| Kamala Harris Stumbles at Second Democratic Debate Posted: 01 Aug 2019 07:37 AM PDT  There were only two candidates on stage at Wednesday night's Democratic debate who really mattered: Joe Biden, the front-runner, and Kamala Harris, who'd skewered Biden in the first debate and was polling within striking distance in some early states. No one else on stage was hitting 2 percent in the national polling average. With that in mind, the takeaway is clear: Harris lost, and Biden won.Harris's troubles began with her lackluster opening statement, a recitation of some lines from her stump speech on the theme that "we are better than this." Her worst moments occurred shortly thereafter, during the debate over health care, which revealed her substantive weakness on the policy issue dominating the Democratic primary.Biden landed some solid blows against Harris's health-care plan by pointing out that it doesn't take effect for ten years, would cost $30 trillion over a decade once implemented, would eventually abolish employer-based insurance, and would require "middle-class taxes to go up, not down.""Anytime someone tells you you're going to get something good in ten years, you should wonder why it takes ten years," Biden said. "This is the single most important issue facing the public. And to be very blunt and to be very straightforward, you can't beat President Trump with double-talk on this plan."And "double-talk" is what Harris ultimately engaged in when discussing the cost of her plan.Colorado senator Michael Bennet also pointed out that Harris's plan abolishes employer-based insurance and costs $30 trillion, adding that this price tag equals 70 percent of all federal revenues over the next decade. "We cannot keep with the Republican talking points on this," Harris responded.Biden claimed his own plan establishing a "public option" would cost $750 billion (one-fortieth the cost of Medicare for All), limit co-pays to $1,000, and cap out-of-pocket health-care expenditures at 8.5 percent of income."$30 trillion has to ultimately be paid," Biden said. "I don't know what math you do in California, but I tell ya, that's a lot of money, and there will be a deductible. The deductible will be out of your paycheck, because that's what will be required.""Let's talk about math!" Harris replied. "Let's talk about the fact that the pharmaceutical companies and the insurance companies last year alone profited $72 billion, and that is on the backs of American families." What Harris didn't note is that if every dollar of that $72 billion were confiscated, it would pay for about 2.4 percent of one year of her plan. That's probably why she began denouncing Biden's plan as "immoral" for failing to sufficiently rein in insurance companies, rather than actually talk about math.Harris deftly attacked Biden on the issue of busing during the first debate, but the issue didn't work for her on Wednesday."Vice President Biden says that your current position on busing, you're opposed to federally mandated busing, that that position is the same as his position. Is he right?" CNN moderator Jake Tapper asked."That is simply false," Harris said. But Harris failed to explain how her position on busing differs from Biden's position today — something she has been struggling to do for the past month — and instead said that she would have voted differently back in the 1970s.Biden did something smart during his rebuttal: Rather than relitigate the 1970s, he pivoted to an attack on Harris's record in California. He criticized her for failing to bring any cases as California attorney general to desegregate the San Francisco and Los Angeles public schools, and he went after Harris for failing to provide potentially exculpatory evidence to prisoners that ultimately resulted in 1,000 of them being freed. "If you doubt me, Google 1,000 prisoners freed, Kamala Harris," Biden said.The Sacramento Bee reports: "Biden alluded to a crime lab scandal that involved her office and resulted in more than 1,000 drug cases being dismissed. [Representative Tulsi] Gabbard claimed Harris 'blocked evidence that would have freed an innocent man from death row until she was forced to do so.' Both of these statements are accurate."Biden also appeared, in contrast to his first-debate performance, lucid and sharp when debating Cory Booker on the issue of criminal justice and Julián Castro on the issue of immigration."I have guts enough to say his plan doesn't make sense," Biden said of Castro's plan to decriminalize illegal entry into the United States, a policy backed by most other Democratic candidates. "When people cross the border illegally, it is illegal to do it unless they're seeking asylum. People should have to get in line. That's the problem. And the only reason this particular part of the law is being abused is because of Donald Trump. We should defeat Donald Trump and end this practice."Biden did have a few moments of weakness. He refused to say whether he'd advised President Obama to stop deportations -- "I keep my recommendation to him in private" — but later touted his private recommendation to Obama against the troop surge in Afghanistan. And just when it looked like Biden was in the clear, he appeared to struggle to read a teleprompter or cue card when he haltingly concluded his closing remarks by telling debate watchers to "go to joe-3-0-3-3-0 and help me in this fight." There was no joe30330.com website to visit. Biden had apparently garbled a message about texting "joe" to the number 30330.But all in all, it was a good night for the septuagenarian front-runner. Whether he can keep it up when all of his serious rivals — Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Kamala Harris — are on the same stage is a question to be answered at the next debate, in September.
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| The Latest: 2nd of 2 Arkansas jail fugitives captured Posted: 01 Aug 2019 06:57 PM PDT  Authorities say they've captured the second fugitive from a central Arkansas jail, a day after he and a fellow inmate were noticed to be missing. U.S. Marshals spokesman Kevin Sanders said marshals and Arkansas State Police suspected Christopher Sanderson was hiding in the Ozark National Forest near Pelsor. Sanders says the 34-year-old fugitive was severely dehydrated and was taken to a hospital for treatment.
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| Indonesia lifts tsunami warning after powerful quake off Java Posted: 02 Aug 2019 08:14 AM PDT  Indonesian authorities lifted a tsunami warning late Friday after a powerful earthquake earlier struck off the southern coast of heavily populated Java island. The USGS initially put the quake's magnitude at 6.8 and at a shallower depth before raising its intensity. Indonesia's disaster agency pegged the quake at magnitude 7.4 and warned it could spark a tsunami as high as three metres (10 feet).
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| A Texas police officer accidentally killed a woman while shooting at her dog Posted: 02 Aug 2019 07:05 AM PDT  Police in Texas say a patrol officer accidentally shot and killed a woman when he fired repeatedly at a dog that was charging at him.
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| Man opens fire in national park ‘because he thought he saw Bigfoot’ Posted: 01 Aug 2019 01:21 AM PDT  A gun-wielding camper has opened fire in an American national park – because he says he saw Bigfoot.The man, who has not been named, offloaded several rounds at Mammoth Cave, in Kentucky, after telling other overnight visitors the half-man-half-ape had lunged at him.Park rangers have since said they had found no evidence Bigfoot was there – but are investigating the fact a firearm was fired.Madelyn Durand and Brad Ginn, who reported the incident, said the shooter had woken them at 11pm on Sunday by shining a flashlight in their tent."We got out and saw a man [and his son] who told us their campsite had been destroyed by someone or something," said Ms Durand, 22. "We heard them coming back about 10 minutes later. We heard them yelling 'I see it'."We saw the flash from his gun, and he shot maybe 20 yards from the side of our tent into the pitch-black darkness."Asked if she was scared, the Western Kentucky University student told CNN: "I was mostly just concerned about him shooting the gun in the middle of the night without him really seeing anything."The couple called 911 and decided to hike the five miles back to their car without staying the night, she added.It is unclear what happened to the shooter but park spokeswoman Molly Schroer said rangers knew who he was and that no threat remained in the area.Although US laws prohibit the discharge of firearms in national parks, she said no charges had been brought as yet.The incident comes just eight months after a Montana man reported being shot at in a forest by a gunman who then told him he had mistaken him for Bigfoot. The legendary creature, also known as Sasquatch, is more commonly associated with America's Pacific Northwest region but sightings have been reported all over the country.
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| Trump Gets His Wall at Last, But It’s in Zimbabwe Posted: 01 Aug 2019 07:28 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Frustrated by Democrats from fulfilling a campaign pledge to build a wall along the southern U.S. border, Donald Trump is getting his way regardless. The only downside for the president is that this wall is in southern Africa.The U.S. is putting up $475,000 to help restore the stone walls at Great Zimbabwe, a fortress that dates back to the 11th century and which gave the country its name. Much of the funding will go toward keeping out an unwanted intruder from the West Indies known as the lantana camara weed that's threatening the structure. The walls are some 11 meters (36 feet) in height.The project will involve restoration of the stone walls, monitoring of their movement and combating the invasive weed, said Lovemore Nyandima, a regional director for the Great Zimbabwe Museum. A system to detect any shifts in the walls will be put in place in August or September and an expert in the control of lantana camara will make an assessment, he said."All this is funded under the fund from the U.S. ambassador," he said. The project falls under the U.S. Ambassadors' Fund for Cultural Preservation. The U.S. embassy in Harare had no immediate comment beyond a release announcing the grant.Great Zimbabwe was the capital of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe, which ruled over ancestors of the modern day Shona ethnic group, and is the biggest of about 100 stone ruins known as MadZimbabwe that are found in the country as part of wide trading area. Zimbabwe means house of stone.(Adds trade in last paragraph.)To contact the reporters on this story: Antony Sguazzin in Johannesburg at asguazzin@bloomberg.net;Godfrey Marawanyika in Harare at gmarawanyika@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Alan Crawford at acrawford6@bloomberg.net, ;John McCorry at jmccorry@bloomberg.net, Karl MaierFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Iowa newlywed, 22, drowns on honeymoon during first-ever time in ocean, just 3 days after wedding Posted: 01 Aug 2019 08:45 AM PDT  A 22-year-old Iowa man tragically drowned Tuesday during his Floridahoneymoon, just three days after he and his bride said, "I do
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| India's top court to hear Ayodhya religious dispute on daily basis Posted: 02 Aug 2019 06:05 AM PDT  India's top court will hear arguments every day in an effort to resolve a decades-old dispute over what should be built on the ruins of a 16th-century mosque, Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said on Friday. The move strengthens hopes for eventual resolution of a quarrel at the center of fraught ties between India's majority Hindus and its Muslim community, which accounts for 14% of a population of 1.3 billion. Many devout Hindus believe the site in Ayodhya, in India's most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, to be the birthplace of one of their most revered deities, the Lord Ram.
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| Here's how the locked-down Saudi Arabia-Qatar border became one of the tensest places on earth, sparking outrageous plans to build a 37-mile-long canal and turn Qatar into an island Posted: 01 Aug 2019 03:02 AM PDT  In June 2017, Saudi Arabia turned the Gulf against Qatar, cutting it off, and accusing its leadership of backing Iran and terrorists.
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| A U.S.-North Korea War: How Kim Would Retailiate To an Attack by Trump Posted: 02 Aug 2019 12:24 AM PDT  As with conventional artillery, North Korea will also be forced to show restraint in the use of these systems. Survivability may be less of a challenge because of the predominance of mobile launcher systems, but unlike conventional artillery munitions, ballistic stockpiles are limited — as is the ability to replenish them, which would draw on significant resources. Every missile spent by North Korea in an immediate retaliation scenario will diminish the leverage it maintains immediately after the retaliation. Furthermore, the high potential for failed launches, as demonstrated by frequent unsuccessful missile tests across a variety of platforms, could further damage Pyongyang's ability to influence through its ballistic missile stockpile.North Korea is powerless to prevent a U.S. strike on its nuclear program, but retaliation is well within its means. The significant military capability that North Korea has built up against South Korea is not advanced by Western standards, but there are practical ways Pyongyang could respond to aggression.The North Korean military's most powerful tool is artillery. It cannot level Seoul as some reports have claimed, but it could do significant damage. Pyongyang risks deteriorating its forces by exposing them to return fire, however, which significantly restricts their use. Less conventional methods of retaliation, such as sabotage or cyber warfare, are less risky but also limit the shock that North Korea would desire.
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| Chief apologizes over hiring of officer who shot black man Posted: 01 Aug 2019 03:35 PM PDT  A Louisiana police chief apologized Thursday to his city and to the family of a black man shot and killed by a former police officer in 2016, saying the officer never should have been hired, at the same time his office announced a settlement reversing the officer's 2018 firing and allowing him to resign instead. At a news conference in Baton Rouge, Police Chief Murphy Paul and a police lawyer detailed repeated problems with Officer Blane Salamoni that they said should have raised red flags long before Alton Sterling was shot and killed. In particular, the lawyer, Leo Hamilton, said Salamoni had been arrested for a physical altercation prior to joining the police department, which normally would have prevented him from being hired.
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| CNN Analyst Blasts Kirsten Gillibrand’s ‘Craven’ and ‘Unfair’ Attack on Joe Biden During Debate Posted: 31 Jul 2019 10:07 PM PDT  CNN political analyst Kirsten Powers took aim at Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) late Wednesday for criticizing former Vice President Joe Biden over a position he held in the early 1980s during the latest Democratic presidential primary debate, calling the New York senator's attacks "craven."Asked about the gender pay gap, Gillibrand had pivoted to Biden and suggested the former vice president believes women shouldn't work outside the home by bringing up an op-ed he wrote in 1981 explaining his vote against a childcare tax credit. Biden, meanwhile, noted both his deceased first wife and current wife worked throughout their marriages while defending his vote. During CNN's post-game coverage, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo said he felt Gillibrand's attack missed its mark, questioning if she honestly believed that Biden "doesn't want women to work.""The attack seemed craven," Powers declared. "It was unfair. The idea, first of all, 1981? What did any of us think in 1981? Is that what we're really going back to. What's important is what does Joe Biden think today."She went on to say that we know what Biden currently thinks about women in the workforce because his wife has a PhD and works outside the home."To me, I felt like it was a swing and a miss," she stated, adding: "I feel like a lot of people are going to look at this and think, there are problems with Joe Biden, but like, this isn't fair."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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| Dubai sheikh posts cryptic poem as wife Princess Haya attends court for start of custody battle Posted: 31 Jul 2019 04:10 PM PDT  The ruler of Dubai published an online poem about "shining swords with sharp blades" on the day his estranged wife asked a British judge to make an arranged marriage protection order. The billionaire Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, 70, posted a verse online called "Swords of the Excellencies" as Princess Haya attended the High Courts of Justice in London for the start of their bitter legal battle over their two children She was seen in public for the first time on Tuesday after fleeing United Arab Emirates (UAE) with the youngsters earlier this year while apparently "in fear for her life". The vice-president and prime minister of the UAE has applied to the British courts for the "summary return" of his two children from Britain. On Tuesday afternoon - the first day of the preliminary hearing - Sir Andrew McFarlane, president of the Family Courts Division, allowed the media to report how the princess was applying for a "forced marriage protection order." The 45-year-old Jordanian princess is also asking seeking a non-molestation order, it emerged. As those details became public triggering headlines around the world, the sheikh, a self-proclaimed poet, posted his latest poem. The verse was uploaded at 4.06pm British time. Princess Haya bint Al-Hussein (R) and her husband Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum (L) arrive for the Epsom Derby Credit: Rex The sheikh has earlier published a poem which accused an unnamed woman of "treachery and betrayal". The verse, called 'Live or Die', includes the line: "You no longer have a place with me. I don't care if you live or die." However, in the latest poem released on Tuesday, it has locally been interpreted as an ode to the UAE's Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, or MBZ as he is known in the region. "He (his Excellency) has shining swords with sharp blades. In their sheaths, they can cut if drawn," he wrote on his official Instagram page. "For confronting and keeping away the enemies, he has many soldiers. He has protected heroes so that nobody will conspire against them." In Arabic, he appears to be speaking figuratively but it could be viewed as a veiled threat, possibly to regional enemies such as Iran or Qatar, with whom the UAE has had strained relations in recent years. Sheikh Maktoum suggests the UAE has not shown its true power and asks what would happen if this sword were ever to be used. The sheikh, thought to have more than 20 children by six wives, is known regularly to write poetry. Before he and his sixth wife split earlier this year, they were often photographed together with the Queen, a friendship cultivated from their shared passion for horses. The Queen greets Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Credit: AP As the founder of the Godolphin horse racing stable, the Sheikh this year received a trophy from the Queen after one of his horses won a race at Royal Ascot. The break up - likely to result in a £4 billion divorce battle - has become increasingly acrimonious in recent months. It is understood the Princess, the sheikh's youngest wife, flew on a private jet with her children to the UK in April. It is not known why she left, but speculation has focused on how two of the sheikh's children - Princess Shamsa and Princess Latifa - had tried unsuccessfully to flee the emirate. Full details about the orders applied for and the identities of the children discussed in the two-day preliminary hearing, which ended yesterday, cannot be reported for legal reasons. The trial is due to start properly in November.
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| Money row sparks deadly Nigeria jihadist infighting: sources Posted: 02 Aug 2019 02:57 AM PDT  A dispute over money within a Nigerian jihadist faction affiliated to the Islamic State group has spiralled into clashes that has killed "scores" of fighters, sources said. The infighting -- which erupted into gun battles on July 26 -- has exposed divisions inside the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) group, three sources with deep knowledge of the faction's internal workings told AFP. The disagreement centred on sharing income mainly generated by taxing cattle herders and fishermen in areas the jihadists control around Lake Chad, said the sources, who asked not to be identified for safety reasons.
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| Greg Gutfeld says Tulsi Gabbard 'Kamala-ed Kamala' at the Democratic presidential debate Posted: 01 Aug 2019 03:05 PM PDT  'The Five' co-host Greg Gutfeld on which presidential candidate stood out at the Democratic debate in Detroit.
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| Alaska boaters likely killed by falling glacier ice, officials say Posted: 01 Aug 2019 05:25 PM PDT  The bodies of three boaters from Europe who died in an Alaska lake were surrounded by frozen debris, a sign that the victims were killed by ice that fell from the melting glacier that feeds the lake, officials in the city of Valdez said on Thursday. The victims were identified by the city as two Germans and an Austrian and were found dead on Tuesday morning in Valdez Glacier Lake, about 120 miles (193 km) east of Anchorage. The victims were found in an area that "was littered with floating icebergs, glacial slush and challenging terrain for recovery," said a statement released by Valdez city officials.
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| The 20 Most Stolen Late-Model Cars, Trucks, and SUVs Posted: 01 Aug 2019 03:00 PM PDT ![The 20 Most Stolen Late-Model Cars, Trucks, and SUVs]( "The 20 Most Stolen Late-Model Cars, Trucks, and SUVs")
Powerful, big-engined vehicles top the list compiled by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. From Car and Driver
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| Trump Calls Hong Kong Protests ‘Riots,’ Adopting China Rhetoric Posted: 01 Aug 2019 11:30 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump labeled recent protests in Hong Kong as "riots," adopting the language used by Chinese authorities and suggesting the U.S. would stay out of an issue that was "between Hong Kong and China.""Something is probably happening with Hong Kong, because when you look at, you know, what's going on, they've had riots for a long period of time," Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday before departing for a campaign rally in Cincinnati.Trump said he didn't know what China's attitude was toward unrest in the former British colony, which is home to tens of thousands of Americans. "Somebody said that at some point they're going to want to stop that," Trump said. "But that's between Hong Kong and that's between China, because Hong Kong is a part of China."Trump's comments about the protests in Hong Kong could bolster the city's Beijing-backed government to crack down, despite the U.S. State Department's official efforts to defend protesters' freedom of expression. Protests erupted outside police stations earlier this week when the Hong Kong government charged 44 demonstrators with a colonial-era rioting statute that carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.The Global Times, a nationalistic newspaper published by China's Communist Party, signaled approval with an article headlined "Trump tells truth about HK riot." The ruling party has long used such allegations to justify using force against dissidents, dubbing the 1989 pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square a "counter-revolutionary riot.""The use of the term riot is a bit sensitive to the protesters," said Joseph Cheng, a retired political science professor who is involved in Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement. "More significant still, I think people will pay attention to the fact that he said this is something between China and Hong Kong. It appears to the Hong Kong people that the Hong Kong issue is not an important issue in the agenda of the president."Hong Kong protesters have so far largely enjoyed support from American officials and business groups. Activist Joshua Wong urged the president to reconsider his comments, tweeting an Aug. 1 letter from American lawmakers including Senators Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, and Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat, urging the White House to condemn Beijing's actions.Hong Kong has been stricken by weeks of escalating protests -- including crowds of more than 1 million people -- in response to Chief Executive Carrie Lam's now-suspended proposal to allow extraditions to mainland China. Protests have turned more violent as some demonstrators grow frustrated with the government's refusal to meet their demands, including the bill's formal withdrawal and the revival of plans for direct leadership elections.Here's What Hong Kong's Protesters Plan NextOn Friday, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo told Bloomberg TV's Haslinda Amin in Bangkok that the U.S. has urged China to "do the right thing" on Hong Kong. People should be free to express their views, he said, urging all sides to "proceed in a way that is not violent" and adding that violence was "not constructive" in trying to resolve the disputes.Pompeo didn't say what the U.S. might do if China decided to intervene militarily. "One thing this administration has been really good about is not tipping our hand to what we will or won't do," he replied, declining to comment further.Hong Kong's rioting law was passed by the U.K.-appointed government in 1967, when the city was in the depths of unrest driven by leftists sympathetic to the Communist Party. The law holds anyone who commits a "breach of the peace" while participating in a unlawful assembly liable for a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.China has recently sought to blame the U.S. for crimes committed by some protesters on the front lines of rallies, saying violence was the "creation of the U.S." and calling the country a "black hand" behind the demonstrations. Tying the U.S. to the unrest could serve several purposes for Beijing, including discrediting the protesters, rallying mainland sentiment against them and potentially justifying more direct intervention.China Says Hong Kong Protest Violence 'Is Creation of U.S.'After eight weeks of unrest -- and more anti-government protests planned for this weekend -- anxiety is growing that Beijing might call in the People's Liberation Army. China seems willing to at least feed the speculation with hints and signals, including the release of a video Wednesday showing troops practicing riot control.In his remarks, Trump signaled that he considered the issue China's internal matter to resolve. "They'll have to deal with that themselves. They don't need advice," he said.To contact the reporters on this story: Derek Wallbank in Singapore at dwallbank@bloomberg.net;Iain Marlow in Hong Kong at imarlow1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Karen LeighFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Police chief: Officer faked shooting, distress call Posted: 01 Aug 2019 04:46 PM PDT ![Police chief: Officer faked shooting, distress call]( "Police chief: Officer faked shooting, distress call") An Alabama police officer staged a shooting last month to make it look like he was under attack, a police chief said Thursday. Birmingham Police Chief Patrick Smith said that Officer Keith Buchanan made a distress call early July 21 while patrolling an isolated area. Shots could be heard in the background, and an abandoned police car was later found with a bullet hole.
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| Rep. Tulsi Gabbard is again the most-searched candidate on Google during Democratic debate Posted: 01 Aug 2019 05:48 PM PDT  Being the most searched candidate during the first round of the debate in Miami didn't translate into a boost in the polls for Gabbard.
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| Can Kazakhstan be America's New Partner in Central Asia? Posted: 01 Aug 2019 09:37 AM PDT  Change has come to Kazakhstan, at last.The former Soviet republic's first president, seventy-nine-year-old Nursultan Nazarbayev, stepped down in March after nearly thirty years in power. His successor, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, won the post in last month's elections, racking up 70 percent of the vote.The election process, albeit imperfect, was Kazakhstan's most legitimate yet. (In the previous election, for example, Nazarbayev won with a reported 97.7 percent of the vote.) Just as Important was what didn't occur. Many had expected the Nazarbayevs to attempt a family power grab; it never transpired.President Tokayev has a full in-box. His country suffers from corruption, social unrest and a weak economy. Keenly aware of these problems, his inauguration speech outlined not just three, or five, but ten priorities for reform.
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| Surgical plate found inside stomach of 4.7m long crocodile in Australia Posted: 01 Aug 2019 02:43 AM PDT  An Australian crocodile farmer who found an orthopaedic plate inside a crocodile's stomach said on Thursday he had been told the surgical device was from a person's body and had been contacted by relatives of missing people anxious for clues. Koorana Crocodile Farm owner John Lever found the plate inside a 4.7-metre (15-foot- 5) croc called M.J. during an autopsy in June at his business near Rockhampton in Queensland state. He initially wasn't sure if the unusual find had been part of an animal or human. But he said since making photos of the plate public, he had been told it was a type used in human surgery. Lever estimated that M.J. was 50 to 70 years old when he died. M.J. could have eaten the bone that the plate had been attached to by six screws 50 years ago, he said. All remnants of human tissue attached to the plate had been long digested before M.J. died several months after losing a fight with another croc. Koorana Crocodile Farm owner John Lever found the plate inside MJ Lever is continuing to make inquiries in the hope of discovering what decade the type of plate was used and perhaps who it had belonged to. "I wouldn't call it an investigation, we're making inquiries because we're fascinated by this whole thing," Lever said. "Obviously this crocodile has chomped on something and that plate has been left in its stomach complete with screws." Lever bought M.J. from a farmer in Innisfail, 1,000 kilometers (600 miles), north of Rockhampton, six years ago. Sometime earlier, M.J. had been trapped in the wild. Crocodiles are protected in Australia and are only trapped if they are a threat to humans. "We've had a couple of people get in touch with us about their relatives that have gone missing in the northern Queensland area and they're anxious to find out - there's been nothing heard of these people, they've just disappeared," Lever said. "We'll certainly keep these people informed of any new news that we can get." MJ the crocodile was estimated to be 50 to 70 years old when he died The last fatal crocodile attack in Australia was in October when a woman was snatched while gathering mussels with her family in a waterhole in a remote part of the Northern Territory. The last fatal attack in Queensland was a year earlier, when a 79-year-old dementia patient was killed after wandering from a nursing home at Port Douglas. The crocodile population has exploded across the country's tropical north since the 1970s. Because saltwater crocodiles can live up to 70 years and grow throughout their lives - reaching up to 7 meters (23 feet) in length - the proportion of large crocodiles is also rising.
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| Japan hangs two for murder, first executions in 2019 Posted: 01 Aug 2019 09:47 PM PDT  Japan on Friday hanged two men convicted of murder, the justice ministry said, the first executions this year after 15 death row inmates were executed in 2018. With more than 100 inmates on death row, Japan is one of the few developed nations to retain the death penalty, and public support for it remains high despite international criticism, including from rights groups. "I ordered the executions after very careful consideration," Justice Minister Takashi Yamashita told reporters.
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| Man dies in front of 11-year-old daughter at US border detention camp Posted: 02 Aug 2019 01:26 AM PDT  A 32-year-old Salvadoran man who was travelling with his 11-year-old daughter has died at a border detention centre in New Mexico. The man, who was at a station in Lordsburg, fell into 'medical distress' on Thursday morning and could not be revived, border officials said. US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials confirmed a man had died at the centre, but did not name him.The agency's oversight office will review his death, which came the morning after he was taken into custody late on Wednesday evening.While the US authorities have not revealed his identity, CBS reported that a Salvadoran consulate official identified the man as Marvin Antonio Gonzalez. He had spent a week travelling from El Salvador with his 11-year-old daughter when he was detained at 9pm on Wednesday and fell into 'medical distress' later in the morning.The consulate official said they are awaiting the results of an autopsy to determine the cause of death and have requested medical records from El Salvador.His daughter was being cared for at a New Mexico shelter. CBS cited data from the American Immigration Lawyers Association indicating he was the sixth adult to die at a migrant detention centre in 2019.> 32 yo Marvin Antonio González from El Salvador died this am in the Lordsburg, NM BP station when he fell into medical distress. He was traveling with his 11 yo daughter who is in a shelter in NM. The two had been traveling for a week when they were apprehended by CBP in El Paso. pic.twitter.com/Uo7186DXuz> > — Angel Canales (@angelcanales) > > August 1, 2019His death follows that of another man from El Salvador who was attempting to cross the US border on Wednesday evening. Police in the northern Mexico border state of Coahuila shot a Salvadoran migrant accused of drawing a pistol and opening fire on officers, prosecutors said on Thursday. A migrant shelter in the Coahuila city of Saltillo said the Salvadoran man had been waiting with other migrants late Wednesday to hop on a freight train to the US border. The Casa Del Migrante Saltillo shelter said the group of about 10 migrants had stayed at the shelter before heading to the train tracks, and suggested they were victims of an overzealous raid by state and federal forces. The shelter said in a statement the migrants hid a 2-year-old girl who was separated from her mother during the raid because "they assumed the agents of the Coahuila prosecutors' office were shooting to kill." It also said the victim was travelling with his 8-year-old daughter who saw him shot. But the prosecutor's office gave a different story. "At the train tracks, four men verbally attacked police, and one of them took out a firearm and fired shots, while other people fled on foot," the office said in a statement. "The officers returned fire and thus the attacker fell dead." The federal government issued a statement on Thursday saying neither federal police nor immigration agents were involved in the Wednesday raid.The Coahuila state government said in a separate statement that the man's death was under investigation. It said the girl was safe and in the custody of child welfare officials. Additional reporting by AP
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| Britain tells Iran: there will be no tanker swap Posted: 01 Aug 2019 05:26 AM PDT  Britain on Thursday ruled out exchanging an Iranian tanker detained by Gibraltar for a British-flagged tanker seized by Iran in the Gulf. "We are not going to barter: if people or nations have detained UK-flagged illegally then the rule of law and rule of international law must be upheld," Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said while on a trip to Bangkok. "We are not going to barter a ship that was detained legally with a ship that was detained illegally: that's not the way that Iran will come in from the cold," he said.
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| Somalia Leader Renounces U.S. Citizenship Amid Trump’s Rhetoric Posted: 01 Aug 2019 05:43 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Somalia President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo voluntarily renounced his U.S. citizenship, a country where he lived, received education and worked."This follows the completion of the required legal and immigration processes that had been initiated after the president's election," his office said Thursday in an emailed statement.The renunciation comes about two weeks after President Donald Trump attacked four minority freshmen congresswomen including Somali-born Ilhan Omar, whom he asked to return to the Horn of Africa nation.Trump's fight with the four first-year liberal Democrats -- Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib -- is part of his campaign to portray the Democratic Party as beholden to its left-most flank, lawmakers whose ideology the president calls "socialist."To contact the reporter on this story: Mohammed Omar Ahmed in Garowe at mahmed76@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: David Malingha at dmalingha@bloomberg.net, Eric Ombok, Helen NyamburaFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| US fighter jet crashes in Death Valley, 7 park visitors hurt Posted: 31 Jul 2019 06:43 PM PDT  A U.S. Navy fighter jet crashed Wednesday in Death Valley National Park, injuring seven people who were at a scenic overlook where aviation enthusiasts watch military pilots speeding low through a chasm dubbed Star Wars Canyon, officials said. The crash sent dark smoke billowing in the air, said Aaron Cassell, who was working at his family's Panamint Springs Resort about 10 miles (16 kilometers) away and was the first to report the crash to park dispatch. "I just saw a black mushroom cloud go up," Cassell told The Associated Press.
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| Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh won't face discipline over Senate confrontation Posted: 01 Aug 2019 02:09 PM PDT  Supreme Court Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh cannot be disciplined for his behavior during last year's confirmation battle, a judicial panel ruled.
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| Saudi Arabia's reforms to allow some women to travel without men's permission will do nothing to help many of the vulnerable people trapped in the kingdom Posted: 02 Aug 2019 05:12 AM PDT  Many of the 1,000 women who flee Saudi Arabia each year are under 21, and must still escape abuse in dangerous and secretive circumstances.
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| US Air Force orders all units to stand down for one day as suicide rate rises Posted: 01 Aug 2019 10:10 AM PDT  The Air Force has seen 78 suicides so far this year, significantly more than this time last year, and the service is scrambling for answers.
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| Hannity: Democratic presidential debate took failure to a new level Posted: 01 Aug 2019 06:52 PM PDT  Media rushes to defend Obama after 2020 Democratic candidates attack him during debate.
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| French drug smuggler's death sentence commuted in Indonesia Posted: 02 Aug 2019 03:13 AM PDT  A French drug smuggler's death sentence has been commuted by an Indonesian court to 19 years in prison, less than three months after the surprise ruling put him in line for execution by firing squad. Felix Dorfin, 35, was handed a capital sentence in May following his arrest last year at the airport in Lombok, a holiday island next to Bali -- where foreigners are routinely charged with drugs offences.
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| Head-To-Head: Russia, Japan, South Korea, and China Face-Off in the Skies over the Pacific Posted: 02 Aug 2019 03:26 AM PDT  The South China Sea cauldron has been at a full boil now for nearly a dozen years, chiefly over the significance of various obscure reefs and rocks. But, thankfully, the occurrence of shooting among the claimants and external powers has been extremely rare, underlying the obvious risks that such a course would entail. Thus, it came as a surprise to many that South Korean interceptors fired warning shots at a Russian military aircraft over the Sea of Japan on the morning of 22 July.With four major powers suddenly appearing to lock horns in that same dispute, the incident would seem to be further evidence of the "great unraveling" in the world order. Indeed, the episode is bizarre in numerous respects, not least because the Russia-South Korea dyad has been one of the least conflictual in this volatile region over the last decade. In fact, as a symbol of these strengthening ties, President Moon Jae-in took the unusual step of making the long trip to Moscow to meet with President Vladimir Putin last summer. Moreover, the dangerous aviation encounter last week had the similarly strange effect of, at least temporarily, stealing the thunder from Pyongyang's recent missile tests that were apparently intended as "a warning to South Korean warmongers."
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| Ethiopia's PM says 'people from abroad' had role in June twin attacks Posted: 01 Aug 2019 09:56 AM PDT  Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said on Thursday that attackers in a failed regional coup in June had been trained by people who had come from foreign countries, without giving details. A rogue militia tried to seize power on June 22 in the northern Amhara region, an attack which authorities blamed on Asamnew Tsige, who was killed in fighting on the outskirts of the regional capital Bahir Dar. The army chief of staff was also killed in the capital Addis Ababa simultaneously with the failed Bahir Dar assault, an attack which was also blamed on Asamnew's rogue militia.
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| Convenience store customers take on Arizona gunman Posted: 31 Jul 2019 04:53 PM PDT  Surveillance footage released by prosecutors shows several customers tackle and disarm a gunman.
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| Merkel ally calls for Europe to go it alone in the Gulf Posted: 01 Aug 2019 07:57 AM PDT  A key ally of Angela Merkel has called for Europe to set up its own naval taskforce in the Persian Gulf independent of the US. Amid a widening divide between Western allies over how to deal with Iran, Norbert Röttgen called on Thursday for France and Germany to lead a European mission to protect shipping from Iran. The UK has sought to build consensus for an international taskforce following the seizure of a British-flagged tanker by Iran. But France and Germany have rejected calls to contribute warships to a US-led mission over concerns at Donald Trump's aggressive stance towards Iran. Mr Röttgen, who is chairman of the German parliament's powerful foreign affairs committee, called on Thursday for Europe to go it alone. "The reasons for a European mission in the Gulf remain, even if Britain should decide on a joint mission with the US," he said. "It's about European interests, not specific British ones, so a European mission should be made up of a group of European states, to which France and Germany must belong." Jeremy Hunt, the former foreign secretary, initially called for a European-led taskforce in response to the seizure of the Stena Impero last month. But Boris Johnson's government has shifted the UK position, with Dominic Raab, the new foreign secretary, suggesting a European mission may not be "viable" without US support. Mr Röttgen's comments come amid signs of a rift in Mrs Merkel's coalition government over the issue. Olaf Scholz, the vice-chancellor, appeared to rule out German contributing to a US-led taskforce on Wednesday, only to be contradicted by Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the defence minister, who said the proposal was still being considered. But despite Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer's comments, German involvement remains unlikely. Any military deployment needs parliamentary approval in Germany, and with Mr Scholz's centre-Left Social Democrats (SPD) opposed, there is no majority in favour. Mohammed Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister, faces new US sanctions Credit: Evgenia Novozhenina /REUTERS German and French concerns are understood to centre on the Trump administration's increasingly belligerent tone towards Iran, amid fears any incident could be seized on by US hardliners as a pretext for war. The European Union spoke out yesterday against a decision by the US to impose sanctions on Iran's foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif. "We regret this decision," a spokesman for Federica Mogherini, the EU's high representative for foreign affairs, said. "From our side, we will continue to work with Mr Zarif as Iran's most senior diplomat, and in view of the importance of maintaining diplomatic channels." The decision means Iran's chief negotiator will now have to seek special permission to enter the US to attend the United Nations. Hassan Rouhani, the Iranian president, accused the US of "resorting to childish behaviour" over the sanctions. "They were claiming every day, 'We want to talk, with no preconditions' and then they sanction the foreign minister," Mr Rouhani said.
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| Trump and Epstein's friendship reportedly soured after they fought over a $41 million Palm Beach mansion. 2 weeks after the home's auction, cops received a tip about underage women at Epstein's house. Posted: 01 Aug 2019 11:21 AM PDT  The formerly friendly New Yorkers both wanted to buy the Maison de l'Amitie at a bankruptcy auction in 2004, the Washington Post reported.
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| 'It was terrible': 1 dead, up to 7 missing after natural gas line explosion in Kentucky Posted: 01 Aug 2019 08:05 PM PDT  A natural gas explosion happened after a pipeline ruptured in Kentucky near the Moreland community by Junction City and Hustonville.
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| Woman who survived Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting, 2017 Las Vegas massacre: 'I can't believe this is happening again' Posted: 01 Aug 2019 01:02 PM PDT  One woman who narrowly escaped the Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting says she experienced a harrowing feeling of familiarity during the attack.
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| Report: Driver who hit bikers was under influence of drugs Posted: 01 Aug 2019 03:47 PM PDT  The driver involved in a crash that killed seven motorcyclists in New Hampshire was under the influence of drugs and reached for a beverage just before the collision, according to a federal inspection report obtained Thursday. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said that a toxicology report showed Volodymyr Zhukovskyy was positive for an unspecified drug that made him incapable of driving safely when his pickup truck crossed the center yellow line and crashed into motorcyclists. Zhukovskyy also said that he reached for a drink on the passenger side of the truck just before the crash, according to the report.
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| Bombs hit Bangkok during major security meeting Posted: 01 Aug 2019 07:44 PM PDT  Six small bomb blasts wounded at least four people in Bangkok on Friday, as the Thai capital hosted a Southeast Asian security meeting with top diplomats from the United States, China and other world powers. Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha ordered an investigation into the bombs, a blow to Thailand's image during the high profile event and barely two weeks after his former military junta transformed into a civilian government. The first small explosions were heard during rush hour, just before 9 a.m. (0200 GMT), at two sites in central Bangkok.
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| How the Death of 1 Japan's Imperial Aircraft Carrier Turned the Tide of War Posted: 01 Aug 2019 12:53 PM PDT  Like her sister, the Saratoga, the graceful, 33,000-ton Lexington was originally a battlecruiser converted under a special provision of the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty.Responding to a November 27, 1941, war warning message from Admiral Harold R. "Betty" Stark, chief of naval operations, America's prized handful of aircraft carriers were fortuitously absent from Pearl Harbor when Japanese planes savaged the Pacific Fleet on Sunday, December 7.The USS Saratoga (CV-3) was refitting in San Diego, the USS Enterprise (CV-6) was returning after ferrying fighters to the Marine Corps defense force on Wake Island, the USS Wasp (CV-7) was serving with the Royal Navy Home Fleet in the Mediterranean, the USS Yorktown (CV-5) was at Norfolk, Virginia, and the USS Lexington (CV-2) was carrying a squadron of Vought SB2U Vindicator dive bombers to the tiny Marine garrison on Midway Island.This first appeared in September 2017.But the sorely needed planes were not delivered. When word came of the Pearl Harbor attack, the Lexington, still 400 miles southeast of Midway, turned and headed southward. She spent several days with other U.S. ships searching unsuccessfully south of Oahu for the Japanese flattops and returned to Pearl Harbor for refueling and reprovisioning.
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| 15 Animals and Plants Named After Famous People Posted: 01 Aug 2019 01:16 PM PDT |
| Mother of man charged in missing brothers case speaks out Posted: 01 Aug 2019 03:29 PM PDT  The mother of a Missouri farmer charged with tampering with a truck used by two missing Wisconsin brothers said they came to the farm to look at cattle but that she can't see her son being involved in their deaths. Tomme Feil told The Kansas City Star that the two men — Nicholas Diemel, 35, and his 24-year-old brother Justin — came to look at calves owned by the family. Feil said she has no idea why her son, Garland Nelson, would have moved their vehicle.
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| What links a migrant child's tragedy to Jeffrey Epstein's downfall? Donald Trump Posted: 02 Aug 2019 06:12 AM PDT  The media has focused on Epstein at the expense of the tale of Yazmin Juárez, but the two stories share themesYazmin Juárez testifies at a House oversight subcommittee hearing. Photograph: Jacquelyn Martin/APFor the TV producer or the newsroom editor it must be, as they say, a no-brainer that the crimes of a billionaire convicted sex offender – and each new revelation about his behavior, most recently his plans to repopulate the world with his own scientifically engineered offspring – is a grabbier story than the death of a Guatemalan child. There was never any doubt about which of these items got top billing when Jeffrey Epstein's initial arrest occurred around the same time as the child's bereaved mother testified before Congress. Epstein got the headlines and led the broadcasts, while the mother, Yazmin Juárez, was the sixth or seventh item into the program, the night I watched. Still, let's give the network some credit for allowing her to tell her story: for listening to her at all.Make no mistake. I'd be glad to see the creepy, privileged Epstein go down. Like most people, I don't like the idea that the rich are above the law, though we hardly need Jeffrey Epstein to remind us that the US has parallel legal systems operating according to the race and income level of the accused. Who doesn't love a scandal? We can't help it, we're human. And each new chapter – now the news of the celebrated scientists he courted to advise him on his bizarre eugenics program – continues to seize and hold our attention.But on the same day he was arrested on sex trafficking charges, the day I couldn't look at my phone without seeing Epstein's face, I saw, on the evening news, a short clip from the testimony at a congressional hearing: Juárez described the death of her 19-month-old daughter, Mariee, after they were imprisoned by Ice at the border in a room she called "the Icebox" – locked in with thirty other people, sleeping on the cold concrete floor. During her interview with Ice, Juárez was told by an official that this country was for Americans, that Trump was his president, that they could take her baby away from her and lock her up in jail.Transferred to Texas's notorious Camp Dilley detention center, Mariee fell ill, and her illness failed to respond to the prescribed Tylenol and honey. Even after Mariee had lost 8% of her body weight, she was treated for an ear infection. After six weeks in the hospital, ultimately on a ventilator, Mariee died, "slowly and painfully" of a treatable viral lung infection. "My daughter is gone; the people who are in charge of running these facilities and caring for these little angels are not supposed to let these the things happen to them."Among the conclusions that the clearly moved Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez drew from Juárez's testimony is that what happened to Yasmin and her daughter in the detention center reflects a wider "a culture of cruelty" in these camps and in our treatment of migrants, in general. And these deaths continue to happen while we await new revelations about how vile and delusional Epstein was.What connects these two stories is that they are both about suffering and about the culture of cruelty, about cruel abuses of power. Both stories concern the abusive mistreatment of children.But there is one more connection, which is Donald Trump. Along with the agents of Ice, Trump has Mariee's blood on his hands. Trump is also a former friend of Epstein's. Their friendship soured, but Trump has been widely quoted as saying Epstein is a fun guy who shares his love of beautiful women, "some of them on the young side".Some of them on the young side.To be alive at this moment is to be in a constant state of denial, ignoring all sorts of things, among them the fact that the president of the United States is an accused rapist and a man who thinks that the sex trafficking of girls "a little on the young side" is a joke. Locker-room stuff, people said, when he boasted about grabbing women's pussies. He continues as president, even as the list of sexual misconduct charges against him threatens to rival Bill Cosby's, and as other men are disgraced for much less serious offenses.I and many Americans are in a state of stunned disbelief that this is who we have become. A culture's values trickle from the top down, and what's trickling down from Trump and his oligarch friends is the idea that cold-blooded cruelty to the weak and defenseless is not only justified but energizing and exciting. A turn-on.When I hear the "strategic" argument that we should wait and defeat Donald Trump at the ballot box in 2020, all I can think of is how long that time – the days and hours and weeks between now and October 2020 – will seem to the children in cages, the families in mourning, the parents looking for lost kids. We can't forget them for a moment, no matter how avidly we follow each new detail of the Epstein case – while Mariee is all but forgotten except by those who loved and continue to mourn her. * Francine Prose is a former president of PEN American Center and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
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| Here are the winners and losers for Wednesday's Democratic debate Posted: 01 Aug 2019 03:45 AM PDT  Sen. Cory Booker and entrepreneur Andrew Yang stood out. Former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris struggled under withering attacks. And the health care discussion was more heat than light.
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