- WorldReuters
U.S. will act if Iranian tanker tries to deliver oil to Syria: Pompeo
The United States will take every action it can to prevent an Iranian tanker sailing in the Mediterranean from delivering oil to Syria in contravention of U.S. sanctions, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned on Tuesday. Greece said earlier in the day that it had not had a request from the Adrian Darya 1, the vessel at the center of a dispute between Iran and the United States, to dock at one of its ports, as Washington warned Greece against helping the vessel. The tanker, formerly called Grace 1, left Gibraltar on Sunday.
- NewsAssociated Press
Trial starts in case of fatal shooting over parking spot
A prosecutor told jurors Wednesday that a white Florida man who fatally shot an unarmed black man during a dispute over a parking space had initiated a similar confrontation just months before, while his defense attorney said the shooting was in self-defense. Prosecutor Fred Schaub said during opening statements of Michael Drejka's manslaughter trial in Clearwater that five months before he fatally shot Markeis McGlockton in July 2018, the defendant had threatened another driver about parking in a handicapped parking spot at the same convenience store. Five months later, Drejka confronted McGlockton's girlfriend for parking in a handicapped space.
- NewsNational Review
CNN Pundit’s Bodyguard Charged with Assault after Removing Reporter Covering Her Speech
CNN pundit April Ryan's security guard has been charged with assault after he forcibly removed a local New Jersey reporter from an event at which Ryan was delivering a speech. Charlie Kravotil, editor of New Brunswick Today, claims that Ryan's bodyguard, 30-year-old Joel Morris, approached him during Ryan's speech at The Heldrich Hotel on August 3 and stole his camera after he refused to stop filming. A video of the incident shows Kravotil, who secured press credentials for the event, following Morris into the lobby of the hotel to retrieve his camera.
- ScienceBusiness Insider
The northernmost reaches of the Earth are on fire. Here's what this record-breaking hot summer looks like from space.
The link between fires and climate change Individual wildfires and heat waves can't be directly linked to climate change, but accelerated warming increases their likelihood, size, and frequency. July was the hottest month ever recorded, period. The month prior, meanwhile, was the hottest June ever in Earth's history, with temperatures nearly 20 degrees Fahrenheit above average.
- NewsUSA TODAY
'Storm Area 51' event pushes rural Nevada county to declare emergency
LAS VEGAS, Nev. – Commissioners in Nevada's rural Lincoln County have voted to pre-sign an emergency declaration ahead of the "Storm Area 51" raid event that's so far drawn more than 2 million RSVPs on Facebook. "We passed this with the caveat that this may or may not happen," said District D Commissioner Kevin Phillips. "We're just trying to do the best we can to prepare for something we know not of. California resident Matty Roberts created the event – called "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us" – in June after listening to an episode of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast.
NewsAFPAlbania bulldozes restaurant after owner attacks tourists
Albanian officials on Wednesday razed a beachfront restaurant whose owner was captured on camera attacking a car rented by Spanish tourists, as the country scrambles to clean up its reputation as a burgeoning holiday destination. The incident, filmed by the victims' tour guide from inside their vehicle, took place at the weekend in Porto-Palermo on the Ionian coast in southern Albania, a popular tourist spot. The restaurant owner, 51-year-old Mihal Kokedhima, was arrested and faces trial for "verbally assaulting a group of Spanish tourists for futile reasons", damaging their car and causing minor injuries, police said.
- PoliticsBloomberg
Biden Cites Jewish Proverb to Condemn Trump: Campaign Update
Jews “understand that and Trump does not understand it at all,” Biden said Wednesday after a campaign stop in Newton, Iowa, in which he called Trump's questioning the loyalty of Jewish people a “dog whistle. That's not who the American Jewish community is,” Biden told reporters. The American Jewish community is extremely well informed and involved and they come from a core value set.
- WorldINSIDER
A Mexican judge says 2 people can legally use cocaine — but they can't buy or sell it
Mexico United Against Crime said in a press release on Tuesday that the rulings open the door for a larger debate about legalizing cocaine, and whether law enforcement should focus its resources on violent crime rather than drug use. A court in Mexico has granted two people the legal right to carry and use cocaine in a landmark case launched by a pro-legalization group. Mexico United Against Crime announced on Tuesday that a court in Mexico City had granted two injunctions ordering the government to allow plaintiffs to "possess, transport and use cocaine," but not to sell or buy it, AFP reported.
- BusinessCar and Driver
Ford's "Mustang-Inspired" Mach E Electric SUV Steps Out in Prototype Form
These spy photos give us our first look at the upcoming Ford Mach E electric crossover in the flesh. While we can't see much through the heavy camouflage, we can see glimpses at the Mustang-inspired front end. The Mach E will debut sometime in 2020, likely as a 2021 model.
- WorldReuters
U.S. removed almost 2.7 million barrels daily of Iranian oil from market: Pompeo
The United States has removed nearly 2.7 million barrels of Iranian oil from global markets daily as a result of Washington's decision to reimpose sanctions on all purchases of Iran's crude, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday. In an interview with MSNBC, Pompeo said the U.S. government was confident it could continue with its strategy. The United States re-imposed sanctions on Iran in November after pulling out of a 2015 nuclear accord between Tehran and six world powers.
- NewsThe Daily Beast
Police Arrest Two Louisiana Men in 39-Year-Old Cold Case Murder of Teen
After nearly four decades, Louisiana police have charged two men they believe brutally raped and murdered an 18-year-old girl before disposing of her body in the woods. Leo Laird, 64, and Gary Haymon, 54, were both charged on Monday in the death of 18-year-old Donna Gayle Brazzell, according to the Rapides Parish Sheriff's Office. The young woman's skeletal remains were found near Nichols Cemetery Road in 1980, but authorities were unable to identify them until last month.
- LifestyleDelish
Boycott the Oven With These Summer Slow Cooker Recipes
For those 'not turning on the oven today' moods. From Delish
- WorldReuters
Climate change will cripple economies regardless of countries' wealth- report
NEW YORK, Aug 20 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Climate change will damage the economies of countries whether they are rich or poor, hot or cold by the year 2100, economists said in a new report, dispelling the notion that impoverished, warm countries will suffer the most on a warming planet. Researchers who examined data from 174 countries over 50 years found that persistent temperature changes above or below a country's historical norm adversely affected economic growth, regardless of how warm a country is. The United States could see a 10% loss in gross domestic product (GDP) without significant policy change.
- U.S.Meredith Videos
Farmer Behind the U.S.'s Largest Organic Food Fraud Scheme Dies by Suicide
A Missouri farmer blamed for running the largest organic food fraud scheme in U.S. history has died by suicide, weeks before he was to report to federal prison to begin serving a 10-year term, a coroner said Tuesday.
WorldAFPTeens swept up in night raids in Kashmir clampdown
Ali Mohammad Rah sat on the pavement outside a police station in Kashmir's main city of Srinagar on Tuesday, waiting to see his teenage sons, who were swept up in government raids overnight. "Soldiers violently banged windows of our home while we were sleeping," Rah told AFP, saying his sons -- aged 14 and 16 -- were taken away before dawn in the Srinagar neighbourhood of Mehjoor Nagar. Government sources say at least 4,000 people have been detained in Kashmir since India revoked the restive Himalayan region's autonomy on August 5 and imposed a massive security lockdown on the restive region.
- PoliticsThe Independent
Trump’s White House guest list favours smaller European countries over traditional allies
When Klaus Iohannis smiled for cameras alongside Donald Trump on Tuesday, the Romanian president became the 10th European leader to visit the president at the White House this year. Instead, Mr Trump has courted and been courted by Central and Eastern European leaders. For Mr Trump, the region offers the potential for new trade, energy and military arrangements that can sometimes circumvent Western Europe and tweak traditional leaders, such as Angela Merkel.
- PoliticsNational Review
Sanders Hits Back after Co-Sponsor Harris Criticizes Medicare for All
Senator Bernie Sanders hit back at Senator Kamala Harris Monday evening after Harris said at a fundraiser in the Hamptons that she has “not been comfortable” with the Medicare for All plan she cosponsored with Sanders. If I ever visited there, I would tell them the same thing I have said for the last 30 years: We must pass a Medicare for All system to guarantee affordable health care for all, not just for those who can afford it. “I think almost every member of the United States Senate who's running for president, and many others, have signed on to a variety of plans in the Senate.
- NewsINSIDER
A man lost his wife in the El Paso Walmart shooting, then his car was stolen during her funeral. His community came together to replace it.
Antonio Basco's blue Ford Escape was stolen and totaled hours after he hosted a funeral for his wife, Margie Reckard, who was among 21 people were killed at an El Paso Walmart on August 3. "We donated it to him so that he could have a mode of transportation and still have a connection to his wife," Ronnie Lowenfield, who owns Casa Ford Lincoln with his brothers, told Buzzfeed News. Antonio Basco lived in his blue Ford Escape in the Walmart parking lot for nearly a week after his wife Margie Reckard was among 21 people killed in the store on August 3.
- PoliticsBusiness Insider
Joe Biden's former brain surgeon explains why he's not too old to be president
At age 76, former Vice President Joe Biden would be the oldest president to take office if he became the Democratic nominee and won the 2020 election. Despite his current status as the frontrunner in the race, Biden's age and gaffe-prone tendency have raised some questions as to whether he could be too old to be president. The neurosurgeon who treated Biden for brain aneurysms in 1988 recently told Politico that "Biden is every bit as sharp as he was 31 years ago" and "he had no brain damage" from the surgeries.
- NewsUSA TODAY
Prosecutor: Cannibalism victim was butchered 'like you wouldn't kill a livestock animal'
When police in Jeffersonville, Indiana, found Tammy Jo Blanton's dismembered body in her bathtub, it was draped with a camping tent with at least 25 stab wounds and blunt-force injuries on her throat, neck, nose, mouth, lips, fingers and chest, a prosecutor told a Clark County jury at a murder trial Wednesday. "Joseph Oberhansley butchered Tammy Blanton like you wouldn't kill a livestock animal," Clark County prosecutor Jeremy Mull told 12 jurors and four alternates who were bused to Jeffersonville from Hamilton County on Wednesday for Oberhansley's trial. The prosecution and defense agreed to take the death penalty off the table if Oberhansley's attorneys agreed not to use insanity as a defense.
- WorldTime
Catholic Priest Abuse Survivors' Group Says It's 'Cowardly' That Convicted Cardinal Has Not Been Defrocked
Massimo Faggioli, a professor of historical theology at Villanova University, a private Catholic institution, says that he believes the Vatican's handling of the Pell case shows it made a strategic decision to allow Pell to face secular justice – –and that shows progress. Faggioli contends that Pell's conviction has caused a divide between the conservative and liberal sides in the Church, and by not interfering the Vatican is remaining neutral. He recalls the Church's controversial handling of Boston's Cardinal Bernard Francis Law, who was accused of covering up child sex abuse.
- BusinessReuters
Farmer's threat prompts U.S. Agriculture Department to pull staff from crop tour
CORALVILLE, Iowa/CHICAGO (Reuters) - The U.S. Agriculture Department said on Wednesday it had pulled all staff from an annual crop tour after an employee was threatened, and three sources said the threat of violence was made during a phone call from an angry farmer. Lance Honig, crops chief at the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service, was among the USDA staffers who had to leave the privately-run Pro Farmer tour, three sources with knowledge of the situation said. A local police officer was present at an event in Coralville, Iowa, on Wednesday evening, a Reuters witness said.
- NewsAssociated Press
The Latest: Philadelphia police commissioner resigning
The Latest on the resignation of the Philadelphia Police commissioner (all times local): 6:40 p.m. A Philadelphia official says the resignation of Police Commissioner Richard Ross is related to allegations made by a corporal and a patrol officer against several department employees. Deana Gamble is a spokeswoman for Mayor Jim Kenney.
ScienceAFPIndia's Moon probe enters lunar orbit
India's Chandrayaan 2 spacecraft entered lunar orbit on Tuesday, executing one of the trickiest manoeuvres on its historic mission to the Moon. After four weeks in space, the craft completed its Lunar Orbit Insertion as planned, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said in a statement. India is seeking to become just the fourth nation after Russia, the United States and China to land a spacecraft on the Moon.
- PoliticsThe Daily Beast
Fox News Tried to Get Jill Abramson to Call the New York Times Biased. It Backfired.
During a lengthy Fox News interview on Wednesday morning, former New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson repeatedly frustrated America's Newsroom anchors Sandra Smith and Jon Scott as she rebuffed their attempts to get her to criticize the paper's coverage of President Trump. In recent days, Fox News has been laser-focused on a transcript of the newspaper's recent town-hall meeting, claiming it showed current Times executive editor Dean Baquet admitting the paper switched narratives from the Russia investigation to racism in an effort to take out the president.
