WorldAssociated PressGreat Wall of Lights: China’s sea power on Darwin’s doorstep
It's 3 a.m., and after five days plying through the high seas, the Ocean Warrior is surrounded by an atoll of blazing lights that overtakes the nighttime sky. It's the conservationists' first glimpse of the world's largest fishing fleet: an armada of nearly 300 Chinese vessels that have sailed halfway across the globe to lure the elusive Humboldt squid from the Pacific Ocean's inky depths. As Italian hip hop blares across the bridge, Marini furiously scribbles the electronic IDs of 37 fishing vessels that pop up as green triangles on the Ocean Warrior's radar onto a sheet of paper, before they disappear.
U.S.INSIDERA Kroger cashier who tried to usher customers to safety said the gunman followed them as they ran for cover during mass shooting
Thirteen people were shot during a mass shooting in Collierville, Tennessee, on Thursday. One of the victims died in the shooting at a Kroger supermarket. A cashier told reporters the gunman followed her through the store as she tried to usher others to safety.
PoliticsSheKnowsThis Description of Ivanka Trump's Face After Talking With Dad Donald Trump on Jan. 6 Will Stay With You
While much has been written about Jan. 6 and Donald Trump's reaction while it was going down, Bob Woodward's new book, Peril, is giving readers more insight into what happened behind closed doors. The day was fraught with a lot of drama, and as we know, much of the burden of getting through to the president rested on Ivanka Trump's shoulders. When the insurrection took a dangerous turn on Capitol Hill, Executive Secretary and Chief of Staff of the United States National Security Council Keith Kellogg reached out to Ivanka to speak to her father to get the rioters to calm down.
WorldAssociated PressTaliban official: Strict punishment, executions will return
One of the founders of the Taliban and the chief enforcer of its harsh interpretation of Islamic law when they last ruled Afghanistan said the hard-line movement will once again carry out executions and amputations of hands, though perhaps not in public. In an interview with The Associated Press, Mullah Nooruddin Turabi dismissed outrage over the Taliban's executions in the past, which sometimes took place in front of crowds at a stadium, and he warned the world against interfering with Afghanistan's new rulers. “Everyone criticized us for the punishments in the stadium, but we have never said anything about their laws and their punishments,” Turabi told The Associated Press, speaking in Kabul.
U.S.HuffPostBrian Williams' Punchline On Anti-Vaxxers, Anti-Maskers Is A Showstopper
Brian Williams unleashed savage sign-off snark on his MSNBC news show Wednesday. Watch the video below. As he was closing out “The 11th Hour,” the host ran a clip from The Recount of anti-vaccine and anti-mask protesters sounding off at local board meetings.
U.S.NBC NewsMichigan man Noah Kerridge missing for five months found dead
A 20-year-old man who left his home in Waterford Township, Michigan, to go for a walk five months ago and never returned has been found dead, investigators with the Waterford Township Police Department said this week. Police located the body of Noah Kerridge in a heavily-wooded embankment of the Rouge River in Southfield on Wednesday, September 22, according to a press release provided to Dateline. The 2019 graduate of Linden High School was last seen just before 5 p.m. on April 19, 2021, leaving the apartment complex in Waterford Township, Michigan, where he had been living with his father, Keith Kerridge.
BusinessAssociated PressCalifornia 1st to set quota limits for retailers like Amazon
California on Wednesday became the first state to bar mega-retailers from firing warehouse workers for missing quotas that interfere with bathroom and rest breaks under a new law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom that grew from Amazon's drive to speed goods to consumers more quickly. The measure also bars Amazon, the online retail giant, and similar companies from disciplining workers for following health and safety laws and allows employees to sue to suspend unsafe quotas or reverse retaliation. The bill applies to all warehouse distribution centers, though proponents were driven by Amazon's dominance.
PoliticsPeopleWhen Biden Found Trump's Letter to Him in Oval Office, He 'Put It in His Pocket and Did Not Share' It: Book
On his first day in office, President Joe Biden had his predecessor on his mind: Some of the historic number of executive actions he took in the hours after being sworn in on Jan. 20 reversed policies put in place by Donald Trump. But when Biden found a letter from Trump in a drawer of the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office — in what appeared to be a rare acknowledgment by Trump of his defeat — the new commander-in-chief tucked it away and went right back to work, according to a new book. "He put it in his pocket and did not share it with his advisers," Bob Woodward and Robert Costa write in Peril, which was released Tuesday.
- ScienceAFP Videographics
Portugal grape pickers do it in the buff
With early autumn temperatures in Portugal hovering around 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit), a group of nudism enthusiasts don't even sport a vine leaf to cover their modesty as they go about their work in a vineyard 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of Lisbon.
WorldReutersRomanian hospitals fill up with COVID patients amid widespread vaccine refusal
After living through three waves of the COVID-19 pandemic without getting sick, 55-year-old Roxana Pascu thought that she was healthy enough to withstand the virus and decided to turn down the vaccine. Now Pascu, who runs a small business, is one of around 1,040 COVID-19 patients currently in intensive care across Romania where cases have more than doubled over the last week and ICU beds are becoming dangerously scarce. With the second-lowest vaccination rate in the European Union, Romania is bracing for a fourth wave of the pandemic that looks set to overwhelm hospitals where medical staff are already stretched thin.
U.S.INSIDERNeighbors say they saw Brian Laundrie and his parents leave their Florida home with an attached camper after he returned from his trip with Gabby Petito
A couple said they saw Brian Laundrie and his parents drive off with an attached camper this month. A neighbor said they saw Laundrie leave on September 11, the day Gabby Petito was reported missing. Laundrie's family told the police last week that they had not seen him since September 14.
U.S.NBC NewsChipotle customer pulls gun after being told location was closing early, police say
A customer became angry that a Philadelphia Chipotle was closing early, pulled a gun and demanded that “somebody better give me my food,” police said Wednesday. The terrifying confrontation unfolded just before 5 p.m. Saturday at the chain's location inside Roosevelt Mall on Cottman Avenue, Philadelphia police said in a statement. The store was closing its in-person service early because of staffing issues, but it told customers it would still take online orders, police said.
WorldAssociated PressDad of 3 girls killed in New Zealand says he's forgiven wife
The father of three young girls who were killed last week in New Zealand said Thursday his precious angels had been ripped away from him in a loss he would carry for the rest of his life. Dickason wrote his thoughts in a letter that was read aloud by a reverend during a candlelight vigil that was attended by hundreds of people outside the family's home in the South Island town of Timaru. Lauren Dickason, 40, has been charged with murder in the deaths of her twin 2-year-old girls Maya and Karla, and their 6-year-old sister Liane, in a crime that has shocked New Zealand.
WorldFTW OutdoorsLeopard’s ‘stunning’ leap showcased in slow-motion video
A rescue leopard at South Africa's Harnas Wildlife Foundation is an impressive leaper, especially at mealtime. The accompanying footage, which has garnered millions of views over the past month, shows “Hellboy” leaping nearly 10 feet to catch a hunk of meat tossed over a fence by a caretaker. The footage reveals the power and grace exhibited by Hellboy – and possessed by all leopards – while taking flight and upon landing.
PoliticsHuffPostMary Trump Pulls No Punches When Naming Her ‘Stupidest’ Relative
Mary Trump was asked “what the hell is going on” with her cousin, Donald Trump Jr., and didn't hold back. In this week's episode of the “UnPresidented” podcast, Donald Trump's niece described her cousin as “weak” and a suck-up who was ultimately “left in the dust” by his father, the former president. Trump Jr. is “like many other people in my family,” said Mary Trump, a psychologist who has become one of the fiercest critics of her uncle and his children.
U.S.Associated PressWoman arrested on suspicion of starting California blaze
A woman has been arrested on suspicion of starting a Northern California wildfire that spread rapidly, burning homes and prompting evacuation orders Thursday in a rural community, authorities said. Workers at a nearby quarry reported seeing a woman acting strangely and trespassing in the area in Shasta County where the Fawn Fire was sparked Wednesday afternoon, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said in a statement. Later Wednesday, Alexandra Souverneva walked out of the brush near the fire line and approached firefighters and told them she was dehydrated and needed medical help, Cal Fire said.
BusinessMoneyWiseBill Gates is hanging on to these stocks for steady income — you can too
In a world of historically low interest rates, investors would be wise to look out for dividend stocks offering solid — but stable — dividend yields. Today, let's take a look at three dividend plays that represent sizeable positions in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust. According to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Gates Foundation owns more than 18.6 million shares of the construction equipment giant representing 9.3% of the portfolio.
U.S.Fort Worth Star-TelegramCommission orders $150K in back pay to Fort Worth firefighter who bit off man’s eyebrow
Whether and why Michael Benningfield, on a bar floor, tore a man's eyebrow from his face using his teeth were considerations in the distance at nearly every turn during a hearing in a conference room on the underground level of Fort Worth City Hall. The discussion Wednesday night at a Civil Service Commission session was esoteric. As he sought to clarify his understanding of the legalities covering city employment matters that were displayed on a large screen, Ricky Torlincasi, the body's chairman, tried unsuccessfully to get a Fort Worth assistant city attorney and a representative for Benningfield, a Fort Worth firefighter, to agree on the meaning of the text that they were reading.
WorldReutersExclusive-Echoes, uncertainty as Afghan pilots await U.S. help in Tajikistan
A U.S.-trained Afghan pilot was talking to Reuters on a smuggled cellphone from Tajikistan, where he is being held, when something strange happened - his voice started looping, repeating everything he had just said, word for word. It also came amid growing feelings of impatience and uncertainty among the Afghan pilots and personnel who have been held by the government in Tajikistan since fleeing there on Aug. 15. There are 143 Afghans detained at a sanatorium in a mountainous, rural area outside of the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, waiting and hoping for over a month for transfer by the United States.
U.S.The Daily Beast‘Mama, I Don’t Want to Die’: 20-Year-Old’s COVID Death the Latest Among Younger Victims
Health officials in Florida, Texas, and California have also reported seeing a trend in younger and younger people dying from the virus as the Delta variant continues to drive the fourth wave of the pandemic. Shepherd is far from the only twentysomething to have her life cut short by the virus this week. A 26-year-old Wisconsin police officer died from COVID-19 on Wednesday, just hours after his second child was welcomed into the world, according to Fond du Lac Police Chief Aaron Goldstein.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderKayleigh McEnany deletes tweet blaming Biden for a 2020 spike in murders that occurred under Trump
Kayleigh McEnany deleted a tweet blaming Biden for a spike in murders that occurred under Trump. Former White House press secretary and Fox News contributor Kayleigh McEnany deleted a tweet blaming President Joe Biden for a spike in U.S. murders that occurred under her former boss, then-President Donald Trump.
- TechnologyReuters Videos
Apple furious at EU plan for standard chargers
New Android phones already tend to use the EU's favoured port. Apple says the regulation will stifle innovation, and hurt consumers. Industry commissioner Thierry Breton sees it the other way round.
HealthPeopleWATCH: Heather Rae Young Holds Tarek El Moussa's Hand as He Finds Out He Has Celiac Disease
Tarek El Moussa has been diagnosed with celiac disease, and his fiancée Heather Rae Young has been there to support him from the start. In an exclusive sneak peek, above, of Thursday night's episode of El Moussa's solo HGTV show Flipping 101, the father of two discovers he has celiac disease after undergoing several blood tests at his doctor's office. "It turns out you have celiac," Internal Medicine Specialist Dr. Ellen Song tells El Moussa, 40, as he holds hands with Young, 34.
U.S.HuffPostRight-Wing Preacher Cooks Up The Most Bonkers Plea Yet For A Private Jet
Right-wing televangelist Kenneth Copeland is begging viewers to send him cash to support his private jet so he won't have to deal with coronavirus vaccine mandates to travel, which he called “the mark of the beast. Copeland, who in the past has claimed that he needed a private jet to avoid “demons” on commercial flights, made the claim during his “VICTORYthon” fundraiser on Tuesday. You get into this situation, 'We're not gonna let you fly unless you're vaccinated,'” he said.
U.S.Associated PressBoy Scouts' bankruptcy creates rift with religious partners
Amid the Boy Scouts of America's complex bankruptcy case, there is worsening friction between the BSA and the major religious groups that help it run thousands of scout units. At issue: the churches' fears that an eventual settlement — while protecting the BSA from future sex-abuse lawsuits — could leave many churches unprotected. The Boy Scouts sought bankruptcy protection in February 2020 in an effort to halt individual lawsuits and create a huge compensation fund for thousands of men who say they were molested as youngsters by scoutmasters or other leaders.
“It wouldn’t take much of an annual wealth tax to rescue the retirement system.”
“Privatizing Social Security — or at least letting individuals opt-out so they can escape the sinking ship — would be a huge win.”
“Congress could save hundreds of billions of dollars by modestly paring back the benefit formula for future wealthy retirees.”
“Raising the retirement age reduces the number of beneficiaries, thereby reducing the costs of the program.”
“Social Security as we know it needs to be abolished and replaced with a better system.”