PoliticsAFPTrump fires up base as impeachment bid blocked in Congress
A fired-up Donald Trump took aim once more at Democratic lawmakers who "hate" America as he hit the campaign trail Wednesday, hours after an opposition bid to impeach the US president over "racist" attacks was shot down in Congress. Egging on a sea of supporters in Greenville, North Carolina, Trump reeled off the names of the ethnic minority congresswomen whom he has urged to "go back" to their countries of origin in a series of incendiary tweets. "These left-wing ideologues see our nation as a force of evil," charged Trump -- whose tweets were condemned as "racist" a day earlier by the House of Representatives, although a subsequent attempt to launch impeachment proceedings failed in the chamber.
- NewsReuters
Italian, U.S. police make arrests as Mafia clan looks to regroup
Italian and U.S. police have launched a coordinated crackdown against major crime families who were looking to rebuild their Mafia powerbase in Sicily, Italian investigators said on Wednesday. More than 200 police, including officers from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), have been carrying out 19 arrest warrants since dawn targeting the Inzerillo clan in Sicily's capital Palermo and the New York-based Gambino family. Sicily's organised crime group, known as 'Cosa Nostra' (Our Thing), has been in a state of flux since the death of the feared boss of bosses Salvatore "Toto" Riina, who died in prison in 2017 after spending almost a quarter of century behind bars.
- WorldBloomberg
Iran Says Missing Tanker Had Problems and Was Towed for Repairs
A small oil tanker that had gone missing in the Persian Gulf had technical difficulties and was towed into Iranian waters for repairs, an Iranian foreign ministry official said, according to the ISNA news agency. Further details on the ship, the Panamanian-flagged Riah, will be announced later, Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said, according to the semi-offficial ISNA. Iran responded after a request for assistance from the tanker, the report said.
PoliticsFOX News VideosHouse votes to hold Attorney General William Barr, Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt of Congress
House lawmakers accused Attorney General Barr and Commerce Secretary Ross of failing to provide Congress with information about the citizenship question for the census; reaction and analysis from the 'Special Report' All-Stars.
- PoliticsAssociated Press
Asylum ban may further strain immigrant detention facilities
Photos and video of Vice President Mike Pence's visit Friday to McAllen, Texas, showing men crammed behind chain-link fences offered the latest glimpse into squalid conditions at Customs and Border Protection facilities. The Border Patrol housed 900 people in an area with capacity for 125 in El Paso, Texas, according to a Department of Homeland Security's internal watchdog report on an unannounced visit in May. Inspectors saw detainees standing on toilets to gain breathing space. Agents described detainees being held in standing-room-only cells for weeks.
- WorldThe Telegraph
Investigators 'discover mysterious 200lb load' on board MH370 after take-off
Investigators looking into the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 have discovered a “mysterious 200lb load” added to the flight list after take-off, according to an engineer whose wife and two children were on board. Ghyslain Wattrelos said the cargo was revealed in a report on the passengers and baggage by French investigators. Mr Wattrelos, who believes the flight was deliberately downed, told Le Parisien newspaper: “It was also learned that a mysterious load of 89 kilos was added to the flight list after take-off.
- PoliticsThe Daily Beast
Jon Stewart Eviscerates Rand Paul for Blocking 9/11 Victim Funding: ‘It’s an Abomination’
Stewart went on to condemn Paul for supporting President Trump's $1.5 trillion tax cut that “added hundreds of billions of dollars to our deficit” and now trying to “balance the budget on the backs of the 9/11 first responder community. Bret, this is about what kind of society we have,” a clearly furious Stewart continued. At some point, we have to stand up for the people who have always stood up for us, and at this moment in time maybe cannot stand up for themselves due to their illnesses and their injuries.
- NewsUSA TODAY
At least 1 dead, 15 injured — including 3 firefighters — in California house explosion
One person was killed and 15 injured — including three firefighters — after a house exploded in Southern California on Monday, sending a wall of flames and heavy smoke into the air. The Southern California Gas Company posted on Twitter that crews responded to reports of a damaged natural gas line in Murrieta, a city of about 113,000 people in Riverside County, about 65 miles north of San Diego. The explosion happened around noon Monday, shortly after crews arrived, the company said.
- BusinessCar and Driver
How Kim Jong Un Got Mercedes-Benz Pullman Limos Home to North Korea
Researchers at a Washington, D.C., think tank, cited by the Wall Street Journal, have offered explanations as to how a pair of Mercedes-Benz limousines ended up in North Korean hands. Kim Jong Un must be used to convoluted means of getting at luxuries that the repressed populace he rules over cannot hope to touch. How else to explain why the North Korean dictator would pay a million dollars for a couple of 10-year-old Mercedes-Benz limousines?
WorldAFPAustralia calls on China to let Uighur mother and son leave
Australia's government on Wednesday called on China to allow an Australian child and his Uighur mother to leave the country, days after co-signing a letter denouncing Beijing's treatment of the Muslim minority. China has rounded up an estimated one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim Turkic-speaking minorities into re-education camps in tightly controlled Xinjiang region, in the country's northwest. Sadam Abdusalam has campaigned for months for his Uighur wife, Nadila Wumaier, and their son Lutifeier, whom he has never met, to be allowed to come to Australia.
- PoliticsPolitico
Trump’s Cabinet has become severe headache for his White House
When the president walks into his scheduled Cabinet meeting at the White House on Tuesday, four of the 23 people at the table will be officials operating in an “acting“ capacity — including the leaders of Homeland Security and Defense. The secretary of Labor is slated to leave the administration on Friday, adding another temporary aide to the top ranks of the Trump administration. And in recent weeks, a handful of the top Cabinet officials have irritated either Trump or key White House officials including Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar — with the Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats reportedly on the outs as well.
- WorldReuters
'You must be stupid': Duterte says he won't be tried by international court
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has declared he will never be tried by an international court for mass killings in his war on drugs, and vowed no let up in a crackdown that he said he was winning and would see through "to the very end". In a television interview with a celebrity pastor, the firebrand leader said the Philippine justice system was working fine, so it would be "stupid" to imagine he would let an international court put him on trial. "I will only face, be tried or face a trial, in a Philippine court.
- WorldThe National Interest
America and Iran: On a Path Towards War?
Iran's leader has taken a defiant stance against the United States and its allies, signalling a potential “fraying” of the 2015 deal limiting Iran's nuclear program, The New York Times reported. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on July 16, 2019 denounced “the vicious British” after U.K. forces earlier in the month seized an Iranian oil tanker off Gibraltar. In a speech to clerics, Khamenei “appeared to signal his intention to ignore diplomacy for the moment and stoke tensions with the West over the embattled nuclear accord,” the Times' Rick Gladstone wrote.
- LifestyleDelish
Over-the-Top Ice Cream Sandwich Recipes That Are Worth Every Calorie
No basic 'wiches here. From Delish
- NewsAssociated Press
Man arrested in slaying of 75-year-old community activist
The suspect in the slaying of a community leader who founded Baton Rouge's African American history museum was a tenant who owed her back rent, authorities said Tuesday. Ronn Jermaine Bell, 38, was arrested Tuesday on a charge of first-degree murder, city Police Chief Murphy J. Paul told news reporters. Bell is being held in the East Baton Rouge Parish jail.
- NewsAOL.com
North Carolina father of 7 dies trying to save his drowning children at beach
A North Carolina father drowned Sunday while rescuing two of his young children who were swept away by a wave while walking on a submerged jetty at Wrightsville Beach. Johnny Lee Vann Jr., a 35-year-old father who recently moved to Durham from Detroit, Mich., with his family, did not hesitate to jump into the rough waters after watching two of his seven children go under, his widow, Dawn Vann, told WNCN. Vann Jr. successfully brought one child to shore but struggled to stay afloat after heading back out for the second, Capt. Jason Bishop of the Wrightsville Beach Police Department told ABC News.
- NewsUSA TODAY
2-year-old girl who disappeared from Michigan campsite found alive
On Tuesday, 2-year-old Gabriella Roselynn Vitale, who went missing in Comins Township, Michigan, on Monday, was found alive. Police have found the 2-year-old who went missing from a campsite in Comins Township, Michigan, on Monday. "She's safe, she's been reunited with her mother and she's going to the hospital for a checkup," Travis House, a Michigan State Police lieutenant told USA TODAY.
- NewsUSA TODAY Opinion
Teachers union has become an arm of the abortion-rights left. Conservatives should quit.
Remember when labor unions used to fight for higher wages and better working conditions? The latest in a series of leftward leaps by unions came last week with the National Education Association's full-throated endorsement of abortion. Delegates to the union's annual conference passed a business item stating that “the NEA vigorously opposes all attacks on the right to choose and stands on the fundamental right to abortion under Roe v. Wade." The union also adopted an official stance on “white fragility” and announced that the current vice president, described in her biography as a “social justice warrior,” will run for president of the union.
- NewsThe Independent
Couple kiss in photo with lion moments after shooting it dead
“There is nothing like hunting the king of the jungle,” the photo is captioned. Eduardo Goncalves, the founder of the Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting, said: “It looks as though this lion was a tame animal killed in an enclosure, bred for the sole purpose of being the subject of a smug selfie. Legelela Safaris charges up to £2,400 for tours which include giraffe, zebra, leopard, elephant, rhino and lion hunts.
- PoliticsYahoo News
McConnell says Trump is 'not a racist' and calls for Washington to 'tone down' rhetoric
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that he doesn't believe Donald Trump is a racist despite the president's calls for four Democratic lawmakers to “go back” to the “crime infested places from which they came. Because Trump's comments have further widened Washington's partisan divide, McConnell was asked to comment on them during his weekly press conference. The president's not a racist,” McConnell said.
- WorldReuters
Ukraine says transport organizer of missile that shot down MH-17 plane in jail
Ukraine said on Wednesday a rebel who organized the trailer carrying the missile that shot down a Malaysian airliner in 2014 had been captured two years ago and was now serving a sentence in Ukraine. Malaysia Airlines Flight MH-17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot out of the sky over eastern Ukraine during a rebellion by Russian-backed separatists, killing all 298 people on board. A Dutch-led team of investigators has blamed Russia for supplying the surface-to-air missile that shot it down.
WorldAFPUK raises alarm after mother held by Iran is taken to mental ward
London demanded the immediate release Wednesday of a jailed British-Iranian aid worker whose husband said she has been transferred to the mental ward of a public hospital in Tehran. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's case has roiled Britain's relations with the Islamic republic since her 2016 arrest and conviction on sedition charges over which she has held a series of hunger strikes. "We are extremely concrned about Nazanin's welfare and call for her immediate release," Prime Minister Theresa May's spokesman said.
- BusinessThe National Interest
Big Guns: Army Prototypes Range-Doubling New Artillery Weapon to Outgun Russia
The Army is building prototypes of a new artillery cannon that can more than double the range of existing weapons and vastly alter the strategic and tactical landscape shaping land war into the future. “This prototype phase will address capability gaps in the Army's indirect fire systems and improve the rate and range of fire with the development of power distribution software and hardware integration solutions,” a BAE Systems statement said.
- BusinessKGO – San Francisco
National $15 minimum wage expected to pass in House of Representatives this week
The "Raise the Wage Act" would make 15-dollars an hour a reality for all American workers by 2024.
- PoliticsAssociated Press
In crowded 2020 Democratic field, a clear top tier emerges
A distinct top tier of candidates is breaking away from the pack in early polling and fundraising, building distance between themselves and the rest of the bloated field. Although the first nominating contest in Iowa is still more than six months away, tighter qualifying standards for the fall debates and cash flow problems have prompted questions about how many campaigns will still be operational next year. Five candidates have pulled away from the pack: former Vice President Joe Biden, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, California Sen. Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana.
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