PoliticsAFPAttack on Saudi Arabia came from Iran: US official
The United States has concluded that the weekend attack on Saudi oil facilities was launched from Iranian soil and cruise missiles were involved, a US official told AFP on Tuesday. The official, who declined to be identified, said the United States was gathering evidence about the attack to present to the international community, notably European allies, at the UN General Assembly next week. The weekend strikes on Abqaiq –- the world's largest oil processing facility –- and the Khurais oil field in eastern Saudi Arabia have roiled global energy markets.
- NewsUSA TODAY
'A war zone': Propane explosion kills firefighter, injures 8 others, levels building in Maine
A firefighter was killed and eight people were injured Monday when a powerful propane explosion destroyed a new building in Farmington, Maine. Fire crews were responding to a call reporting the smell of gas in the building, which was evacuated, Farmington Town Selectman Scott Landry said. The blast had such force that only debris remained from the two-story building, which housed a nonprofit group called LEAP that serves people with cognitive and intellectual disabilities.
- WorldReuters
UPDATE 1-Russia detains two N.Korean vessels after one opens fire - reports
Russian border guards have detained two North Korean boats in Russian territorial waters in the Sea of Japan after one of them attacked a Russian patrol, local media cited the Federal Security Service (FSB) as saying on Tuesday. A Russian border patrol discovered two North Korean schooners and 11 motorboats fishing illegally off its far eastern coast and detained the first vessel, prompting the second one to open fire, the FSB was quoted as saying. Three Russian border guards were wounded in the incident.
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- WorldAssociated Press
20 dead as truck falls off cliff in southern Philippines
Twenty villagers were killed and 14 others were injured when the truck they were riding in lost control and fell off a cliff Tuesday in a remote mountain village in the southern Philippines, police and the Red Cross said. Provincial police chief Joel Limson said the truck was negotiating a downhill road in Tboli town in South Cotabato province when its brakes apparently failed and plummeted down a ravine, pinning 15 people to death. Police, Red Cross volunteers and villagers retrieved the 15 bodies from the wreckage at the bottom of the ravine.
U.S.FOX News Videos20 arrested, 18 charged in Minneapolis beatings
Minneapolis police chief, assault victim talk to Fox News about arrests in downtown beatings; Matt Finn reports.
- WorldBusiness Insider
A flight in India was delayed when a swarm of angry bees covered the cockpit window and attacked staff who tried to remove them
A domestic flight in India was delayed by two hours after a swarm of bees settled on the cockpit window, obscuring pilots' vision and attacking staff who tried to remove them. The Air India flight was about to take off when the bees landed on the window. Staff tried fruitlessly to shoo them away and disperse them with the aircraft's windscreen wipers before calling the fire brigade.
- WorldBloomberg
Into the Unknown for Israel as Netanyahu’s Election Gamble Fails
Israel's election do-over looked set to produce a dramatic deadlock between legally embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his political opponents, with no clear sign who will form the country's next government. The lack of a decisive victory would be a setback for Israel's longest-serving leader, who gambled on a revote to strengthen his political hand -- and possibly keep himself out of jail -- after a disappointing result in April. It would also thrust Israel into further political turmoil and drag out policy paralysis at a time when diplomatic and regional security challenges are mounting.
- NewsThe Telegraph
Couple reveal they are raising child 'gender neutral' and haven't even told close family their baby's sex
A couple have decided to keep their baby's sex a secret from close relatives in a bid to avoid gender bias. Hobbit Humphrey, 38, and Jake England-Johns, 35, refer to their 17-month-old child, Anoush, with the pronoun, "they", and dress them in both girls' and boys' clothing. The married couple, who are members of the climate action group, Extinction Rebellion, have been accused of “virtue signalling”.
WorldAFPIran charges three detained Australians with spying
Iran has charged three detained Australians with spying, a judiciary spokesman said on Tuesday, after the reported arrest of a travel-blogging couple and an academic. Two of the Australians were alleged to have used a drone to take pictures of military sites, while a third was accused of spying for another country, spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili told reporters. It was the first official confirmation that Australians have been detained in Iran after the families of three of them said last week they had been arrested in the Islamic republic.
- NewsUSA TODAY
Blaming shelters and street sleeping, Donald Trump blasts California for homeless crisis
LOS ANGELES – Taking direct aim at California, a new report from President Donald Trump's administration says homelessness could be dramatically reduced by slashing restrictions on housing construction and being less tolerant of people sleeping on the streets. The Council of Economic Advisers' report was released as Trump takes a two-day swing through California for speeches and fundraising, while taking aim at liberal policies on homelessness. We can't let Los Angeles, San Francisco and numerous other cities destroy themselves by allowing what's happening,” Trump told reporters Tuesday aboard Air Force One.
- WorldThe National Interest
Is Russia's Crazy Status-6 Nuclear Weapon a Great Idea or a Really Bad One?
Key point: Russia's is working on a nuclear torpedo, but the idea may not be practical. According to the latest Nuclear Posture Review, Russia is developing a new nuclear torpedo/drone, the Status 6. While the torpedo (also covered here by Dave Majumdar) offers some alarming new capabilities, it's not the first such weapon that the Russians have worked on.
- PoliticsNational Review
NYC to Allow 1.1 Million Students to Skip Class for Climate Protests
New York City public schools will allow 1.1 million students to skip classes Friday in order to attend the planned “climate strike” ahead of the United Nations Climate Action Summit. The protests aim to press the Summit for immediate action to stop climate change, and are geared specifically for the participation of young people. Reactions to the decision have been ecstatic in some cases, as protest organizers contemplate what they hope will be the largest climate change protest in the history of the U.S. “This completely changes things, and it's our doing,” Xiye Bastida, 17, a senior at Beacon High School in Manhattan, told the New York Times.
- WorldAssociated Press
In leaderless Hong Kong movement, Joshua Wong just 1 voice
Overseas, Joshua Wong has emerged as a prominent face of Hong Kong's months-long protests for full democracy. While not diminishing the importance of that role, other protesters say Wong does not speak for what is purposefully a leaderless movement. "Not that nobody cares about what he says, but it's just that Joshua Wong alone cannot represent the whole of Hong Kong," said Sean Au, a 17-year-old student.
WorldAFPFrench boy, 10, dies 8 years after supermarket burger poisoning
A French boy aged 10, who fell gravely ill in 2011 after consuming a beef burger from supermarket discounter Lidl that was infected with E.coli bacteria, has died of complications stemming from his poisoning, the family's lawyer said. The boy, Nolan, died on Saturday "as a consequence of his poisoning", the family's lawyer Florence Rault told AFP on Sunday. Lidl's French arm said in a tweet on Monday: "We share the pain of Nolan's family and will seek to assure our support during their suffering."
- WorldBusiness Insider
A flight from Vietnam to South Korea was delayed for 11 hours after the pilot arrived at the airport and realized he had lost his passport
The T'way Air flight from Vietnam to South Korea was supposed to take off at 10:35 p.m. local time Friday but didn't depart until 9:40 a.m. the next day, The Korea Times reported. A flight from Vietnam to South Korea was delayed for 11 hours after the pilot arrived at the airport without his passport. The flight, operated by the South Korean budget airline T'way Air, was supposed to take off at 10:35 p.m. local time on Friday but ended up being delayed until 9:40 a.m. on Saturday, The Korea Times reported.
- PoliticsPolitico
Illinois congressman unfazed by AOC’s endorsement of his rival
Rep. Dan Lipinski is shrugging off the endorsement of his liberal challenger by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, telling POLITICO the progressive star's backing of his “extremist” opponent won't help knock him out of the Chicago-area seat. “I think it's always a bad idea for Democrats to go after Democrats, especially incumbent members of Congress.
- WorldBloomberg
Putin Loses Legendary Approval-Rating Crown to His New Neighbor
Vladimir Putin takes great pride in his sky-high approval rating. While pushing a raft of popular reforms, Zelenskiy, 41, remains in his honeymoon period, while cries he's too close to a local billionaire grow louder. The 66-year-old Putin, meanwhile, is approaching two decades as Russia's leader.
- NewsAOL.com
Boy Scout leader sang naked in front of kids, and organization failed to investigate: Lawsuit
A Boy Scout leader who was accused of singing naked in front of several young boys was not investigated by his troop despite multiple complaints, according to NBC News. Michael Kelsey, who in 2016 was found guilty of first-degree sexual abuse for molesting two children in his Boy Scout troop, was accused of misconduct long before his conviction, according to a $320 million civil lawsuit filed in March 2017. The ongoing lawsuit — which has emerged with new information thanks to interviews with the plaintiffs by NBC News— details a number of troubling accusations against Kelsey, who was an assistant scoutmaster in Troop 95 of Fishkill, NY.
- NewsUSA TODAY
Sheriff indicted for plotting to kill deputy who had tape of his 'racially offensive' remarks
A North Carolina sheriff has been indicted for allegedly plotting to kill one of his deputies after learning the man had a tape of him making "racially offensive" comments. Granville County Sheriff Brindell Wilkins was indicted Monday on two counts of felony obstruction of justice for withholding knowledge of a credible threat made against Joshua Freeman and failing to take appropriate law enforcement action. The indictment came after a ten month investigation by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and the FBI, according to a release from Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman.
- WorldThe National Interest
What Were the Mach 10 UFOs That Iran's Jets Encountered?
Key point: Iran has encountered really strange flying objects that might be an unknown, secret American spy plane. Iran is the only other country besides the United States to operate arguably history's most powerful interceptor aircraft, the F-14 Tomcat. The F-14s played a major role in Iran's war with Iraq from 1980 to 1988.
- NewsNational Review
California Bans State-Sponsored Travel to Iowa over Refusal to Provide Medicaid Coverage for Gender-Reassignment Surgeries
California added an eleventh state to its travel blacklist on Friday, banning state-sponsored travel to Iowa over that state's refusal to cover gender-transition surgeries under its Medicaid program. California attorney general Xavier Becerra announced the decision to add Iowa to the travel-ban list, which takes effect October 4 and means public employees and college students will not be able to travel to Iowa on the taxpayer's dime. In May, Iowa governor Kim Reynolds signed a law blocking Medicaid from paying for gender-reassignment surgeries despite the state Supreme Court's ruling earlier this year in favor of charging taxpayers for the procedures.
- WorldAssociated Press
House of Ukraine's former top central banker set on fire
The home of Ukraine's former central bank chief has been burned to the ground, the third chilling incident involving the banker over the past few weeks. Police said in a statement Tuesday that they are investigating a suspected arson attack late Monday on the house of Valeria Gontareva outside the capital, Kyiv. Gontareva has said she has received threats from Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoyskyi, who lost his PrivatBank to a government nationalization that was carried out while Gontareva was at the helm of the central bank in 2016.
WorldAFPUS sanctions Italy, Panama and Colombia firms over Venezuela ties
The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on 16 companies linked to Colombian businessman Alex Nain Saab Moran, an associate of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. The move is the latest US escalation of sanctions targeting the inner circle of Maduro, who is grappling with a political and economic crisis that the United Nations says has left a quarter of Venezuela's 30 million people in need of humanitarian aid. The sanctions announced on Tuesday by the US Treasury Department target Saab, his two brothers Amir and Luis, Saab's business partner Alvaro Pulido, and Pulido's son, David Enrique Rubio Gonzalez.
- WorldBusiness Insider
Saudi officials knew they were 'exposed' to drone attacks months ago but they weren't able to do anything to stop it
The attacks on Saudi Arabia's Abqaiq oil processing plant and Khurais oil field this weekend exploited weaknesses in Saudi defenses that were, to a certain extent, known to exist months ago. Prior to the most recent attacks, Saudi Arabia experienced multiple drone attacks on airports, water facilities, and oil pipelines. "The recent events show that we are exposed in terms of our defense," a Saudi official told the Wall Street Journal in June as experts warned that critical infrastructure was vulnerable.
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