WorldAFPFears in US of bad peace deal with the Taliban
An Afghanistan peace agreement that the US seems close to reaching with the Taliban has prompted worries that President Donald Trump's desire to quickly withdraw US troops could further plunge the country into civil war. Trump said Friday he was pleased with talks on ending the war, 18 years after the September 11, attacks that prompted the US invasion of Afghanistan in the first place. In recent days several US officials have suggested that an accord could be imminent in discussions with the Taliban in Qatar.
- NewsThe Independent
Jeffrey Epstein investigators remain puzzled by his apparent suicide days later
Jeffrey Epstein's apparent suicide in a New York City jail cell has left federal investigators with more questions than answers about how the accused child sex trafficker managed to seemingly escape facing justice one final time. The federal Bureau of Prisons has attempted to understand in recent days how Epstein managed to take his own life at the Metropolitan Correctional Centre, despite guards being assigned to check his cell every 30 minutes. Officials are also working to learn why Epstein's cellmate was moved out of their cell the day before the disgraced financier was found unresponsive on Saturday morning and later pronounced dead.
- WorldAssociated Press
Putin gives pilot who landed in cornfield Russia's top medal
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday awarded the nation's highest medal, the Hero of Russia, to the pilot who managed to smoothly land his disabled passenger plane in a cornfield after a flock of birds hit both engines and knocked them out. The experienced captain, 41-year-old Damir Yusupov, said Friday that a quick landing was his only chance and he was not afraid of handling it. He said he had hoped to circle the airport and land normally when one engine shut down due to the bird strike moments after taking off from Moscow's Zhukovsky Airport.
- NewsMiami Herald
Mom aims head-on at a tanker to kill herself, sons. When truck dodges, she doubles back
Police say a Gainesville, Florida, mom of two young boys told a friend she was going to kill herself and her sons by crashing her car with everyone inside. Later that day, on Friday afternoon, Gainesville police say that Melissa Gail Mack tried to made good on her threat by loading her children, ages 4 and 6, into her van. According to the police report, Mack left the northbound lanes of US-441, switched to a southbound lane, and aimed to hit a tanker truck head-on, the Gainesville Sun and WCJB first reported.
- NewsINSIDER
A couple in Australia and their pet dog were attacked by a giant carnivorous lizard
A 72-year-old man was seriously injured after attempting to break up a fight between his pet dog and a giant Goanna lizard, the Australian Broadcasting Company reported. Attempting to save his pup, a long-haired Jack Russell named Lilly, the man sustained a laceration and possible fracture on his right arm. Goannas are a carnivorous monitor lizard found in Australia.
- WorldReuters
Mexico to deport U.S. citizen suspected of supporting 'violent jihad'
Mexican authorities arrested a U.S. citizen suspected of supporting militant Islamists in an example of Mexico's security cooperation with the United States even as the two neighbors grapple with sharp disagreements over trade and migration. The unidentified American man sought by Interpol was under investigation for supporting terrorist groups and will be deported to the United States later on Friday, the Mexico's attorney general's office said in a statement. The man was detained at a migrants office near Mexico's border with Guatemala in the town of Huehuetan with the help of officials from Mexico's National Migration Institute.
- WorldThe Telegraph
Germany expects No Deal and will not renegotiate, says leaked briefing
Germany expects a No Deal Brexit and is not prepared to renegotiate the withdrawal agreement, according to leaked details of an internal briefing paper for Angela Merkel's government. The leaked paper is the first evidence that Germany may be preparing to let Britain walk away with No Deal rather than back down to Boris Johnson's demand to drop the Irish backstop. The paper was prepared by civil servants for the German finance minister, Olaf Scholz, ahead of face-to-face talks with the chancellor of the exchequer, Sajid Javid, in Berlin on Friday.
- NewsUSA TODAY
2 dead, 1 unaccounted for after plane crashes into house in New York
POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. – At least two people were killed and another was unaccounted for Saturday after a plane crashed into a house in New York, authorities say. According to state police, the plane carrying three people crashed into a home on South Smith Street in Union Vale, near Poughkeepsie, just after 4 p.m. One person on board died and two were injured.
- SciencePopular Mechanics
X-Ray Scans Uncover da Vinci's Hidden Painting in All Its Glory
While studying a Leonardo da Vinci painting in 2005, researchers found a hidden painting underneath. Researchers are still unsure why Da Vinci originally covered it up. Thanks to books and movies like The da Vinci Code, the name Leonardo da Vinci isn't just associated with being a polymath and a historically important genius, but also a mystery.
- NewsYahoo News
How Kamala Harris was shaped by 'the People's Republic of Berkeley'
If you have any sense of who my family is, you will know that at best they found it a curious decision — and with some of them, I had to defend this decision like one would a thesis,” Harris said onstage. But what I said is, 'Look, do we always and only have to be on the outside, trying to change it from the outside, banging down the door on bended knee? Can't we always also be thinking about how we can be on the inside, where the decisions are being made?
- PoliticsTime
Trump Administration Asks Supreme Court to Permit Employment Discrimination Against Transgender Workers
The Trump administration's Department of Justice is asking the Supreme Court to set a legal precedent that would enable employers to fire employees because they are transgender. The Department of Justice has submitted a brief to the Court Friday asking the Justices to rule that Title VII, a federal law that prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of sex, race, color, religion or national origin, does not protect transgender people. The brief concerns R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, one of three cases that the Supreme Court agreed to hear earlier this year that concern whether Title VII can be applied to LGBTQ workers.
- NewsThe Independent
Woman survives plunging a mile after parachute fails to open
A woman cheated death when she fell nearly a mile to the ground after her parachute and emergency back-up apparently both failed to open. Denis Demers, who saw her fall, told Radio-Canada: "It's a miracle. Police told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that the 30-year-old parachutist, who has not yet been identified, was an experienced skydiver.
- NewsCharlotte Observer
3-year-old girl found alone in boat, man’s body discovered nearby, Texas cops say
Texas authorities found a man's body after searching for a missing father whose little girl was found sleeping alone in a boat on Lake Granbury on Friday. The 3-year-old was discovered floating in the vessel by herself around 9 a.m. Friday, the Hood County Sheriff's Office said in a news release.
- WorldAssociated Press
Yemen rebel drone attack targets remote Saudi oil field
Drones launched by Yemen's Houthi rebels attacked a massive oil and gas field deep inside Saudi Arabia's sprawling desert on Saturday, causing what the kingdom described as a "limited fire" in the second such recent attack on its crucial energy industry. The attack on the Shaybah oil field, which produces some 1 million barrels of crude oil a day near the kingdom's border with the United Arab Emirates, again shows the reach of the Houthis' drone program. Shaybah sits some 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) from Houthi-controlled territory, underscoring the rebels' ability to now strike at both nations, which are mired in Yemen's yearslong war.
- NewsBusiness Insider
Shell workers in Pennsylvania say they were told to either attend a recent Trump event, or not get paid
Workers at a new Shell plant in Pennsylvania say were told they had to attend a speech by President Donald Trump in order to get paid, according to a report from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The president's rally-style speech, which a senior administration official described as "not a political event but an official event," included jabs at Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former Vice President Joe Biden, calls for union leaders to support him in 2020, a warning that Democrats would take their jobs, and taking credit for the complex, which is still under construction and was first announced in 2012 when former president Barack Obama was still in office.
- WorldThe Telegraph
Jihadi Jack: Isis fighter stripped of British citizenship by Home Office
The Isis fighter known as Jihadi Jack has been stripped of his British citizenship, prompting a diplomatic row between the UK and Canada, it has been reported. Muslim convert Jack Letts, 24, who had held dual UK and Canadian citizenship, declared he was an "enemy of Britain" after travelling from Oxfordshire to Syria at the age of 18 to join the terror group. He has begged to be allowed to return to the UK, insisting he had "no intention" of killing Britons, after he was captured by Kurdish forces in 2017.
- U.S.WTVD – Raleigh/Durham
New video shows dramatic escape from Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s burning plane
A man can be seen pulling Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s infant daughter out of the plane as smoke and flames billow from the Cessna.
- LifestyleCar and Driver
View Photos of the Bentley EXP 100 GT at Pebble Beach
View Photos of the Bentley EXP 100 GT From Car and Driver
- WorldReuters
Several injured in Kashmir in clashes with Indian police
Indian security forces injured at least six people on Saturday in Srinagar, the main city in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir, as several protests broke out against New Delhi's revocation of the region's autonomy last week. In New York, the U.N. Security Council held its first meeting in almost 50 years on Kashmir, a majority Muslim region claimed by both India and Pakistan - which controls its western third. However, China, which also controls a small part of Kashmir, failed to secure a Council statement.
- NewsUSA TODAY
Fugitive lived in isolated bunker for 3 years to evade arrest in Wisconsin
A Wisconsin fugitive was sleeping in a homemade bunker the morning of Aug. 9 when his three-year run from the law came to an end. A hiker walking in the woods off the Ice Age National Scenic Trail in Ringle came across a shelter dug into the side of an embankment, according to a Marathon County Sheriff's Office incident report. The hiker opened the log-paneled door a crack, peeked in and saw a man sleeping on a cot surrounded by tools and canned food. The hiker later led Marathon County deputies to the hidden bunker, where they arrested Jeremiah Button, 44, on a Portage County warrant for child sex crimes.
CelebrityAFPMayor of Canadian capital city Ottawa comes out as gay
The mayor of Ottawa revealed Saturday that he is gay, an announcement that comes on the eve of gay pride week in the Canadian capital city. "I'm gay. There -- I said it; or rather, wrote it.
- BusinessCharlotte Observer
American Airlines reviewing rare mix-up of Charlotte passenger boarding wrong plane
A flight from Charlotte to Asheville was delayed for almost an hour and a half Wednesday after a man boarded the wrong plane, an American Airlines spokeswoman said Friday. The man was supposed to fly to Charleston, American Airlines spokeswoman Crystal Byrd said. Instead, he boarded American Airlines flight 5615 to Asheville.
- NewsAssociated Press
Mormon church warning: Beware of those fancy coffee drinks
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has issued a warning to members that coffee is prohibited no matter how fancy the name, that vaping is banned despite the alluring flavors and that marijuana is outlawed unless prescribed by "competent" doctors. The new guidance in the August issue of a church youth magazine does not include fundamental changes to the religion's strict health code, but the clarifications are significant and seem to reflect growing concern about young Latter-day Saints' adherence to the rules. The article says it aims to clear up issues that could be confusing for young people within the religion's "Word of Wisdom," a set of rules about what foods and drinks are good for members and what substances they should avoid.
- PoliticsThe Independent
Trump to drop out of 2020 race within months, former aide Scaramucci claims
Donald Trump will quit the 2020 race and not seek re-election, according to a former top aide. Anthony Scaramucci, the short-lived White House communications director, said the president will likelu quit the race in March to avoid the humiliation of defeat. He's gonna drop out of the race because it's gonna become very clear.
- BusinessSacramento Bee
Cal Fire said Tubbs Fire wasn’t caused by PG&E. Victims win the right to sue utility anyway
Victims of the deadly Tubbs Fire in 2017 won the right to pursue lawsuits against PG&E Corp. on Friday in spite of state investigators' declaration that the utility wasn't to blame for the fire. Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Montali gave Tubbs victims' lawyers the green light to take PG&E to court, arguing that the amount PG&E owes those victims must be resolved before the PG&E bankruptcy can be settled. PG&E has said it owes all wildfire victims about $30 billion.
