," said Dr. Dana Meaney-Delman, a CDC incident manager. "We believe that a chemical exposure is likely associated with these illnesses, but more information is needed."The cause of the mysterious ailment is still unclear, but federal and New York state officials have found a possible link to products containing THC, a compound found in marijuana, which often also contain Vitamin E acetate, an oil that can be harmful if inhaled."No one substance or compound, including Vitamin E, has been identified in all samples tested," said Mitch Zeller, the deputy director of the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products.Indiana health commissioner Kris Box warned Friday that the deadly products sometimes come from somewhere other than the commercial market."We know that these products typically contain nicotine, which is highly addictive, and many cases report inhaling THC and other substances not available in commercial products," Box said in a statement. "While it is unclear what substances are causing injury, when you use these products with other chemicals, you may not know everything that you're inhaling and the harm it can cause."The New York State Department of Health said that Vitamin E acetate was found in marijuana-vaping products used by New Yorkers who contracted the mysterious illness in the past few weeks."Vitamin E acetate is not an approved additive for New York State Medical Marijuana Program-authorized vape products," the Department said.
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| French first lady is 'truly ugly,' says Brazilian minister Posted: 05 Sep 2019 07:16 PM PDT  A Brazilian government minister said French first lady Brigitte Macron was "truly ugly" Thursday, only days after the country's president appeared to endorse an attack on her appearance. Brazil's economy minister Paulo Guedes said he agreed with President Jair Bolsonaro's comments about Macron's looks. Bolsonaro garnered criticism last week when he appeared to agree with a Facebook post that implied French President Emmanuel Macron's wife was not as attractive as his own wife Michele Bolsonaro.
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| China slams Canada after Trudeau criticizes detentions Posted: 06 Sep 2019 05:18 AM PDT  China accused Canada of not abiding by international norms Friday in response to comments from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who accused Beijing of arbitrarily detaining two Canadians. Trudeau's remarks are "purely unfounded countercharges that confound black and white," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said. Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou — Chinese telecom giant Huawei's chief financial officer and the daughter of its founder — on Dec. 1 at the request of the U.S, where she is wanted on fraud charges.
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| Arrests of Straight Pride Parade counter protesters in Boston turns into courtroom battle Posted: 05 Sep 2019 06:07 PM PDT  The Boston DA's decision to drop charges against left-wing protesters arrested at a Straight Pride Parade has turned into a courtroom fight.
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