| US Congress returns after a bloody August sharpens focus on guns Posted: 07 Sep 2019 06:28 PM PDT  The US Congress convenes Monday for the first time since recent mass shootings left Americans distraught over surging violence, but the Senate's Republican leader stressed he would not consider gun legislation without President Donald Trump's backing. Lawmakers scheduled a forum Tuesday to demand Senate action, and some Democratic presidential candidates have called for a ban on military-style assault weapons like those used in recent massacres.
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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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| Mayor charged with taking bribes to help pot businesses Posted: 06 Sep 2019 03:42 PM PDT  A young Massachusetts mayor's tortuous tenure took another strange turn Friday when he was arrested on charges that he conspired to extort hundreds of thousands of dollars from companies seeking to operate marijuana businesses. Fall River Mayor Jasiel Correia, who became the old mill city's youngest mayor when he was elected in 2015 at age 23, brazenly accepted cash bribes in exchange for issuing official letters needed to obtain a license to set up a pot business, authorities alleged. "Without hesitation, Mayor Correia was extorting marijuana vendor after marijuana vendor," U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling said at a news conference.
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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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| 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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| Iranian tanker Adrian Darya 1 photographed off Syrian port Tartus: U.S. satellite firm Posted: 06 Sep 2019 10:03 PM PDT  Maxar's supplied image shows the tanker Adrian Darya 1 very close to Tartus on Sept. 6. The ship appeared to have turned off its transponder in the Mediterranean west of Syria, Refinitiv ship-tracking data showed on Tuesday. The tanker, which is loaded with Iranian crude oil, sent its last signal giving its position between Cyprus and Syria sailing north at 15:53 GMT on Monday, the data showed.
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| MIT Media Lab Director Joi Ito Resigns Amid New Jeffrey Epstein Revelations Posted: 07 Sep 2019 02:56 PM PDT  Phillip Faraone/GETTYThe director at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab has resigned after becoming embroiled in scandal over the lab's financial ties to mysterious multimillionaire and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. "After giving the matter a great deal of thought over the past several days and weeks, I think that it is best that I resign as Director of the Media Lab and as a Professor and employee of the Institute, effective immediately," Ito wrote in an email to the university's provost and president, which was first reported by the New York Times.The Media Lab has been rocked by ties to Epstein, with the lab admitting in August that it received $800,000 in donations from the deceased financier. Ito has said he was deeply sorry for "bringing such a person into our network," while also disclosing that he had accepted $1.2 million from Epstein for personal investments. Ito also stepped down from the board of The New York Times Company on Saturday, according to a spokesperson, who said in a statement that the resignation would be "effective immediately." Ito's resignations come a day after the New Yorker revealed that the Media Lab's financial relationship to Jeffrey Epstein was more deeply entangled than what was previously known or Ito had disclosed to the public.MIT Media Lab Rocked by New Jeffrey Epstein RevelationsIn a letter to members of the MIT community that was released to the public Saturday afternoon, university president Rafael Reif confirmed that Ito submitted his resignation, severing all ties with MIT.Reif said he found the new details about Media Lab's financial ties to Epstein "deeply disturbing" and has asked MIT's general counsel to hire a prominent law firm to help launch an independent investigation. "Because the accusations in the story are extremely serious, they demand an immediate, thorough and independent investigation," Reif said. "This morning, I asked MIT's General Counsel to engage a prominent law firm to design and conduct this process. I expect the firm to conduct this review as swiftly as possible, and to report back to me and to the Executive Committee of the MIT Corporation, MIT's governing board."Reif reiterated what he has previously said that accepting Epstein's gifts "involved a mistake of judgement" and an internal review of the processes and procedures is continuing.Epstein had been on a university list of "disqualified donors" when Ito accepted some of the sex offender's donations. In one email, according to the New Yorker, Ito wrote of an Epstein gift, "Make sure this gets accounted for as anonymous." One of his deputies reiterated the sentiment: "Jeffrey money, needs to be anonymous. Thanks."In an email from October 2014 obtained by the New Yorker, Ito wrote that Epstein had directed a $2 million donation from billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates. Peter Cohen, then a development official at the lab, wrote in a subsequent email, "For gift recording purposes, we will not be mentioning Jeffrey's name as the impetus for this gift."Ito told the New York Times that the New Yorker report was "full of factual errors." On Wednesday, Media Lab co-founder Nicholas Negroponte defended Ito's decision to take money from Epstein, MIT Technology Review reported he said at an internal meeting that he would accept the funds even now."If you wind back the clock," he said, even knowing about the allegations against Epstein now, "I would still say, 'Take it,'" he said. He repeated, "'Take it.'"Two Media Lab members have cut ties since August, after the connections to Epstein came to light. Ethan Zuckerman, director of the lab's Center for Civic Media, resigned in August, and visiting scholar J. Nathan Matias said that he would be ending his affiliation with the lab at the end of this academic year.MIT isn't the only university to court Epstein's wide-ranging donations. Epstein's shadowy charity, Gratitude America, Ltd., donated $6.5 million to Harvard's Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, a check the university kept even after media outlets revealed the money's origin. Harvard's prestigious Hasty Pudding Institute of 1770 included Epstein among its top donors in 2018.REVEALED: We Found Billionaire Pedophile Jeffrey Epstein's Secret CharityEpstein, a millionaire and convicted sex offender who killed himself in August inside the federal jail where he was housed while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges, socialized with a glittering array of politicians and scientist over the years, often in an effort to launder his own reputation. As new allegations against him surfaced in recent months, his associates from those accused of helping him to those who have hobnobbed with him over the years have been caught up in the backlash.The fallout from the new allegations includes Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, who resigned in the weeks following Esptein's arrest. Acosta, who was U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of Florida when Epstein was under investigation for similar allegations in the state, has faced scrutiny of his handling of a plea deal, which allowed the financier to go to work while in prison and which many saw as too lenient.Jeffrey Epstein's Modeling Ties Go Much Deeper Than Victoria's SecretRead 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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| Look at this all-diamond ring designed by Jony Ive and Marc Newsom Posted: 07 Sep 2019 08:57 AM PDT  At Apple, Jony Ive's designs disrupted the computer and mobile phone markets. Now, in his (imminent) post-Apple life, Ive has delivered a fresh spin on the diamond ring.The so-called "(RED) Ring," which Ive designed alongside Marc Newsom, his partner in the new design firm LoveFrom, is made entirely out of diamond. The striking piece of jewelry is carved out of a larger block of diamond that was grown in a lab.The ring sold at auction in Dec. 2018 for $256,250 during a Red charity event held during Art Basel in Miami. The Sotheby's listing makes it clear that the buyer was paying for something that hadn't yet been created -- it's hard to resize an all-diamond ring, so this had to be custom-made.The description reads:Now, the ring is finally finished and there are photos to prove it. The stone used to make it comes from Diamond Foundry, a San Francisco business that specializes in lab-grown diamonds. SEE ALSO: What Apple's products could look like without Jony Ive leading designThe (RED) Ring's diamond started as a lab-grown 45-carat "rough diamond." It was then cut down and shaped into a ring by Diamond Foundry's team using the design from Ive and Newsom.Proceeds from the sale of the ring benefited Red directly. The brand, founded in 2006, works with companies to create licensed products that serve to raise awareness for and fight the spread of HIV/AIDS, particularly in Africa. WATCH: New details have emerged about Jony Ive leaving Apple
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| Iran says boat seized in Strait of Hormuz, Filipinos arrested Posted: 07 Sep 2019 07:34 AM PDT  Iran seized a boat and arrested 12 Filipino crewmen as it busted a suspected fuel-smuggling ring in the Strait of Hormuz waterway on Saturday, state media reported. "Coast guards successfully seized a foreign ship in the Strait of Hormuz," said Major Hossein Dehaki, the coast guard chief in the southern province of Hormozgan. Dehaki said the group was suspected of operating a fuel-smuggling ring and the confiscated shipment had been intercepted close to Sirik county in the Strait of Hormuz.
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| Cancel culture takes aim at the oil and gas industry Posted: 06 Sep 2019 08:00 PM PDT  Democrats take aim at fossil fuel industry in push to fight climate change; panel reaction and analysis on 'The Ingraham Angle.'
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| Trump’s plan to stem border crossings gets results Posted: 08 Sep 2019 03:56 AM PDT  Border arrests are plummeting after Trump crackdown.
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| More retailers join Walmart in asking customers to stop carrying guns in store Posted: 07 Sep 2019 06:13 AM PDT  Several more of the America's most ubiquitous retail chains said this week that they will ask customers to refrain from openly carrying guns in their stores.The requests, days after Walmart announced a similar policy, marked a notable shift in the debate about the presence of guns in everyday life in the United States.
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| Typhoon kills 5 in North Korea, 3 in South Korea Posted: 08 Sep 2019 04:26 AM PDT  One of the most powerful typhoons to ever hit the Korean Peninsula has left five people dead and three injured in North Korea, state media reported Sunday, in its first public announcement of casualties since the storm made landfall in the country a day earlier. Before reaching North Korea, Typhoon Lingling hit South Korea, killing three people and injuring 13 others, though the country appears to have escaped widespread damage. The North's official Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA, said the typhoon left 460 houses and 15 public buildings destroyed, damaged or inundated in the country.
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| A cruise ship sailed 1,500 Hurricane Dorian evacuees from the Bahamas to Florida Posted: 07 Sep 2019 10:18 AM PDT  At least 40 people have died since the hurricane struck the Bahamas last weekend, and 70,000 were left homeless.
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| UPDATE 1-Islamic State claims responsibility for market blast in Philippines Posted: 07 Sep 2019 07:42 PM PDT ![UPDATE 1-Islamic State claims responsibility for market blast in Philippines]( "UPDATE 1-Islamic State claims responsibility for market blast in Philippines") The Islamic State militant group has claimed responsibility for an explosion at a public market in the southern Philippines that wounded at least seven people early on Saturday. The group issued a statement late on Saturday saying the motorcycle bombing had wounded seven Filipino Christians at a public market. It was the fourth blast in the area in 13 months, according to the Philippine military, which said a militant group operating in the mostly Christian city of Isulan in the province of Sultan Kudarat was among the suspects.
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| Every Day Is a Car Show When You Appreciate Old Cars Gallery Posted: 07 Sep 2019 11:00 AM PDT |
| California boat fire: Authorities say victims likely died of smoke inhalation, not burns Posted: 07 Sep 2019 12:05 PM PDT  California authorities on Friday said victims likely died of smoke inhalation, not burns. They released the names of nine victims.
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| Two Israelis wounded in West Bank stabbing Posted: 07 Sep 2019 06:02 AM PDT  An Israeli man and his teenaged son were wounded in a stabbing attack in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, the army and medics said. "An assailant stabbed two Israeli civilians after they had entered Azzun in order to receive medical treatment," the army said, referring to a village east of Qalqilya in the north of the territory. According to Israeli media reports, the two had been visiting a dentist in Azzun and were leaving when a Palestinian youth approached and asked them if they were Jews, before stabbing them.
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| Trump campaign is selling branded markers after Sharpie-gate Posted: 06 Sep 2019 03:57 PM PDT  The product rollout came as a tongue-in-cheek reference to this week's hurricane controversy
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| What the Xenophobic Violence Gripping South Africa Means for Future of Country Posted: 06 Sep 2019 02:00 PM PDT  Violence against foreigners in South Africa threatens to turn into big crisis for the country as it tries to revive economy.
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| India loses touch with lander on its final approach to moon Posted: 07 Sep 2019 04:14 AM PDT  India's space agency said it lost touch with its Vikram lunar lander on Saturday as it made its final approach to the moon's south pole to deploy a rover to search for signs of water. A successful landing would have made India just the fourth country to land a vessel on the lunar surface, and only the third to operate a robotic rover there. The space agency said the lander's descent was normal until 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from the lunar surface.
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| Female prisoner who asked for help 'beaten so badly by prison guards she was left paralysed and in need of 24hr care for rest of her life' Posted: 06 Sep 2019 01:02 PM PDT  A female inmate in a Florida prison who said she was beaten by four guards has sued the state's corrections agency.Cheryl Weimar said the alleged beating left her paralysed with "serious and life-threatening injuries, including a broken neck" in a complaint filed in district court on Tuesday.
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| Why a NY businessman (and his mom) are still attacking Delaware — and Joe Biden Posted: 07 Sep 2019 09:30 AM PDT  With a half-million dollar political ad buy, TransPerfect's ferocious public battle with the Delaware courts has bled into presidential politics.
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| 'I didn’t hear the words': Harris apologizes for response to mental disabilities slur Posted: 07 Sep 2019 02:28 PM PDT !['I didn't hear the words': Harris apologizes for response to mental disabilities slur]( "'I didn't hear the words': Harris apologizes for response to mental disabilities slur") "That word and others like it aren't acceptable. Ever," Harris wrote on Twitter
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| Supreme Court Justice Gorsuch reveals the two rules for his law clerks Posted: 07 Sep 2019 11:49 AM PDT  Host Shannon Bream asks Justice Neil Gorsuch whether he is concerned with public perception of the Supreme Court; 'Neil Gorsuch: Justice for the Republic' airs Sunday, Sept. 8 at 8 p.m. ET on Fox News Channel.
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| Maduro rejects talks with opposition over envoy's remarks Posted: 07 Sep 2019 07:57 AM PDT  President Nicolás Maduro says that he won't resume talks with the opposition until it rejects calls by a top supporter in Britain to "drop the topic" of Venezuela's longstanding claims to an oil-rich part of neighboring Guyana. Maduro's comments late Friday came after his chief prosecutor opened an investigation against Vanessa Neumann, the top envoy in London for opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who is recognized as Venezuela's rightful president by the U.S., United Kingdom and four dozen other nations. "Until they rectify their position, they won't see our faces," Maduro said in a televised meeting with aides.
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| Oil majors to mull fresh cuts as trade war hits prices Posted: 08 Sep 2019 03:58 AM PDT  Top oil producers will consider fresh output cuts at a meeting this week, but analysts are doubtful they will succeed in bolstering crude prices dented by the US-China trade war. The OPEC petroleum exporters' cartel and key non-OPEC members want to halt a slide in prices that has continued despite previous production cuts and US sanctions that have squeezed supply from Iran and Venezuela. Analysts say the OPEC+ group's Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee, which monitors a supply cut deal reached last year, has limited options when it meets in Abu Dhabi on Thursday.
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| India imposes curfews in Kashmir after clashes during religious procession Posted: 08 Sep 2019 01:02 AM PDT ![India imposes curfews in Kashmir after clashes during religious procession]( "India imposes curfews in Kashmir after clashes during religious procession") India on Sunday imposed curfews in several parts of the contested Kashmir region, after clashes between security forces and Shi'ite Muslims taking part in a procession, officials and eyewitnesses said. At least 12 locals and six troops were injured on Saturday evening, officials told Reuters, as the worshippers on the traditional mourning procession of Muharram clashed with troops trying to stop it. Troops used tear gas and pellet guns on the crowd, which insisted on carrying on with the procession, one in a series held at this time of the year, and pelted stones at security forces, an Indian official who declined to named told Reuters.
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| More than 2,000 attend Sarajevo's first Gay Pride march Posted: 08 Sep 2019 07:53 AM PDT  More than two thousand people turned out in Sarajevo Sunday in the city's first Gay Pride march to protest against the hate the LGBT community suffers in Bosnia. "More than 2,000 people took part in the march and it passed off without incident," police spokesman Mirza Hadziabdic told AFP. Members of the LGBT community and others walked for 1,500 metres (nearly a mile) starting from a monument commemorating the liberation of the city at the end of WWII.
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| S&P Advice to South Africa: Beware What You Say About Eskom Debt Posted: 07 Sep 2019 11:00 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Talks around restructuring Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd.'s bonds must be approached carefully to avoid spooking the market, according to S&P Global Ratings.Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan said on Thursday the government will consult with the power utility's debt holders on any reorganization and that there isn't any real concern about haircuts."Whether you are talking about a haircut or a re-profiling or a restructuring, one has to tread very carefully because it could possibly lead to what is seen as a distressed-debt exchange and be called a default," S&P's managing director and regional manager for Africa, Konrad Reuss, said in an interview on Friday. "That would be quite unsettling for the markets."Eskom, which supplies about 95% of South Africa's power, has amassed 450 billion rand ($30.5 billion) of debt and turned to the government for bailouts to remain solvent as it confronts massive cost overruns at two partially completed coal-fired plants. The government has proposed splitting the utility into generation, transmission and distribution units under a state holding company -- an option rejected by labor unions that fear it will lead to privatization and job losses."We understand various options are being discussed to deal with Eskom's financial distress," Reuss said while attending the World Economic Forum on Africa in Cape Town. "For us, at this point, it is wait-and-see and get more information."'Need Details'S&P in March changed the outlook on its CCC+ ratings of Eskom to stablefrom negative after Finance Minister Tito Mboweni announced the allocation of 69 billion rand over three years to support the company. In July, Mboweni said the government will give Eskom an extra 59 billion rand over two years."Eskom has various kinds of debt -- domestic, foreign, government-guaranteed and unguaranteed -- which makes it highly complex." Reuss said. "The last thing you'd want to see is that unintentionally a default is being triggered. That's why we are all quite keen to get more details."Eskom is regarded as the biggest risk to South Africa's economy and the utility's drag on growth and the nation's finances has stoked fears that the country could lose its last remaining investment-grade credit rating with Moody's Investors Service.Fitch Ratings Ltd. has said the extra support for Eskom will widen the budget deficit for this fiscal year to 6.3% of gross domestic product, compared with the 4.5% of GDP the government projected in February.S&P was the first major ratings company to downgrade South Africa's debt to junk status in 2017.The National Treasury released an economic policy paper last week that proposed Eskom could sell some coal-fired power plants as part of a raft of reforms to boost the economy."The issues in the economy and from a ratings perspective are still the same: low growth and the fiscal trajectory in terms of deficit and debt ratios is still going in the wrong direction," Reuss said. "Whatever the economic plan is, there is urgency. We need to see implementation of measures that bring back growth and a fiscal turnaround."To contact the reporter on this story: Rene Vollgraaff in Johannesburg at rvollgraaff@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Benjamin Harvey at bharvey11@bloomberg.net, Gordon Bell, Paul RichardsonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Think America’s politics are a mess? Here’s what you missed about Brexit in the U.K. this week Posted: 07 Sep 2019 12:30 AM PDT  Things across the pond have been messy as of late. Here's what you might have missed this week as U.K. politicians wrestle with a timeline for Brexit.
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| The Latest: Local, international aid follows Dorian Posted: 08 Sep 2019 08:44 AM PDT  The government of the Bahamas says more than 900 members of the Bahamian police and military are on Abaco and Grand Bahama islands to help with hurricane relief. The government also says 120 Jamaican security personnel arrived in the Bahamas on Saturday evening and 100 troops from Trinidad and Tobago are to arrive Sunday as part of the aid effort in the wake of Hurricane Dorian. The Bahamas says "large numbers of security forces" from Britain and the United States are already involved in search, rescue and recovery operations.
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| These Delicious Cakes Put Christmas Cookies To Shame Posted: 06 Sep 2019 01:00 PM PDT |
| Trump investigated by Congress over US military spending at Scotland airport Posted: 07 Sep 2019 11:13 AM PDT  Congress is investigating Donald Trump over allegations the president may have profited from his presidency.The probe follows revelations that US military funds were spent in the president's Turnberry golf course.
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| U.S. Stores Are Asking Customers To Stop Openly Carrying Weapons—But Can They Actually Enforce a Restriction on Guns? Posted: 06 Sep 2019 04:11 PM PDT  Chains across the U.S. have asked customers not to openly carry firearms in their stores. Here's what that means for customers and employees
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| OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia replaces energy minister: state media Posted: 07 Sep 2019 03:37 PM PDT OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia named King Salman's son as energy minister after sacking veteran oil official Khalid al-Falih, state media said early Sunday. "Khalid al-Falih has been removed from his position," the official Saudi Press Agency said, citing a royal decree. Prince Salman is the king's son and the brother of powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
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| Nigeria's Buhari to visit South Africa after attacks Posted: 07 Sep 2019 11:23 AM PDT ![Nigeria's Buhari to visit South Africa after attacks]( "Nigeria's Buhari to visit South Africa after attacks") Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari will visit South Africa next month to reinforce the bonds between the two countries after a wave of deadly riots and xenophobic attacks, the South African presidency said on Saturday. South Africa's MTN Group and supermarket chain Shoprite have closed all stores and service centres in Nigeria after their premises were attacked. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Thursday at least 10 people had been killed, two of them foreign nationals, in violence that began in Pretoria and spread to nearby Johannesburg.
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| New Jersey man scammed $2M from women by posing as a soldier on dating sites, prosecutors say Posted: 08 Sep 2019 07:58 AM PDT  Authorities say the 35-year-old New Jersey man worked with conspirators in Ghana to deceive the victims.
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| Dorian still slamming eastern Canada at hurricane force Posted: 08 Sep 2019 08:01 AM PDT  The storm that has already walloped the Virgin Islands, Bahamas and North Carolina brought hurricane-force winds to far-eastern Canada on Sunday, knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of people. Dorian hit near the city of Halifax Saturday afternoon, ripping roofs off apartment buildings, toppling a huge construction crane and uprooting trees. There were no reported deaths in Canada, though the storm was blamed for at least 49 elsewhere along its path.
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| Here's what the Democratic National Committee doesn't understand about the Iowa caucuses Posted: 08 Sep 2019 02:00 AM PDT  The DNC should reconsider its blanket prohibition on telephone caucuses or rethink its requirement for an absentee caucus process.
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| Agency reverses course on Trump's Alabama hurricane claim Posted: 06 Sep 2019 06:06 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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