PoliticsYahoo NewsTrump has sparked a shift in how some conservatives talk and think about abortion
A political cartoon that's been widely shared on Facebook shows a horse labeled “Christian Voters” pulling a buggy with an elephant — the GOP — holding the reins, while the horse tramples over three individuals who represent “the Widow,” “the Orphan” and “the Stranger.” The Republican elephant dangles a giant carrot — labeled “Overturn Roe v. Wade” — in front of the horse, while driving a cart labeled “Corporate Interests” that carries bags of money bearing the words “Tax Cuts for 1%.” It's a critique of conservative evangelicals that is picking up steam — including among evangelicals.
U.S.Miami Herald‘She hit her face!’ Watch a Delta passenger smack a flight attendant on board plane
This one involved a flight attendant and a passenger. “Chasing Atlanta” star Lauryn England was on a Delta flight from Miami to Atlanta on Monday night when all hell broke loose in the aisle right before takeoff. England was just feet away from the action and took video of a fight between a female passenger and flight attendant.
- WorldReuters
Exclusive: Australian writer detained in Beijing told supporter he was a former Chinese spy
Yang Hengjun, an Australian writer detained in Beijing and facing trial for espionage on behalf of a country China hasn't publicly named was a former Chinese spy, according to a confidential letter he wrote to a supporter in 2011. In the detailed letter he wrote to his former teacher, which was reviewed by Reuters, Yang revealed he had worked for China's Ministry of State Security for a decade from 1989, including in Hong Kong and Washington, before moving to Australia. The 55-year-old, who became a well-known pro-democracy blogger, faces 10 years or more in jail after Chinese authorities charged him with endangering national security by joining or accepting a mission from the unidentified espionage organisation, said Feng Chongyi, the Sydney-based liberal scholar who Yang sent the letter to.
LifestyleArchitectural DigestThe 2021 IKEA Catalog Is Finally Here!
An array of nifty products that are both brand-new and tried-and-true Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
PoliticsUSA TODAYFact check: Biden leveraged $1B in aid to Ukraine to oust corrupt prosecutor, not to help his son
The claim: Joe Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion from Ukraine to assist his son, Hunter Biden While former Vice President Joe Biden oversaw foreign policy in Ukraine, his son Hunter Biden served on the board of Burisma Holdings, the largest gas company in the fledgling democracy. Despite a recently concluded investigation by Senate Republicans that found no wrongdoing by the Bidens, claims to the contrary have continued to circulate on social media. "VP Biden threatened to withhold 1 billion dollars from Ukraine to save his son's job," reads a meme posted to Facebook by Secure America Now.
WorldAssociated PressCyprus, Greece, Egypt to Turkey: drop the rancor, join us
The leaders of Cyprus, Egypt and Greece on Wednesday renewed an invitation to Turkey to become a partner in reaping the potential benefits of offshore gas deposits, while urging Ankara to end its “aggressive” actions in the eastern Mediterranean. Their one-day regional summit in Cyprus came amid high tension between neighbors and NATO allies Greece and Turkey over maritime borders, after Ankara sent a research vessel, escorted by warships, to disputed waters between the Greek islands, southern Turkey and Cyprus. Turkey has also sent drilling ships where Cyprus says it has exclusive economic rights.
- PoliticsReuters Videos
Early voting soars as Biden leads Trump in polls
Early voting began on Oct. 7 in the battleground state, where the Republican president's Democratic opponent Joe Biden has a narrow lead, according to recent opinion polls. TRUMP: "You don't have events like this and you come in second in Arizona, okay? You don't do that."
PoliticsYahoo NewsWhy 780 retired generals and former national security leaders spoke out against Trump
On June 1, retired Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli sat staring out at the Pacific Ocean in Gearhart, Ore., where his family had vacationed throughout his long military career. In a Rose Garden speech that afternoon, President Trump addressed the racial justice protests spreading across the nation after the brutal killing of George Floyd in police custody a week earlier. In the speech, Trump proclaimed himself “your president of law and order,” and claimed the protests had been hijacked by “professional anarchists, violent mobs, arsonists, looters, criminals, rider rioters, antifa and others” intent on “domestic terror.”
WorldReutersVatican number two says deal with China on appointment of bishops will be renewed
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said on Wednesday that a controversial deal with Beijing on the appointment of Roman Catholic bishops in China would be renewed. Asked by reporters on the sidelines of an event at a Rome university if it was a done deal, Parolin said: "Yes, I can anticipate to you that all will go well ... I'll leave you with a positive signal." The accord with Beijing gives the pope final say over the appointment of Chinese bishops and the government allows all of them, including those hailing from a state-backed Church, to recognise the pope's authority.
TechnologyMiami HeraldFake nude photos of thousands of real women are circulating online, report finds
A bot on the messaging app Telegram is able to virtually undress clothed women to create more than 100,000 deepfake nude photos, according to a new report. The women are real — and the photographs often come from their social media profiles. “Having a social media account with public photos is enough for anyone to become a target,” Giorgio Patrini, chief executive officer and chief scientist at Sensity, told the BBC.
- WorldAssociated Press
UK warship seizes 450 kilograms of meth in Arabian Sea
A British royal navy vessel seized 450 kilograms (990 pounds) of methamphetamine in the northern Arabian Sea in the largest-ever bust by a joint maritime operation in the region, officials said Wednesday. While drug lab busts have dropped in recent years in Iran, there appears to be an uptick in meth drug labs in Afghanistan, from where it is smuggled through Pakistan, the United Nations said in its 2020 World Drug Report. Both Pakistan and Iran sit on the northern Arabian Sea.
PoliticsYahoo News'Pastel QAnon,' where pro-Trump conspiracy theories meet New Age spirituality
In March, as the coronavirus pandemic was forcing much of the U.S. into lockdown, Seane Corn, a prominent yoga instructor and social justice activist started to receive messages from friends and fellow teachers about the rapidly spreading virus that, she says, “just felt paranoid.” “What they were trying to help get me to understand was ... not to trust the government, that there was this deep-state conspiracy related to COVID where, via Bill Gates, they're going to be microchipping us through the use of mandated vaccines,” Corn told Yahoo News. “If you just dug a little deeper, it was like all roads led to QAnon,” said Corn, referring to the cult-like network that promotes the delusion that President Trump is secretly working to dismantle an international child sex trafficking ring run by a cabal of satanic global elites.
PoliticsReutersRepublican senators ask EPA not to boost refinery biofuel obligations in 2021
A group of U.S. Republican senators asked the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday to consider a general waiver that would prevent an increase in biofuel blending obligations next year for oil refiners hit by a collapse in fuel demand because of the coronavirus pandemic. Senators including Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and Ted Cruz from Texas said the waiver for 2021 would help refiners cope with the pandemic, which has pushed gasoline demand down more than 10% from year-ago levels. U.S. laws require the refining industry to blend increasing amounts of biofuels into their fuels each year, requirements that have helped farmers by creating a huge market for corn-based ethanol, but which refiners say is costly.
PoliticsThe Independent'Desperate smear campaign': Biden breaks silence on son's laptop as Delaware AG refers Rudy Giuliani's child endangerment claims to FBI
Joe Biden broke his silence on Hunter Biden's laptop to dispute claims his son enriched himself using the family name as "garbage" from Donald Trump's henchman, Rudy Giuliani, in a desperate, last-ditch smear campaign. It comes as the Delaware Department of Justice confirmed to The Independent that it has referred to the Federal Bureau of Investigation the latest claims from Mr Giuliani that possible evidence of child endangerment was found on the laptop. When asked if there was any legitimacy to a Homeland Security report alleging his son profited off the former vice president's name, Mr Biden said there was "none whatsoever" and that the “vast majority of intelligence people” said there wa...
U.S.USA TODAYVanessa Guillén, Fort Hood soldier who went missing in April, died 'in the line of duty,' Army says
U.S. Army officials announced Tuesday that Vanessa Guillén, the 20-year-old Fort Hood soldier who went missing in April, died "in the line of duty." "The Army conducts a line of duty determination for all Soldier deaths," Fort Hood officials said in a statement. The line-of-duty determination means that Guillén's family will receive Army benefits, such as compensation for expenses, the Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance, allowances and a funeral with full military honors.
WorldAssociated PressPakistan army to probe troops' role in arrest of politician
Pakistan's army chief Tuesday ordered an investigation into allegations that a provincial police chief was kidnapped by army troops to force him to order the arrest of the son-in-law of exiled former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. In a statement, the military said army chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa ordered the military commander in the port city of Karachi to begin a probe into the accusation. The development comes a day after Sharif's son-in-law, Mohammad Safdar, was briefly arrested after opposition parties held a rally protesting the administration of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
WorldReutersAstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine trial Brazil volunteer dies, trial to continue
Brazilian health authority Anvisa said on Wednesday that a volunteer in a clinical trial of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University had died but added that the trial would continue. Oxford confirmed the plan to keep testing, saying in a statement that after careful assessment "there have been no concerns about safety of the clinical trial." AstraZeneca declined to comment immediately.
PoliticsReutersDemocrats to boycott Senate panel vote on Trump Supreme Court pick
Democrats said on Wednesday they will boycott a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee vote scheduled for Thursday on President Donald Trump's nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, calling the confirmation process "a sham." The committee has 12 Republicans and 10 Democrats. Its Republican chairman, Lindsey Graham, has signaled that even with Democrats boycotting he will be able to move the nomination forward, according to a panel spokeswoman.
WorldAssociated PressRussia calls for collective security in Gulf, US blames Iran
Russia's foreign minister called for collective efforts Tuesday to prevent a large-scale war in the Persian Gulf and got strong support from all Security Council members except the United States, which called Iran the major culprit and urged that it be held accountable for supporting terrorists and destabilizing the region. Sergey Lavrov told a high-level virtual council meeting that a worst case scenario was avoided earlier this year following the U.S. killing of Iran's top general, Qassem Soleimani, and warned that “the situation remains fragile and could become dangerous and unpredictable again.”
U.S.The Daily BeastWhite Supremacist Had List of Feds to Kill and Doxx: Unsealed File
When members of a white supremacist street-fighting gang caught charges for their participation in a deadly riot, fellow travelers on the website Gab had a suggestion: Doxx the U.S. officials involved in the case, or maybe just kill them. A newly unsealed search warrant application from October 2018 reveals that feds were interested in threats made to federal law enforcement on the extremist-friendly social network. The threats concerned a Department of Justice official, a U.S. attorney, a prosecutor, and others involved in a federal case against members of the white supremacist Rise Above Movement.
PoliticsThe IndependentTrump news – live: Obama says his successor 'failed to take job seriously' as he hits campaign trail
Donald Trump reportedly retains a “secret” bank account in China, according to The New York Times's latest investigation of his tax records, making a nonsense of his flailing attempts to tie Joe Biden to the political interests of Beijing. Meanwhile, a Democratic super PAC comprised of Silicon Valley megadonors and fronted by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskowitz has announced it plans to invest $100m in pro-Biden TV advertising in the final two weeks of the election race in a bid to help oust the president.
PoliticsMiami HeraldDo we really want to go through this on a regular basis? Then no term limits on Supreme Court justices | Opinion
President Trump's nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the U.S. Supreme Court has ignited an expected, yet unfortunate, conflagration on the left. Most Americans, regardless of political party, recoil at that idea, which is why Joe Biden and Kamala Harris refuse to answer direct questions on the subject. Now their handmaids in the media and on Capitol Hill have recently trotted out another misguided proposal that they hope will be more popular — term limits for Supreme Court justices.
U.S.The Daily BeastGhislaine Maxwell Deposition, Discussing Sex Life and Jeffrey Epstein, Ordered Released by Thursday at 9 a.m.
Transcripts of interviews conducted with alleged sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell that referenced her former boyfriend, the dead pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, and contain intimate details about her sex life, should be made public no later than 9 a.m. ET Thursday, a New York judge ordered Tuesday. The controversial transcripts, long sought-after by some of Epstein's victims and the media, are expected to shine an unprecedented light on Maxwell and Epstein's life together and come from two days of depositions in 2016 for a since-settled libel case filed against Maxwell by Epstein accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre. Maxwell's legal team has argued the deposition contains “intimate” information about her sex life and other personal matters.
- WorldAssociated Press
Germany grants Hong Kong pro-democracy protester asylum
A 22-year-old university student from Hong Kong says she has been given refugee status by Germany after demonstrating against the city's extradition law. Germany's Federal Office for Migration and Refugees would neither confirm nor deny granting the protester asylum, citing the country's strict privacy laws. However the woman, who identified herself only as Elaine and declined to give other personal details to protect her family in Hong Kong, showed The Associated Press paperwork confirming her refugee status was granted Oct. 14.
BusinessThe WeekExxonMobil quickly says Trump's hypothetical bribery call with its CEO 'never happened'
President Trump made a hypothetical statement during a rally on Monday, using ExxonMobil as an example of a company he could call and ask for campaign donations in exchange for government favors. The oil giant quickly tweeted a clarification. "We are aware of the president's statement regarding a hypothetical call with our CEO," ExxonMobil stated, "and just so we're all clear, it never happened."
“Until solar and wind power take more of the energy load, I like not paying an arm and a leg to heat my house.”
“It is imperative to ramp down greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible.”
“Any kind of ban on fracking would cause severe damage to our stressed economy.”
“Climate scientists are urging us to leave all fossil fuels in the ground so that they’ll never be burned. That includes natural gas.”
“Any immediate economic repercussions to the economy can be offset if oil-and-gas companies are made to pay their fair share.”