Shinzo Abe 'will offer to mediate with Iran' as Donald Trump sends 1,500 troops to Middle East

Shinzo Abe, the Japanese prime minister, is set to offer himself as a mediator amid the escalation of tensions between the United States and Iran. Mr Trump landed in Tokyo on Saturday for a four-day visit during which Mr Abe will discuss the proposal with him, and seek his consent. The Japanese leader is considering a visit to Tehran net month to mediate with President Hassan Rouhani, according to media reports in Japan, and a final decision may depend on the results of his talks with Mr Trump.

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  Iran vows to defend itself against military and economic aggression

  CBS News Videos
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  Pakistan PM warns against war in region amid Iran tensions with U.S., Saudi

  Reuters

Rescuers search for survivors after Oklahoma tornado kills at least two

The tornado that hit El Reno on Saturday night was the latest in a barrage of violent weather that is expected to continue after pounding the Central Plains states last week with deadly tornadoes, high winds, drenching thunderstorms and widespread flooding. In addition to the two fatalities, 29 people suffered minor to critical injuries in the El Reno twister and hundreds more were displaced, the city's mayor said. People have absolutely lost everything." Rescue workers searched the debris field that had been a mobile home park and an Americas Best Value Inn motor lodge where the tornado did its worst damage in the community about 25 miles (40 km) west of Oklahoma City.

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  At Least 2 Killed and 29 Injured After Tornado 'Decimated' Oklahoma City Suburb

  People
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  'We're trapped': Likely tornado rips through Oklahoma town

  WPVI – Philadelphia

Police 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.

Five key takeaways from the EU elections

The EU elections have been marked by successes for the far right, a surge by the Greens and setbacks for traditional parties across the continent. AFP selects five takeaways as the first results come in across Europe: - Far-right, populists advance - The first results and projections suggested France's eurosceptic far-right National Rally party led by Marine Le Pen was set to finish top in France, narrowly ahead of the ruling faction of President Emmanuel Macron. In Italy, Interior Minister Matteo Salvini's far-right League was set to win the most votes, and Germany's far-right AfD was set to improve on their 2014 score of 7.1 percent, with exit polls seeing it coming in at 10.5 percent.

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  Sajid Javid says EU election result 'hugely disappointing'

  Reuters
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  EU elections: Greek prime minister calls for snap vote after party’s loss

  MarketWatch

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

Missing yoga instructor found alive in Hawaii after 16 days

Rescue crew helicopter spots Amanda Eller in Hawaiian rainforest.

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  Yoga teacher Amanda Eller, who survived 2 weeks in a Hawaii forest, out of hospital

  ABC News
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  Yoga Teacher 'Chose Life' Despite 'Wanting to Give Up' After Disappearing in Forest for 17 Days

  People

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.

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  Rape survivors in the US already not able to access abortions, campaigners warn

  The Independent
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  Abortion Clinics Reported A Surge In Trespassing, Vandalism & A Historic High Of Picketing

  Refinery29

A Climber Who Died on Everest Warned on Instagram That Overcrowding Could 'Prove Fatal'

A British mountaineer, among the latest to die while climbing Mount Everest in less than two weeks, wrote about his worries that overcrowding on the mountain could “prove fatal” in the days before he lost his life while descending. Robin Haynes Fisher died of what appeared to be altitude sickness at around 28,215 feet, according to CNN. Fisher wrote in his last post on Instagram that he was delaying his summit to May 25, intending to avoid the crowd of climbers who were planning their routes for an earlier date.

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  At least 5 climbers have died in the past week climbing Mt. Everest

  ABC News Videos
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  British climber who died on Everest had posted about worries over queues before his death

  Yahoo News UK

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.

US sanctions on Iran felt in Iraqi Shiite tourist districts

For years, Karar Hussein has sold sweets in his shop near the entrance to one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines, accepting whatever currency was offered to him by his clients, many of them religious tourists from neighboring Iran. Hussein and many other shop owners in Baghdad's northern Shiite holy neighborhood of Kadhimiya have seen sales drop sharply over the past year since President Donald Trump began re-imposing sanctions on Iran, home to the largest number of Shiite Muslims around the world. The value of Iran's currency, the rial, has decreased almost fourfold, pushing the price of nearly everything beyond the reach of ordinary Iranian consumers in Iran and abroad.

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.

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  Jayme Closs Says Her Kidnapper "Can't Take My Freedom" In A Powerful Statement

  Refinery29
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  Sentencing for the man who kidnapped Jayme Closs

  ABC News Videos

'Green wave' in EU vote amid climate crisis

With double-digit scores across Europe's biggest countries including a stunning 20 percent in Germany, the Greens bagged record gains in EU elections on Sunday with younger voters leading calls for action to halt global warming. The environmental party doubled its score in Germany from the last EU elections in 2014, knocking the Social Democrats off their traditional second place. In France, the Greens were number three with 12 percent, while in Austria, Ireland and the Netherlands, they garnered double-digits.

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  Sajid Javid says EU election result 'hugely disappointing'

  Reuters
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  EU elections: Greek prime minister calls for snap vote after party’s loss

  MarketWatch

Rouhani says Iran could hold referendum on nuclear programme as tensions with US rise

Iran's president Hassan Rouhani has suggested that the Islamic Republic could hold a public referendum on its nuclear programme, in the wake of rising tensions in the Persian Gulf. "Article 59 of the Constitution (referendum) is a deadlock breaker ... and could be a problem-solver at any junction," the semi-official news agency ILNA quoted Rouhani as saying late on Saturday. The statement followed Mr Rouhani's public dressing-down by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for his handling of the country's fast-unravelling nuclear deal.

Two journalists released in Libya: TV channel

Two Libyan journalists held by an armed group for more than three weeks have been released, the television channel they work for said Saturday. "We congratulate the press world for the release of our two colleagues, Mohamad al-Gurj and Mohamad al-Chibani, who were kidnapped by Haftar's forces on May 2 while they were covering the assault on Tripoli," said the private channel Libya al-Ahrar, which is based in Turkey. The capital's southern suburbs have been the target of an offensive launched April 4 by Khalifa Haftar, military strongman of an eastern administration aimed at seizing Tripoli from an internationally-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA).

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  Libya's Haftar rules out Tripoli ceasefire, dismisses U.N.-led talks: newspaper

  Reuters
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  2 Libyan reporters taken by commander Hifter's forces freed

  Associated Press

Hammond Warns U.K. Tory Leadership Hopefuls Over No-Deal Brexit

U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond warned Conservative leadership candidates that a government that tries to force a no-deal Brexit on Parliament risks being brought down in a no-confidence vote. “This is a very difficult situation,” he told the “Andrew Marr Show” on the BBC. “It would not just challenge me, but many of our colleagues and I hope we will never get to that position.” He dismissed talk of renegotiating the Brexit withdrawal agreement before the new October deadline as a “fig leaf” for a policy of leaving on no-deal terms.

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  Not sensible to aim exclusively for no deal Brexit - UK leadership frontrunner Johnson

  Reuters
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  UK's Nigel Farage demands a seat at Brexit talks

  Reuters

UK must be ready to leave EU without a deal: leadership contender Raab

Britain must be ready to leave the European Union without an exit deal on Oct. 31, former Brexit minister Dominic Raab said on Sunday, as he set out his pitch to succeed Theresa May as prime minister. "If you're not willing to walk away from a negotiation, it doesn't focus the mind of the other side," Raab told the BBC. "If you do that you can be really credible in Brussels." Raab said he would prefer Britain left with a deal but that he did not want to delay the planned Oct. 31 departure date.

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  EU election UK results and maps: Brexit Party wins nine of 10 regions, Lib Dems triumph in London

  The Telegraph
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  Conservative leadership election: How is the next Tory leader and Prime Minister selected?

  The Telegraph

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. Trump: So What if North Korea Fired Off Weapons? After Sanders said that Trump “still feels comfortable and confident in his relationship” with Kim despite recent missile tests and that the North Korean dictator will “stay true to the commitment” of denuclearization, host Chuck Todd asked her about the president's words.

• Trump agrees with North Korean leader Kim on Biden: White House

  Reuters
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  Trump and Kim Jong-un 'agree' Biden has a 'low IQ', White House says

  The Guardian

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.

Best Exterior Paints From Consumer Reports' Tests

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Get the Charming Look of the Kentucky Getaway

A former Kentucky tobacco farm morphs into a high-voltage weekend wonderland of pattern, color, and open-armed hospitality Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest

Pakistan PM warns against war in region amid Iran tensions with U.S., Saudi

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan warned against the risk of conflict in the region, following a visit to Islamabad by Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif as tensions between Washington and Tehran escalated. Strains have increased between Iran and the United States, which is a firm backer of Tehran's regional rival Saudi Arabia, in the wake of this month's attack on oil tankers in the Gulf region that Washington has blamed on Iran. Tehran has distanced itself from the bombings, but the United States has sent a aircraft carrier and an extra 1,500 troops to the Gulf, sparking concerns about the risks of conflict in a volatile region.