- WorldReuters
Iran can sink U.S. warships with 'secret weapons', military official says
Iran can sink U.S. warships sent to the Gulf region using missiles and "secret weapons", a senior Iranian military official was quoted as saying by the semi-official news agency Mizan on Saturday. The United States on Friday announced the deployment of 1,500 troops to the Middle East, describing it as an effort to bolster defenses against Iran as it accused the country's Revolutionary Guards of direct responsibility for this month's tanker attacks. quot;America..
- NewsThe Independent
Jayme Closs kidnapping: Jake Patterson jailed for life for killing girl’s parents and keeping her prisoner
The kidnapper of 13 year-old Jayme Closs has been jailed for life after she told the judge she wanted him “locked up forever” for murdering her parents and keeping her prisoner for 88 days. Jake Patterson, 21, targeted the teenager after spotting her getting on a school bus in a rural area of Wisconsin while he was driving to work at a cheese factory. After two aborted attempts to kidnap her, he dressed up in black clothing, armed himself with his father's shotgun and drove to her home in Barron in the early hours of 15 October.
WorldAFPIndia's opposition Congress backs Gandhi after poll defeat
Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, offered to resign Saturday after his Congress party was trounced in a second straight national election but the gesture was rejected, party officials said. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi triumphantly accepted pledges of allegiance from members of allied parties after his second landslide win, Congress leaders licked their wounds at a special meeting in New Delhi. "Party President Rahul Gandhi offered his resignation but it was unanimously rejected by the members of Congress Working Commission," Randeep Surjewala, a party spokesman, told reporters.
- PoliticsThe Independent
Rape survivors in the US already not able to access abortions, campaigners warn
Rape survivors in the US are being denied abortions due to financial barriers, “invasive” police intervention and a dearth of abortion providers, campaigners have warned. Abortion opponents across the US have become increasingly emboldened in their efforts to roll back women's reproductive rights since Donald Trump entered the White House in January 2016. Oriaku Njoku, the executive director of an organisation based in Georgia which helps low-income women access abortion, said the organisation had encountered women who were wanting to get their pregnancy terminated due to it being the product of rape.
WorldAssociated PressUtah climber, 4 others die on Mount Everest
An American climber who fulfilled his dream of climbing the highest mountains on each of the seven continents died of probable altitude sickness on the way down from Mount Everest, mountaineering officials said. Don Cash became ill at the summit and was treated there by his two Sherpa guides, Pasang Tenje Sherpa, head of Pioneer Adventure, which provided the guides, said Friday. Altitude sickness is caused by low amounts of oxygen at high elevation and can cause headaches, vomiting, shortness of breath and mental confusion.
- NewsAOL.com
Man lights cigarette on Spirit Airlines flight in startling viral footage
Wild footage from a Spirit Airlines flight to Minneapolis, Minnesota, shows a passenger who began smoking mid-flight, breaking one of the cardinal rules of air travel. The clip, recorded by a fellow passenger on May 21, captured a visibly intoxicated man in a dark tee shirt and khaki shorts light up and take a puff before lowering the smoking cigarette to his lap and seemingly falling asleep. A man sitting across the aisle from the rule-breaking passenger can be seen flagging down a flight attendant, who rushes over and hits the man's chest to wake him up and inform him what he's doing is illegal.
- BusinessArchitectural Digest
AD PRO's 20 Favorite Furnishings from ICFF
Miss New York's International Contemporary Furniture Fair? Senior style and market editor Benjamin Reynaert shares his favorite new products that launched at the fair Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
- PoliticsThe Daily Beast
Sarah Sanders: Trump Agrees With Dictator Kim Jong Un's 'Assessment' of 'Low IQ' Joe Biden
Appearing on NBC News' Meet the Press on Sunday morning, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders doubled down on her boss's endorsement of a totalitarian dictator's attacks on one of his political opponents—an opponent who also happens to be a former American vice-president. While overseas during a four-day trip to Japan, President Trump tweeted that he wasn't bothered by North Korea firing off “some small weapons” because the nation's brutal leader made him smile “when he called Swampman Joe Biden a low IQ individual. Perhaps that's sending me a signal?
- WorldThe National Interest
Eating Way Too Much Rice Almost Doomed Japan's Imperial Navy
After the war, the Emergency Beriberi Investigative Committee investigated the disease's devastation of Japanese ranks. In August 1882 in Incheon Bay near Seoul, four Japanese warships were locked in a tense stand-off with two Chinese warships that had brought troops to quell a revolt on the Korean peninsula. On paper, the Japanese flotilla outnumbered the Chinese, but the hulls of the Japanese ships hid a deadly secret.
PoliticsYahoo News VideoJudge blocks Trump from building sections of U.S.-Mexico border wall
A federal judge on Friday blocked President Trump from building key sections of his border wall with money secured under his declaration of a national emergency, delivering what may prove a temporary setback on one of his highest priorities.
PoliticsReutersTrump appeals ruling allowing banks to hand his financial records to Congress
U.S. President Donald Trump, three of his children and the Trump Organization on Friday appealed a court order allowing Deutsche Bank AG and Capital One Financial Corp to hand their financial records over to Democratic lawmakers. They are asking the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan to overrule U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos, who on Wednesday refused to block the banks from responding to subpoenas issued last month by two U.S. House of Representatives committees.
NewsAssociated PressBodies in submerged Missouri vehicle bring storm toll to 9
The bodies of a man and a woman were discovered Friday in a submerged vehicle near the Mississippi River in Missouri, bringing the death toll to nine from storms that have ravaged the central U.S. this week and threaten major flooding through the holiday weekend. John Reinhardt, 20, and Caitlin Frangel, 19, both of Hazelwood, Missouri, were reported missing May 15. Missouri State Highway Patrol Trooper Dallas Thompson said an autopsy determined they both drowned.
- NewsThe Independent
Violence and disruption against abortion clinics at highest rates since 1999
Violence and disruption against abortion clinics in the US increased to its highest levels since the 1990s last year, a report by the National Abortion Federation has found. The increase in violence was attributed, at least in part, to president Donald Trump and his administration's rhetoric. “Anti-choice individuals and groups have been emboldened by the rhetoric of president Trump, vice president Pence, and other elected officials and we are seeing this play out in more instances of activities meant to intimidate abortion providers and disrupt patient services,” said Dr Katherine Hancock Ragsdale, who serves as interim president and CEO of NAF.
- NewsReuters
U.S. states ask education secretary to forgive disabled veterans' student loans
A bipartisan group of state attorneys general on Friday called on U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to forgive more than $1 billion of student loans burdening more than 42,000 veterans who became permanently disabled through their military service. Led by New Jersey Democrat Gurbir Grewal and Utah Republican Sean Reyes, the 51 state and territorial attorneys general said they welcomed federal efforts to make loan discharges easier to obtain, but said the U.S. Department of Education should stop requiring veterans to take affirmative steps to get them done. "The current approach is inadequate," the attorneys general said in a letter to DeVos.
- WorldThe Telegraph
Facebook accused of leaving 'broken children' in wake of its commercial aims, abuse inquiry hears
Facebook has been accused of leaving 'broken children' as collateral damage in the wake of their commercial aims, the child sex abuse inquiry has heard. Barrister William Chapman, representing the victims of abuse at the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), said social media companies were not preventing paedophiles reaching children as it was “contrary to their business model” and that their apps needed to be “fundamentally redesigned”. Police also warned that tech firms were going ahead with plans to encrypt more features "in the certain knowledge" it would lead to more children being abused.
- NewsThe National Interest
The Glock 36: A Really Big Gun in a Small Package
A derivative of the 1911A1 Government, in 2011 it was finally superseded by an even lighter pistol—the Glock 36. The 1911 .45 caliber pistol, designed by John Moses Browning, was one of the most successful pistols of all time.
WorldAFPChina digs in for protracted trade fight with US
China is digging in for a tough period of deteriorating ties with the United States, fanning the flames of patriotism with Korean War films, a viral song on the trade war, and editorials lambasting Washington. The trade spat has turned into a war of words since President Donald Trump blacklisted Huawei last week over concerns the telecom giant's equipment could be used by Beijing for espionage. The move, which bans US companies from providing technology Huawei needs, came as the two sides have yet to resume trade negotiations after they exchanged steep increases in tariffs.
- BusinessThe Daily Beast
Scouted: The 10 Best Memorial Day Mattress Sales, According to Experts
Memorial Day Weekend is famous for the many mattress sales it surfaces — and this year is no exception. To help you sift through all of your options, we teamed up with the expert reviewers over at Mattress Advisor to help us break down each of the best mattress deals around right now. Using a 6-point testing procedure and 8-point evaluation* in their Mattress Lab for every single mattress, they gave us some tips on what Scouted readers should know and keep in mind as they're shopping this Memorial Day weekend for the greatest savings and highest quality mattress.
- BusinessConsumer Reports
First American Financial Data Leak Exposed Millions of Mortgage-Related Files
Consumer Reports has no financial relationship with advertisers on this site. Consumer Reports has no financial relationship with advertisers on this site. The leak of hundreds of millions of records by real estate title insurance company First American Financial could put the most private personal information of many American consumers at risk.
- SportsCar and Driver
Back Home Again in Indiana: 11 Things to See or Do en Route to the Indy 500
Some places you'll want to visit on your way to (or home from) the Greatest Spectacle in Racing. From Car and Driver
WorldAssociated PressPolice hunt suspect after explosion in French city of Lyon
French police on Saturday hunted a suspect believed to have deposited a paper bag containing a device that exploded Friday, wounding 13 people on a busy pedestrian street in the city of Lyon. French President Emmanuel Macron called the explosion an "attack" during a live interview Friday about the European Parliament elections that run through Sunday. The man was seen arriving on foot, pushing his bike along the pedestrian-only Victor Hugo street, then leaving paper bag on a concrete block in the middle of the street near a bakery.
- WorldThe Independent
Pope Francis likens abortion in any scenario to ‘hiring a hitman’
Pope Francis has compared having an abortion to hiring a hitman and said the procedure can never be condoned, even when the foetus is gravely sick. Speaking at a Vatican-sponsored anti-abortion conference, he urged doctors and priests to support families to carry all pregnancies to full term. The pontiff said that the matter was not a religious issue but a human one.
WorldReutersGermany in push to resurrect Afghan talks with Taliban
Germany, a leading donor and member of the NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan, has been talking with the Taliban and the Afghan government in an effort to restart peace talks to end 18 years of conflict, officials said. While the Taliban have been talking with U.S. officials since October about a withdrawal of international troops, they have so far refused formal talks with the Western-backed government, which they dismiss as a "puppet" regime. Berlin's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Markus Potzel, has visited Kabul for talks with the Afghan government and met Taliban officials in Doha at least twice this month.
- WorldReuters
RPT-Hong Kong protestors demand China be held to account for 1989 Tiananmen crackdown
Thousands of protesters marched through central Hong Kong on Sunday as part of annual demonstrations demanding that China be held accountable for its democracy crackdown in and around Tiananmen Square three decades ago. Human rights groups and witnesses say that hundreds, perhaps thousands, died in the bloodshed as Chinese tanks rolled into Tiananmen Square and soldiers fired on student-led democracy protesters, beginning on the night of June 3, 1989. The Tiananmen crackdown is a taboo subject in China and authorities have refused to accept full accountability or release the death toll.
- PoliticsThe National Interest
Pelosi and Amash Clash Over the "I" Word
Ever since the Democratic Party won control of the House of Representatives in November, Nancy Pelosi has continually stated that impeachment is not on the agenda and that the party's goal is passing legislation and preparing for the 2020 elections. The House Speaker continues to hew to this line, despite the increasing disagreements of her fellow party members. While a poll conducted last month said 39 percent of Americans favor impeachment hearings, a full 70 percent of Democrats believe that should be the next move.
