Stephen King talks politics: 'Trump was a horrible president and is a horrible person'

The notorious author of thrillers like Carrie and The Shining spoke out in a revealing new interview with the Sunday Times, in which he called former President Donald Trump "a horrible president" and a "horrible person." "I think he actually engaged in criminal behavior and, certainly, I felt that he was a sociopath who tried to overturn the American democracy not out of any political wish of his own but because he could not admit that he had lost," said King, 74. The author previously called out Trump publicly back in 2020, when he criticized the president and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for their initial response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Ex-CIA agent says fallout over raid on Trump's Mar-a-Lago resembles the lead-up to the January 6 Capitol attack and predicts there will be another 'catastrophic event'

A former FBI and CIA official predicted there could be another "catastrophic event" like January 6. Phil Mudd said threats against law enforcement resemble the period leading up to the Capitol attack. Threats have escalated as Republicans lash out against the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago.

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  Trump lashes out on social media after FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago

  CBS News Videos
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  Trump lashes out at FBI amid fallout from Mar-a-Lago raid: 'See what they were willing to do'

  Fox News

Charlottesville's First Black Woman Police Chief Fired As Officers Refused to Comply

After a midsummer meeting in June 2021, newly hired police chief RaShall Brackney felt the need to double down on her personal safety, unholstering her gun as she left headquarters. Brackney's fear however was not prompted by the activity on the streets, or even the ongoing public threats made against the police department over the years. Instead, she found herself afraid of her own subordinates, cops who wanted her gone after making some controversial, yet necessary shake ups throughout the force.

Emmy-nominated 'Daily Show' correspondent Jordan Klepper talks MAGA rallies, Trump rhetoric: 'It's melting their brains'

I'm talking to a father and his son about how Donald Trump is in charge of the military right now. And these fringe ideas are being codified by a guy like Donald Trump and a bunch of cowards who don't have the guts to stand up to him. He speaks to Americans and then he sends them away from sources that could maybe give them a broader perspective and just into the cesspool of the internet … It's melting [their] brains.

‘Frustrated’ 24-Year-Old Allegedly Admits Mowing Down Mourners Then Bludgeoning Mom

A Pennsylvania man who allegedly plowed his blue Honda Accord into a crowd of mourners late Saturday, killing one and injuring 17 others, before murdering his own mother, allegedly told cops he did so because he was tired of fighting with his mom over money. State troopers said that at about 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Adrian Oswaldo Sura Reyes, 24, drove into a group of about 75 people who were attending a daylong community benefit in Nescopeck to raise funds in the wake of a horrific house fire last week that killed 10 family members and 13 dogs. According to charging documents cited by the Press Enterprise, just six minutes after Reyes' car peeled away from the crash scene, police received a 911 call from a local resident.

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  Car hits crowd outside Pennsylvania bar, killing 1 and injuring 17

  Reuters
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  Man accused of driving into crowd before killing his mother told police he was ‘tired of fighting’ with her

  The Independent

Florida Has An Outrageous New Law Targeting Teachers. Here's Why I'll Be Breaking It.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit held at the Tampa Convention Center on July 22 in Tampa, Florida. In a couple of weeks, I'll walk back into my college classroom and continue my second decade of teaching at one of Florida's universities. Despite the recently passed HB 7 Amendment (Stop WOKE Act), I won't be adjusting my syllabi to remove readings or discussions that make students “uncomfortable,” and I won't pretend that systemic racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia and other forms of oppression do not exist.

China unexpectedly cuts 2 key rates, withdraws cash from banking system

SHANGHAI (Reuters) -China's central bank unexpectedly cut a key interest rate for the second time this year and withdrew some cash from the banking system on Monday, to try to revive credit demand to support the COVID-hit economy. Economists and analysts said they believe Chinese authorities are keen to support the sluggish economy by allowing a widening policy divergence with other major economies that are raising interest rates aggressively. The People's Bank of China (PBOC) said it was lowering the rate on 400 billion yuan ($59.33 billion) of one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF) loans to some financial institutions by 10 basis points (bps) to 2.75%, from 2.85%.

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  China unexpectedly cuts key rates as economic data disappoints

  Reuters
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  China’s central bank cuts key policy rates

  MarketWatch

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon: 'Why can't we get it through our thick skulls?' America boosting oil and gas production is 'not against' climate change

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon spoke to wealthy clients on a call Tuesday, Yahoo Finance reported. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said this week that US natural gas production does not conflict with long-term emission reduction targets, Yahoo Finance first reported. The problem with that is because of high oil and gas prices, the world is turning back on their coal plants.

Rep. Adam Schiff said the seizure of Rep. Scott Perry's phone suggests the Justice Department thinks Trump team's alternate electors plot was a crime

The DOJ is investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 election and confiscated Rep. Scott Perry's phone. Rep. Adam Schiff said the seizure suggests the department views the fake elector's scheme as criminal. Perry called the seizure an "abuse of power" on Fox News Sunday.

Philippines in talks to buy U.S. helicopters after dropping Russia deal

The Philippines is looking to buy heavy-lift Chinook helicopters from the United States, after scrapping a deal with Russia worth 12.7 billion pesos ($227.35 million) in order to avoid sanctions, Manila's ambassador to Washington said on Monday. In June, days before President Rodrigo Duterte ended his six-year term, the Philippines scrapped a deal to buy 16 Mi-17 Russian military transport helicopters because of fears of U.S. sanctions linked to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. "This cancellation of this contract is precipitated mainly by the war in Ukraine.

In her own words: SC Mega Millions winner’s testimony shows how she lost $83 million to NY attorney

On the morning after she became a multi-millionaire, a South Carolina woman drove by the KC Mart No. in Simpsonville where she bought her lottery ticket, to see if anyone was there, just in case she had made a mistake and didn't really win. It was the largest Mega Millions jackpot to be won by a single ticket — more than $1.5 billion — and she had seen the numbers reported on television.

Caste in California: Tech giants confront ancient Indian hierarchy

America's tech giants are taking a modern-day crash course in India's ancient caste system, with Apple emerging as an early leader in policies to rid Silicon Valley of a rigid hierarchy that's segregated Indians for generations. Apple, the world's biggest listed company, updated its general employee conduct policy about two years ago to explicitly prohibit discrimination on the basis of caste, which it added alongside existing categories such as race, religion, gender, age and ancestry. The inclusion of the new category, which hasn't been previously reported, goes beyond U.S. discrimination laws, which do not explicitly ban casteism.

Armed Forces of Ukraine hit Wagner HQ in Popasna, the photo of which was exposed by Russian war reporter Russian channels

KATERYNA TYSHCHENKO – SUNDAY, 14 AUGUST, 21:04 Russian Telegram channels report on the attack of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the headquarters of the Wagner PMC [a network of mercenaries who serve as the de facto private army of Russian President Vladimir Putin] in the occupied Popasna, Luhansk Oblast, a photo of which was recently published by the Russian military correspondent. Source: the Russian department of Radio Liberty Details: Reports of the Armed Forces of Ukraine attack on the Wagner PMC headquarters in Popasna appeared on Sunday in Russian telegram channels. A photo of the destruction was also published.

Gang of female shoplifters stole thousands of dollars worth of men's Nike boxer shorts from Kohl's stores, investigators say

Police say three women stole about $1,800 worth of men's underwear from a Kohl's store in Newnan, Georgia. Kohl's says they stole Nike men's boxer shorts, which cost between $26 and $40, per Fox 5 Atlanta. More than $6,000 worth of high-end men's underwear has been stolen from Kohl's stores in the area, say police.

Ukraine targets Russian soldiers accused of threatening nuclear plant

KYIV (Reuters) -Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has warned Russian soldiers who shoot at Europe's largest nuclear power station or use it as a base to shoot from that they will become a "special target" for Ukrainian forces. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for the establishment of a demilitarised zone at the Zaporizhzhia plant in southern Ukraine amid fears of a nuclear catastrophe over renewed shelling in the past days, for which Russia and Ukraine blame each other. Zelenskiy, who did not give any details, reiterated that he considered Russia was using the plant, which it captured early in the war but is still being run by Ukrainians, as nuclear blackmail.

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  Ukraine says it is targeting Russians shooting at, or from nuclear plant

  Reuters
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  Ukraine targeting Russians shooting at nuclear plant -Zelenskiy

  Reuters Videos

The US could lose up to 900 warplanes fighting a Chinese invasion of Taiwan but would emerge victorious, says think tank

A think tank ran war game analyses for a conflict between the US and China over Taiwan. One of the analysts told Insider the US and Taiwan would likely succeed in beating back a Chinese invasion. The US and Taiwan would likely be able to fend off a Chinese invasion, but it would come with heavy losses on both sides, a think tank analysis finds.

Trump's allies are alarmed and starting to 'go dark' amid Mar-a-Lago search warrant revelations, reporter says

Allies of former President Donald Trump, alarmed and shocked by the details in the unsealed Mar-a-Lago search warrant and receipt of goods, are starting to distance themselves and "go dark" in recent days, according to The Washington Post political investigative reporter Josh Dawsey. "Alarm has grown in recent days when you talk to advisers of the former president," said Dawsey, speaking on MSNBC on Friday night, per HuffPost. Some of them are now "trying to go dark," refusing to defend Trump, and hope to "stay as far away from this as they can," Dawsey said.

Italy's Lake Garda shrinks to near-historic low amid drought

Italy's worst drought in decades has reduced Lake Garda, the country's largest lake, to near its lowest level ever recorded, exposing swaths of previously underwater rocks and warming the water to temperatures that approach the average in the Caribbean Sea. Tourists flocking to the popular northern lake Friday for the start of Italy's key summer long weekend found a vastly different landscape than in past years. An expansive stretch of bleached rock extended far from the normal shoreline, ringing the southern Sirmione Peninsula with a yellow halo between the green hues of the water and the trees on the shore.

'What is wrong with this state?' Holland resident might leave Michigan after housing nightmare

"What I had left evaporated into nothing," he said. "I had to try to find work here in West Michigan and there was nothing in Holland, so there was Muskegon or Grand Rapids." But job after job didn't pan out.

Renowned researcher Marty Martin, dubbed ‘the ambassador of rattlesnakes,’ dies from rattlesnake bite

William “Marty” Martin, a renowned snake researcher who dedicated his life's work to the study of timber rattlesnakes, died last week after he was bitten by a snake on the property of his West Virginia home, his wife said. Martin, who was described as the “ambassador of rattlesnakes” in a 2019 profile on the online journal Terrain, was just 13 years old when he documented the first instance of timber rattlesnakes in the Bull Run Mountains in Virginia. At the age of 17, he became a founding member of the Virginia Herpetological Society, and for 30 years he served on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's timber rattlesnake task force, which worked to preserve the species, according to Reptiles Magazine.

VinFast says pre-orders "will get a $7,500 rebate," federal tax credit or not

Since then, congress announced it is making changes to the $7,500 federal electric vehicle tax credit, meaning that it becomes much harder to get that sweet, sweet tax deduction. The two major changes are that the tax credit will becomes means-tested (i.e. Various car manufacturers have scrambled to figure out how to react, but VinFast is taking more extreme steps than most, promising that if you have a pre-order with the manufacturer and you are no longer eligible for the tax rebate, they'll give you a $7,500 discount on the car instead.

Rep. Lauren Boebert's neighbors called 911 after her husband ran over their mailbox 'looking to fight'

Rep. Lauren Boebert's neighbors called 911 after an altercation with her husband, Jayson Boebert. Neighbors accused Jayson of driving under the influence and property damage, per The Denver Post. Officers from the Garfield County Sheriff's Office opted to let the neighbors settle the dispute among themselves.

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  Lauren Boebert’s ‘Jacka** Husband’ Jayson Allegedly Ran Over Neighbor’s Mailbox

  The Daily Beast
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  Listen To Rattled Neighbors Report Wild Clash With Lauren Boebert's Husband

  HuffPost

Texas police department defends Kyle Rittenhouse selfie amid online backlash: 'Not how our country works'

A Texas small-town police department refused to apologize for a selfie one of its officers snapped with Kyle Rittenhouse amid a slew of online criticism, noting how the now 19-year-old was acquitted by a jury of his peers in the August 2020 shooting of three demonstrators in Kenosha, Wisconsin. "Make those stops, you never know who you might meet. Today it was Kyle Rittenhouse, welcome to Texas," the Thrall Police Department, which serves the city outside of Austin, wrote in a Facebook post on Thursday, sharing a selfie of an unidentified officer smiling with Rittenhouse.