- WorldUSA TODAY
Britain warns Iran of 'serious consequences' if British-flagged oil tanker not released
Britain's Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt warned Iran of "serious consequences" if it does not release a British-flagged oil tanker it seized in the strategic Strait of Hormuz waterway on Friday, although he ruled out "military options." Hunt announced later in a tweet that he had spoken with Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and "expressed extreme disappointment" that Iran had "behaved in the opposite way" of trying to deescalate the situation. The seizing of the "Stena Impero" potentially marks the most significant escalation in tensions between Iran and the West since they began rising in May, about a year after the United States pulled out of an international accord aimed at Ir...
- NewsThe Daily Beast
Fox News Host to Geraldo Rivera: I Can Tell You to Go Back to Where You Came From
Defending Donald Trump's repeated racist taunts at Democratic congresswomen of color, Fox News host Pete Hegseth told correspondent-at-large Geraldo Rivera on Friday morning that it would be perfectly fine for him to utilize the president's “go back to where you came from” message on him. A day after Trump sorta disavowed the racist “send her back!” chant his rally crowd launched at Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rivera appeared on Fox & Friends and said he was “glad the president has said” he didn't like the chants. At the same time, Rivera noted that the president's original tweets targeting the “Squad” tapped into an “old racist trope,” something the longtime Trump pal had criticized the president for days earlier.
- NewsThe National Interest
Alleged American ISIS Sniper Brought Home by the Defense Department to Face Charges
An American citizen who allegedly served as a sniper for ISIS and became a leader for the terrorist group is expected to appear in federal court on Friday after being returned to the United States by the Defense Department, officials said. Ruslan Maratovich Asainov, who was born in Kazakhstan and became a naturalized U.S. citizen, is charged with providing and attempting to provide material support to ISIS, the Justice Department announced on Friday. A U.S. official confirmed to Task & Purpose that the Defense Department had transported Asainov from Syria to the United States.
PoliticsAssociated PressMueller probe witness now faces child sex trafficking charge
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) A businessman who served as a key witness in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation now faces a charge of child sex trafficking in addition to transporting child pornography. An indictment made public Friday in federal court in Alexandria charges Lebanese-American businessman George Nader, 60, with transporting a 14-year-old boy from Europe to Washington, D.C., in February 2000 and engaging in sex acts with him. It details his efforts to serve as liaison between a Russian banker close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and members of President Donald Trump's transition team.
PoliticsFOX News VideosBernie Sanders campaign reportedly resists unionized staff demands for $15 per hour
Presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders has pledged that he will raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour if he wins the White House in 2020.
NewsAFPNearly 150 mn people sweltering through deadly US heat wave
The United States was sweating through a weekend of dangerously hot weather, with major cities including New York, Philadelphia and Washington experiencing temperatures approaching 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius). An oppressive heat wave stretching from the Midwestern plains to the Atlantic coast had nearly 150 million people struggling to stay cool amid scorching temperatures. Heat index values -- combining the effect of heat and humidity -- could reach 110 to 115 degrees, particularly in the east, the National Weather Service (NWS) said.
- WorldReuters
UPDATE 1-Saudi Arabia says evacuated crew member of Iranian ship sent to Oman - SPA
Saudi Arabia said on Saturday it had sent a crew member of an Iranian ship who was previously evacuated for medical reasons from a vessel off the Yemeni port of Hodeidah, to Oman. Iran and Saudi Arabia are arch-adversaries in the Middle East, backing opposite sides in several regional wars including in Yemen where a Saudi-led coalition has been battling the Iran-aligned Houthi movement for four years. But Saudi Arabia in June said it had evacuated a crew member for medical reasons from a "suspect" Iranian ship northwest of Hodeidah after receiving a request for help from Tehran.
- WorldTime
A Passenger Was Fined $105,000 and Banned for Life for 'Extremely Disruptive Behavior' on an Airplane
An unruly passenger has been billed $105,000 after her “extremely disruptive behavior” caused a flight to be diverted with a military escort. British budget carrier Jet2 accused passenger Chloe Haines of “a catalogue of aggressive, abusive and dangerous behavior,” including trying to open the aircraft door, during a flight from the U.K. to Turkey. The airline said in a statement Haines was restrained by crew with the help of other passengers as two military fighter jets escorted the aircraft back to London Stansted.
- NewsThe Telegraph
Dozens of whales wash up on Icelandic beach
Dozens of beached whales have been discovered on a secluded stretch of sand in west Iceland where people rarely tread. A pilot from Reykjavík took the photographs while ferrying American tourists around the island. Edda Elísabet Magnúsdóttir, a marine biologist and whale specialist, told local news website Iceland Monitor that it was hard to confirm when the mammals washed up on the beach.
- NewsUSA TODAY
Gabbard, AOC join lawmakers to call on Puerto Rican governor to resign over corruption scandal
WASHINGTON – Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, has joined a growing chorus of lawmakers including Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., in calling for the resignation of Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló over a corruption scandal involving leaked text messages between the governor and top aides. In a Twitter video sent from San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Friday, Gabbard called "on all Democrats running for President to come here to Puerto Rico and show support for our fellow Americans" against corruption, and called for Rosselló's resignation.
- PoliticsYahoo News
Trump fumes over Ilhan Omar's 'welcome home' crowd
After claiming he wasn't happy that his supporters broke into a “send her back” chant at his rally in North Carolina, President Trump on Friday fumed over the media coverage of Rep. Ilhan Omar's return to Minnesota, where she was greeted by a crowd cheering “Welcome home. In a series of tweets, the president complained that the media had become “crazed” over the chant, which came after he questioned Omar's loyalty to the United States, yet “is totally calm & accepting of the most vile and disgusting statements made by the three Radical Left Congresswomen. Trump has been very publicly feuding with four — not three — congresswomen.
- BusinessThe Daily Beast
Ex-NRA Ad Firm: Um, Wayne LaPierre is Lying
In a new filing against the National Rifle Association, lawyers for ad agency Ackerman McQueen suggest that longtime NRA executive Wayne LaPierre is lying about a critical moment in the gun rights group's recent leadership shake up. At issue is multi-million-dollar litigation between the NRA and its ex-ad firm. In court filings of its own, the NRA has alleged that Oliver North, the groups's former president, was ousted in part because he withheld information from the NRA about payments he took from Ackerman McQueen, which had served as the gun rights group's primary ad contractor until just months ago.
- NewsAssociated Press
Some asylum seekers forced to wait in Mexico help each other
A small group of asylum seekers sit under a canopy on the side of a road leading into the United States, chatting to pass the time as a blazing desert sun pushes the heat into triple digits and fumes roll in from dozens of cars lined up to cross the U.S.-Mexico border. Coming from Guatemala, Nicaragua, Mexico, Cuba and many other countries, they're waiting in San Luis Río Colorado, Mexico, to seek asylum at the official border crossing just south of San Luis, Arizona. Under the canopy, surrounded by little but fencing and some stores and restaurants, they look like old friends.
- NewsThe Independent
El Chapo: Mexico president calls life sentence ‘inhumane’ as drug lord moved to supermax prison
The Mexican president has described Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman's life sentence as “inhumane” after the notorious drug lord was sent to live out his remaining years in a supermax prison in Colorado. Guzman was sentenced to life behind bars in the US plus 30 years after being found guilty of running a murderous criminal enterprise, having already escaped Mexican prisons twice. In his home country, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador referred to sentences like the one handed to Guzman to be served in a “hostile jail” as "hard” and “inhumane", adding that it made life no longer worth living.
WorldAFPBrazil's Petrobras refuses to refuel Iran ships due to US sanctions
US-listed Brazilian state oil giant Petrobras said Friday it will not refuel two Iranian vessels that have been stuck for weeks at a Brazilian port for fear of violating American sanctions. Washington has imposed a slate of sanctions on Tehran and companies with ties to the Islamic republic since President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of a landmark nuclear pact last year. The ships Bavand and Termeh, which reportedly belong to Iranian company Sapid Shipping, arrived at Paranagua port in the southern state of Parana early last month, an official at the port told AFP.
- NewsThe National Interest
The War Over America’s Past Is Really About the Future
The summer season has ripped off the thin scab that covered an American wound, revealing a festering disagreement about the nature and origins of the United States. The San Francisco Board of Education recently voted to paint over, and thus destroy, a 1,600-square-foot mural of George Washington's life in San Francisco's George Washington High School. Victor Arnautoff, a communist Russian-American artist and Stanford University art professor, had painted “Life of Washington” in 1936, commissioned by the New Deal's Works Progress Administration.
- LifestyleCar and Driver
See the 2020 Chevy Corvette C8 Driving on the Road Undisguised
Our spy photographers caught two different versions of the C8 out on the road with no camouflage for the first time. From Car and Driver
- WorldReuters
Irish, EU governments sound out Johnson to avoid no-deal Brexit: Sunday Times
Ahead of Boris Johnson's likely election next week as Britain's prime minister, EU countries are secretly wooing him in a bid to thrash out a new Brexit plan that would avoid a no-deal disaster, the Sunday Times newspaper reported. Senior Irish politicians and diplomats have held talks with two of Johnson's cabinet allies in recent days, it said. German and French figures as well as the Dutch and Belgian governments have also established contact with Johnson's team and signaled an intention to do a deal, it added.
- NewsUSA TODAY
Lawmaker describes 'unacceptable' border detention conditions, meets with US citizen in Border Patrol custody
WASHINGTON – A U.S. lawmaker described 'unacceptable' border detention facilities while meeting with a U.S. citizen who was in Customs and Border Patrol custody for hours on Friday. Rep. Nannette Barragán, D-Calif. had been on a congressional tour of facilities on the southern U.S. border when the delegation stopped at the Ursula Detention Center, a Border Patrol processing and detention center near McAllen, Texas.
- PoliticsThe Guardian
Here's Trump hating on America. Is it time for him to leave?
Referring to Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib as “hate-filled extremists”, he continued his tirade to the delight of his supporters. If they don't love it, tell 'em to leave it,” Trump said to the crowd, who soon erupted into a chant of “send her back”. A longtime critic of Obama, Trump has said he came upon his famed slogan the day his predecessor was elected to his second term.
- NewsThe Daily Beast
Palm Beach Sheriff Investigating Handling of Jeffrey Epstein’s 2009 Work Release
The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office has launched an internal investigation into why financier Jeffrey Epstein was allowed to use his own private driver and make unsupervised stops at his private residence during his work release from the county jail when he served time in 2008 and 2009, according to a new report by West Palm Beach Contact 5 News. Epstein, who pleaded guilty to solicitation of a minor in Palm Beach County in a secret non-prosecution agreement in 2008, was given carte blanche when it came to how he conducted his work-release program, according to documents seen by the news organization. Among the 464 pages of deputy logs scrutinized by Contact 5 are countless examples of how Epstein was able to spend unsupervised time at his private mansion, where he stands accused of running a child-sex-trafficking ring, when he should have been at his office.
- PoliticsPolitico
Israeli ambassador says Omar and Tlaib will be allowed in country
Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, both outspoken critics of Israel and its occupation of the West Bank, will be allowed into the country during a trip there in a few weeks, the Israeli ambassador said Friday, potentially heading off a diplomatic spat. “Out of respect for the U.S. Congress and the great alliance between Israel and America, we would not deny entry to any member of Congress into Israel,” said Ron Dermer, Israel's envoy to the United States. The freshman Democrats have drawn the ire of pro-Israel politicians — including within the Democratic caucus — over the pair's support for the the global boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel, known as the BDS movement.
- NewsAOL.com
Five guys arrested for fighting at Five Guys burgers in Florida
An appropriate number of guys were arrested when a fight broke out at a Five Guys restaurant in Florida on Wednesday. Police apprehended three juvenile males and two adult males — a total of five guys — following a lunchtime brawl at the burger chain's location in Stuart, Fla. according to the Orlando Sentinel.
WorldAFPTwitter blocks accounts of Iranian state media outlets
A day after Twitter suspended the accounts of several Iranian state media outlets, the social networking service said Saturday it acted after harassment of people linked to the Baha'i faith. Amid soaring tensions in the region, heightened by Iran's seizure on Friday of a British-flagged tanker, some of the affected media outlets had speculated that the suspensions were related to their coverage of the seizure. But Twitter cited what it said was the coordinated and targeted harassment of people linked to the Baha'i faith, a religious minority that has long faced persecution in Iran.
- TechnologyThe National Interest
The Navy's 6th Generation Fighter Could Put the F-35 in a Museum
New much-longer range sensors and weapons, incorporating emerging iterations of AI, are expected to make warfare more disaggregated, and much less of a linear force on force type of engagement. The Navy is currently analyzing air frames, targeting systems, AI-enabled sensors, new weapons and engine technologies to engineer a new 6th-Generation fighter to fly alongside the F-35 and ultimately replace the F/A-18. The Navy program, called Next-Generation Air Dominance, has moved beyond a purely conceptual phase and begun exploration of prototype systems and airframes as it pursues a new, carrier-launched 6th-Gen fighter to emerge in 2030 and beyond, service officials explained.
