| Vanessa Guillen: Woman charged over missing soldier 'killed with hammer' Posted: 02 Jul 2020 10:15 PM PDT  Cecily Aguilar is accused of helping to dismember and bury the body of a missing Fort Hood soldier.
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| Judge blocks Portland police from using physical force against journalists Posted: 03 Jul 2020 05:49 AM PDT  As protests originally sparked by the death of George Floyd continue in Portland, Oregon, a US District Court has issued a two-week restraining order barring the Portland Police Bureau from arresting journalists and legal observers or using force against them.The order comes after the police arrested journalists who were covering a protest on Tuesday. One of them, Lesley McLam, was taken into custody.
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| Five ways Hong Kong has changed under China's security law Posted: 03 Jul 2020 07:51 PM PDT  Beijing's new national security law for Hong Kong is the most radical shift in how the semi-autonomous city is run since it was handed back to China by Britain in 1997. China's authoritarian leaders say the powers will restore stability after a year of pro-democracy protests and will not stifle freedoms. A key pillar of Hong Kong's success has been an independent judiciary, insulated from mainland China's party-controlled courts and their conviction rates of around 99 percent.
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| Why U.S. F-35s, Stealth Bombers and Attack Drones Could Fail in a War Posted: 04 Jul 2020 01:00 AM PDT  Fighter jets, stealth bombers, attack drones and air-traveling missiles all need to "operate at speed" in a fast-changing great power conflict era. What that means is that "sensor to shooter" time (how fast data can go from a sensor to a war-fighter) needs to be drastically sped up. Without that speed, warfighters won't be able to react as quickly to threats and it will be harder to win.
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| 'How the hell are we going to do this?' The panic over reopening schools Posted: 04 Jul 2020 04:00 AM PDT  The CDC issued additional guidance this week on safely reopening schools, with infections spiking in the South and West.
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| Copenhagen's Little Mermaid labelled 'racist fish' Posted: 03 Jul 2020 03:24 AM PDT  Denmark woke up on Friday to the words "racist fish" scrawled across the base of the "Little Mermaid", the bronze statue honouring Hans Christian Andersen's famous fairy tale that perches on a rock in the sea off a pier in Copenhagen. "We consider it vandalism and have started an investigation," a spokesman for the Copenhagen police said. Protesters of the Black Lives Matter movement around the world have in recent months rallied against statues of historical figures who played a role in racist oppression, such as slave traders and colonialists.
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| The Science Behind Your Favorite Fireworks Posted: 04 Jul 2020 10:00 AM PDT |
| Concern over coronavirus mars Trump's Mount Rushmore trip Posted: 03 Jul 2020 08:23 AM PDT  President Trump will visit Mount Rushmore in South Dakota for a Fourth of July celebration, despite controversy about large crowd gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic.
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| Looking for a face shield? What to know and where to buy them Posted: 04 Jul 2020 09:23 AM PDT  Face shields are rising in popularity amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Here's everything you need to know and where to buy face shields.
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| Jeffrey Epstein ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell charged in US Posted: 03 Jul 2020 04:44 AM PDT  She is accused of grooming underage girls for the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and lying about it.
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| 5 Americans who flew by private jet to Italy were reportedly denied entry due to the EU ban on visitors from countries with high coronavirus infection rates Posted: 04 Jul 2020 04:47 AM PDT  Officials on the island of Sardinia expressed frustration at having to exclude the US travellers after their long flight, said reports.
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| It Would Cost Trillions: The Day North Korea Collapses Posted: 03 Jul 2020 02:30 AM PDT  The prospect of a peaceful Korean Unification, however remote it seems, would be a historical event worth planning for. While preparing for the worst, we should hope for the best. Hoping for the best means there is a scenario where North Korea's collapse and regime change occur miraculously, opening doors to South Korea and the West to take over North Korea in what one hopes would be a peaceful absorption. As unlikely as this sounds, it is important to remember that it is not without historical precedent.
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| Myanmar leader blames joblessness for deadly mining tragedy Posted: 03 Jul 2020 01:58 AM PDT  Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi expressed sadness Friday over a landslide at a jade mining site in the country's north that took at least 172 lives, blaming the tragedy on joblessness. Suu Kyi, speaking on a scheduled Facebook Live broadcast with representatives of the construction industry, bemoaned what she described as the need for people to illegally sift for jade because they lacked other ways of making a living. The Myanmar Fire Services Department, which coordinates rescue and emergency services, announced Friday that there were 172 deaths from the accident, an increase of 10 over Thursday's total.
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| Thomas Jefferson alongside Black great-grandson holds 'a mirror' to U.S. Posted: 04 Jul 2020 02:37 PM PDT  Shannon LaNier, a TV host in Houston, is pictured in a photo in Smithsonian Magazine alongside his direct ancestor, Thomas Jefferson.
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| Ethiopian pop star's murder reveals political rifts Posted: 03 Jul 2020 05:41 PM PDT  Firaol Ajema and his friends, dressed in black T-shirts, have been meeting each afternoon in recent days to listen to the music of Ethiopian pop star Hachalu Hundessa. The homemade shirts bearing the dead singer's portrait and the slogan "I am also Hachalu" are their way of honouring the man whose murder Monday sparked violence that killed nearly 100 and highlighted Ethiopia's simmering ethnic tensions. "We haven't been able to properly mourn," said Firaol, a university student in the town of Legetafo outside Addis Ababa, where security has been tight since the killing.
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| Rocket Lab vehicle fails to reach orbit, loses payload of satellites Posted: 04 Jul 2020 03:39 PM PDT |
| For nearly 160 years, St. George has been known as Utah's 'Dixie.' The name is all over the city. Is it time to change? Posted: 02 Jul 2020 10:48 PM PDT  The word "Dixie" is everywhere in St. George, Utah. The controversy over its Confederate ties is back in the public eye — but it's not a new debate.
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| Rideau Hall: Canadian Armed Forces member arrested after breaching official residence Posted: 03 Jul 2020 05:34 AM PDT  Justin Trudeau lives on the estate but was not home when a Canada armed forces member entered the gates.
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| 'A dereliction of duty': Former CIA director says Trump has gone 'Awol' in handling of coronavirus Posted: 03 Jul 2020 04:46 PM PDT  Donald Trump has gone "Awol" in his leadership of the US through the coronavirus pandemic, former CIA Director and Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has said in a scathing attack on the president."This president has essentially gone Awol from the job of leadership that he should be providing a country in trouble," Mr Panneta told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Wednesday, branding the situation a "major crisis".
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| Biden narrows list of vice presidential contenders Posted: 03 Jul 2020 09:09 AM PDT  Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden has narrowed his reported list of vice presidential contenders, with several black women in contention; Jacqui Heinrich reports on the latest.
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| Michael Cohen may have violated the terms of his prison release by eating out at a restaurant in Manhattan Posted: 04 Jul 2020 06:50 AM PDT  The New York Post obtained photos showing Cohen, Trump's former lawyer, eating out with his wife and another couple in Manhattan Thursday night.
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| Russia Has a Nuclear Missile That Can Kill Nearly Anything on the Planet Posted: 04 Jul 2020 07:00 AM PDT  How? Think range.
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| Scientists are studying poop to understand how COVID-19 spreads Posted: 03 Jul 2020 02:53 AM PDT  "One of the very few positive things that could come out of COVID-19 is that we recognize that there is data within our wastewater," said one researcher.
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| Florida breaks record with 11,458 new virus cases. Miami-Dade and Broward hit highs, too Posted: 04 Jul 2020 08:33 AM PDT  Saturday's update on new confirmed COVID-19 cases from the Florida Department of Health reflected the state, Miami-Dade and Broward record new single-day highs, rocketing past previous peaks.
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| Explainer: Strike capability, other military options on table after Japan's Aegis U-Turn Posted: 02 Jul 2020 07:14 PM PDT  Japan's decision to scrap two Aegis Ashore ballistic missile defence systems means it must find other ways to defend a 3,000-kilometre archipelago along Asia's eastern edge. In a surprise decision, defence minister Taro Kono recently halted the 2025 deployment of Aegis Ashore because booster rockets used to accelerate SM-3 Block IIA interceptor missiles might fall on communities in northern Akita and southern Yamaguchi prefectures. The expense of Aegis Ashore project also affected Kono's decision.
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| Black family sues Hilton after white clerk calls police over hotel's own billing mistake Posted: 03 Jul 2020 01:02 AM PDT  A billing mistake by the hotel results in a dispute that led to police being called to the Hampton Inn. Now the guests are suing.
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| Trump has a plan to stay in the White House if he loses election, former senator says Posted: 03 Jul 2020 09:21 AM PDT  President Donald Trump is scheming to retain power in the event of an electoral loss in November, according to a former Senator from Colorado.Tim Wirth published an op-ed in Newsweek where he lays out his theory, apparently inspired in-part by HBO's adaptation of the Philip Roth novel The Plot Against America.
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| Locals remain anxious amid India-China border stand-off Posted: 03 Jul 2020 12:46 AM PDT  Even as tensions are rising, locals along the border are worried their land is at stake.
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| There is no epidemic of fatal police shootings against unarmed Black Americans Posted: 03 Jul 2020 12:15 AM PDT  Ideally officers would never need to take anyone's life. But the data on police killings doesn't support reducing or abolishing law enforcement.
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| COVID-19 should make us give Andrew Yang’s ‘get $1,000 every month’ a second look | Opinion Posted: 03 Jul 2020 02:31 PM PDT  On a bitter cold spring night 14 months ago, back in a more magical time when all things seemed possible in the 2020 president race, I stood on the steps leading down to Washington's great Reflecting Pool waiting to hear from the most unlikely and arguably intriguing Democrat of all, the businessman and political neophyte Andrew Yang.
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| Dozens mourn man who killed himself in busy Beirut district Posted: 03 Jul 2020 09:18 AM PDT  Dozens of people lay flowers on a main Beirut street where a man killed himself on Friday, with some blaming his death on the country's economic collapse that has left more and more Lebanese hungry. Reuters could not establish the motive for the apparent suicide. The 61-year-old man shot himself in the head in front of a Dunkin' Donuts store in the capital's busy Hamra district, witnesses said.
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| Religious leaders to invoke Frederick Douglass on July 4th Posted: 03 Jul 2020 01:47 PM PDT  About 150 preachers, rabbis and imams are promising to invoke Black abolitionist Frederick Douglass on July 4th as they call for the U.S. to tackle racism and poverty. The religious leaders are scheduled this weekend to frame their sermons around "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July" on the 168th anniversary of that speech by Douglass. The former slave gave his speech at an Independence Day celebration on July 5, 1852, in Rochester, New York.
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| Suicide attempts, fights aboard rescue boat carrying 180 migrants Posted: 03 Jul 2020 05:01 PM PDT  After suicide attempts, fights erupting on board, and migrants jumping into the sea, charity SOS Mediterranee launched an emergency alert on Friday, demanding to be allowed to immediately disembark at a safe port. The humanitarian group, whose vessel the Ocean Viking has been at sea for over a week with 180 migrants aboard, said it could no longer guarantee the safety of the migrants or crew and called a state of emergency in an unprecedented step. The boat, which has been in limbo in the Mediterranean south of Sicily, has been waiting for over a week for permission from Italy or Malta to offload the migrants at a safe port.
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| Gov. Huckabee on Trump’s re-election strategy: President will face some challenges Posted: 03 Jul 2020 07:25 AM PDT  Former Arkansas governor and Fox News contributor Mike Huckabee says Trump has 'enough time to remind people the worst thing they can do is vote for Biden' on 'America's Newsroom.'
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| Somalia restaurant attack: Six killed by al-Shabab Posted: 04 Jul 2020 07:24 AM PDT  Militant group al-Shabab said it carried out the bomb explosion in the town of Baidoa.
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| CNN reporter mugged at knifepoint live on air in Brazil Posted: 03 Jul 2020 01:31 AM PDT  A CNN journalist was mugged at knifepoint during a live broadcast in Brazil.Bruna Macedo and her team had set up near the Bandeiras Bridge in Sao Paulo on Saturday to report on rising water levels in the Tete River due to heavy rain.
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| Iran's Military Is Armed to the Teeth with Lots of Missiles Posted: 04 Jul 2020 06:30 AM PDT  And it has built the region's largest missile force.
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| Alleged email scammer who flaunted wealth on Instagram to face charges Posted: 03 Jul 2020 12:18 PM PDT  Ramon Olorunwa Abbas routinely posted about luxury cars, private jets and globe trotting with celebrities to his 2.4 million followers.
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| Vatican's new financial regulator vows transparency Posted: 03 Jul 2020 03:27 AM PDT  The Vatican's new financial regulator says he is confident that the days when the Holy See would "wash dirty laundry" in private are over and that Pope Francis' recent spending rules are a sea change in transparency. In an interview with Reuters, Carmelo Barbagallo, the head of the Vatican's Financial Information Authority (AIF), cited two recent scandals that were revealed by the Vatican and not by the media. The first was a shady deal to buy a London property as an investment - a still-evolving case that exploded last year - followed by a Vatican police raid this week on a department suspected of irregular contract bidding.
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| If you're traveling, be aware of coronavirus-related restrictions in 17 states — this map shows the rules Posted: 03 Jul 2020 09:28 AM PDT  Here's a guide to which states require a 14-day quarantine or negative COVID-19 test for travelers, and which have reopened tourist attractions.
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| Texas Gov. Moves to Stop COVID-19 but It’s Already Out of Control Posted: 03 Jul 2020 12:54 AM PDT  Democratic officials angry at Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's handling of surging coronavirus numbers in the state this week had one lackluster place to voice their frustrations about the rapidly escalating public health crisis killing their constituents: a Zoom press conference."While some states followed the advice of public health experts, Texas did not," Dallas-area State Rep. Toni Rose said from a webcam on Wednesday, a photograph of the Texas Capitol superimposed behind her. It was certainly not the first time Democrats in the state had inveighed against a pandemic approach criticized by some as too reckless, and followed months of power struggles between local and state leaders in Texas over lockdowns, masks, and more.But the politics of the COVID-19 situation in the state—Democrats yelling into the void, at least until Gov. Greg Abbott ordered mask use in hot zones across the state Thursday—had already given way to hard numbers, not just of cases, but also of hospitalizations, with the state's medical system suddenly under pressure that seemed unthinkable even a few weeks ago."If rates [of infection] continue to increase 50 percent week over week, you can only do that for so long," said Dr. David Lakey, vice chancellor for health affairs and chief medical officer at the University of Texas system and a member of the Texas Medical Association COVID-19 Task Force.He added that chief medical officers across the state, at least this week, are "really busy, but they're managing it." The fear, he explained, is what next week, or the week after, will look like. And while beds, ventilators, and ICU rooms are holding up overall so far, "they're starting to see some challenges in staff," like respiratory therapists and nurses. As those challenges rise with the climbing hospitalizations, staffers have gotten sick or been forced to quarantine after exposures. And the numbers are getting more ominous. Texas broke another record for daily new cases on Tuesday, at 8,076 infections, according to state data. The previous record, on Monday, was 6,975. Days earlier, the record was 5,996. On June 16, the state broke the 4,000-mark for the first time.As Democratic State Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, who represents San Antonio, said during the press conference, Gov. Greg Abbott "gambled" with Texas lives with an aggressive reopening, and "we have lost."After a slew of mayors and judges tried to drag their feet on the governor's swift reopening plan earlier this spring, the state's attorney general sent letters to leaders in Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio warning that rules stricter than the state's might be met with legal action. As the surges worsened across the state, though, Abbott gave his tacit consent for local officials to impose masking requirements on businesses, and urged individual Texans to mask up. 'If People Die, People Die': Texas COVID Hot Spots Keep Getting WorseThis week, Abbott went much further, shutting down bars statewide and suspending elective medical procedures in eight counties. Bar owners who previously said they supported Abbott's reopening turned against the governor, with some protesting in front of the state Capitol holding signs that read "Bar Lives Matter." And on Thursday, Abbott made a remarkable turnaround, ordering residents to wear face masks in all counties with at least 20 COVID-19 cases, and empowering local authorities to break up gatherings of more than 10 people.But conversations with health experts and medical professionals in the state suggested the emerging crisis at medical facilities in Texas was already deeply advanced.Texas Medical Center, the world's largest medical complex, indicated last Thursday that its base intensive care capacity hit 100 percent and that it was "on pace to exceed an 'unsustainable surge capacity' of intensive care beds by July 6," The Houston Chronicle reported this week. Last week, the Texas Children's Hospital in Houston began admitting adult patients because of the surge, according to the paper. Internal communications at Houston hospitals revealed a lack of space and therapeutic drugs as the region's medical facilities worked to treat more than 3,000 COVID-19 patients, including about 800 in intensive care, NBC News and Propublica reported Wednesday.Meanwhile, as of Tuesday, about 75 percent of Tarrant County's intensive care unit beds were occupied, The Fort Worth Star-Telegram first reported.At recent hospitalization growth rates, facilities in Tarrant and Dallas counties could reach their surge capacities in as few as four weeks, according to Rajesh Nandy, an associate professor of biostatistics and epidemiology in the University of North Texas's School of Public Health."The simplest way to look at is this: Let's say the trend doesn't change, and hospital capacity stays the same as it is currently. Under those assumptions, it would be two to three weeks before they're operating at max capacity," Nandy, whose team has studied local and national COVID-19 data since the pandemic began, told The Daily Beast on Wednesday. "It probably would be three to four weeks when we'd be overloaded even with surge capacities. At that point, we'd have to consider creating new facilities at convention centers."Despite those warnings, Dallas-area hospitals have repeatedly said they don't need to prepare a pop-up facility at a nearby convention center, with the chair of the Texas Medical Associations' board of trustees telling the newspaper that there are "a number of safety valves that could be pushed."Still, said Nandy: "Our health-care system will be overwhelmed if it continues like this."And ragged, frustrated medical providers all over the state have said they're anxious about the days to come."We are in an entirely different place now than what we were just four weeks ago," said Dr. Pritesh Gandhi, an Austin-based primary care doctor and the associate chief medical officer at People's Community Clinic, which serves uninsured and underinsured Central Texans. "In the last few days, our clinic has seen three or four times as many patients for drive-through testing than we had weeks ago, and it's reflective of massive community spread." Gandhi, a Democratic candidate for Texas' 10th Congressional District, called the medical community's efforts to provide care for Texans during the past month of surges "extraordinarily challenging" and said it has been "complicated by failures at both the federal and state level.""We're testing more, having more positives, having more symptomatic patients, doing more drive-through testing," Gandhi told The Daily Beast on Wednesday. "Staff are getting sick, just like anywhere else."Gandhi, and the group of Democratic state representatives who held the press conference, decried an undercurrent of "science denialism" and "hostility towards public health" perhaps best embodied by an interview Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick gave to Fox News hours earlier. He said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease expert in the country—and the face of the federal response to the pandemic—was "wrong every time on every issue.""He doesn't know what he's talking about!" Patrick told Fox News on Tuesday evening. "I don't need his advice anymore."Dr. Lakey—a former commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services who was appointed by former Texas Gov. Rick Perry—was more forgiving of Abbott than others in the state. He said he doesn't envy those, like the governor, who've had to navigate the middle ground between complete statewide shutdowns and complete light-switch openings."It's a very fraught time in public health," said Lakey. "No one has a crystal ball. There's no perfect plan.""You make your plan, and then you have to be ready to adjust your plan," said Lakey. "That's not a sign of failure, it's a sign that you're looking at the data and trying to make the best decision."But both Rose and Rep. Donna Howard, who represents Austin, said their constituents would likely benefit from a second statewide shutdown, and that Abbott's decisions had been deeply damaging. Martinez-Fischer emphasized that stay-at-home orders were a tool that should never have been taken out of local hands."We know that it worked before," said Howard. "That contained the spread before. We have to do what we have to do here, and unfortunately shutting down may be our only option."Whether or not that's true, it remains unclear if Abbott would do it, as he's said "closing down Texas again will always be the last option." Then again, many public health experts question whether it would be necessary.As Lakey noted: It's no longer March. Those trying to battle the crisis in Texas have the benefit of months of nationwide observation, studies about intubation, clinical trials, and promising therapeutic treatments like Remdesivir. And the mask order could help turn the tide."We have learned from that experience and are bringing those lessons to the response," said Lakey. Still, he and others point to the myriad unknowns in the coming days, from July 4 weekend celebrations to college students possibly returning to campuses in just a few weeks.As Gandhi said on Wednesday, "We're angry and we're exhausted because of the incompetence." "It didn't have to be like this."Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Virus spike in Spain reveals plight of seasonal farm workers Posted: 04 Jul 2020 02:35 AM PDT  In the 20 years since he left his native Senegal, Biram Fall has never slept in the streets. This week, when he ran out of savings after failing to find work in northern Spain's peach orchards, he still refused to do so. As part of an army of cheap labor that follows the ripening of different crops across the country, the 52-year-old responded in May to an urgent call for workers in Lleida, a major gateway to surrounding fertile farmland.
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| Planeload of Kalashnikovs sends warning to world over Ethiopia's massive new dam Posted: 04 Jul 2020 05:29 AM PDT  The plane from Egypt packed with a cache of weapons was meant to arrive in Somalia in May. But the two thousand Kalashnikovs, rocket launchers, sniper rifles, pistols and mortars never touched down. They were stopped, a senior Somali official told The Sunday Telegraph, because of fears in Mogadishu of Somalia being publicly drawn into a growing row between two of Africa's superpowers. Egypt has been the dominant power on the Nile for thousands of years. But the balance of power is about to shift far upstream. In the next few weeks, when the rainy season arrives, Ethiopia will start to fill up a vast reservoir with the waters of the Blue Nile, one of the great river's two main tributaries. One of Africa's largest infrastructure projects will effectively give Ethiopia the power to turn off the taps in Egypt - and could force neighbouring countries to pick a side. For nearly a decade, Ethiopia has been constructing a one-mile-long wall of cement almost twice the height of the Statue of Liberty. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, as it is known, straddles the Blue Nile, only a few miles from the border with Sudan.
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| Nagaland dog meat: Animal rights groups hail ban as 'major turning point' Posted: 03 Jul 2020 06:20 PM PDT  Animal rights groups say a ban on the sale of dog meat in Nagaland is a milestone.
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| Iran: A Budding Drone Superpower? You Decide. Posted: 04 Jul 2020 09:27 AM PDT  The Iranian Defense Ministry announced that it has acquired three new drones that are capable of flying almost 1,000 miles and from an altitude of up to 45,000 feet
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