WorldReutersLatvia, Estonia withdraw from China cooperation group
VILNIUS (Reuters) -Latvia and Estonia withdrew from a cooperation group between China and over a dozen Central and Eastern European countries on Thursday, following in the footsteps of Baltic neighbour Lithuania which withdrew last year. The move comes amid Western criticism towards China over escalating military pressure on democratically ruled Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, and Beijing's strengthening of ties with Russia during the invasion of Ukraine. Relations between Lithuania and China worsened after the former allowed Taiwan to open a de facto embassy late last year.
PoliticsINSIDERRepublicans may have shot themselves in the foot by hammering the DOJ to release the Mar-a-Lago search warrant
Many of Trump's GOP allies have clamored for the DOJ to release its Mar-a-Lago search warrant and supporting documentation. On Thursday, the DOJ moved to do just that, asking a court to unseal portions of the warrant. Legal experts and political strategists say Trump's backers bit off more than they could chew and the DOJ called their bluff.
BusinessFortune‘One of the most dangerous and irresponsible actions by a car company in decades’: Activist Ralph Nader urges regulators to recall Tesla’s self-driving technology
The man who forever changed vehicle safety standards in the U.S. has a scathing new message for Elon Musk and Tesla's self-driving car technology: He thinks it's dangerous, and regulators should get involved. Musk has been touting self-driving cars as the next big thing for years, saying in 2015 that autonomous vehicles would be on the road within two years. While that timeline hasn't come to fruition, Musk has not yet given up on his dream, nor has he tempered his ambitions.
U.S.Associated PressIn Mississippi, a trespasser, a killing and DEA meddling
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Agent Harold Duane Poole was waiting with his semiautomatic service rifle — and an explanation — when deputies arrived at his sprawling wooded property on a warm spring night last year and found a bullet-riddled body near the driveway. A veteran of the DEA's military-style commando teams, Poole acknowledged he fatally shot a mentally ill neighbor just minutes after calling law enforcement to report the man was trespassing on his land – yet again – “out of his mind" and threatening him with a rock. “I'm going to kill you!” Poole recalled Chase Brewer yelling before he responded by firing eight high-powered rounds, striking the man in the chest, gut and hip.
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Disoriented bear cub rescued in Turkey after eating 'mad honey'
STORY: Footage showed the bear wobbling and whining as she sat belly-up in the back of a pick-up truck, after people rescued the visibly-debilitated animal from the forest. Mad honey, or "deli bal" in Turkish, is a type of rhododendron honey that can have hallucinogenic effects. The bear was brought to a vet, where she was receiving treatment and would likely be released into the wild in the coming days, local authorities said, adding that she was in good condition.
U.S.Miami HeraldSisters asleep in minivan burned alive in parking lot fire. Now mom is suing Walmart
A Minnesota mother is suing Walmart after a fire in a store parking lot burned her daughters alive, killing one and leaving the other “permanently disfigured,” according to a lawsuit. Essie McKenzie's daughters were sleeping soundly in the back of her minivan when she pulled up to the Walmart Supercenter in Fridley, Minnesota, on Aug. 6, 2019. The girls, ages 6 and 9, were tired after being woken early to go to the airport, where McKenzie dropped off her mother, she would later tell investigators, according to court documents.
BusinessTechCrunchMark Cuban, Mavericks in hot water over Voyager 'Ponzi scheme'
A group of Voyager Digital customers filed a class-action suit in Florida federal court against Cuban, as well as the basketball team he owns, the Dallas Mavericks, alleging their promotion of the crypto platform resulted in more than 3.5 million investors losing $5 billion collectively. Voyager Digital's CEO, Stephen Ehrlich, was also named as a defendant in the suit. Voyager, a New Jersey-based crypto firm, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July following a crash in crypto prices that instigated a liquidity crunch on the platform.
U.S.INSIDERA top LA County coroner described in graphic testimony what Kobe Bryant's body looked like to give the jury a glimpse of what the crash site photos may have portrayed
Captain Emily Tauscher delivered graphic testimony about the post-crash condition of each victim's body. A top Los Angeles County coroner on Thursday testified in graphic detail about the state of Kobe Bryant's body following the 2020 helicopter crash that killed all nine passengers on board, including the basketball legend and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna Bryant.
U.S.Charlotte ObserverMega Millions mystery winner in NC shows up to claim her big jackpot
One of two ticket holders in North Carolina who scored a $1 million prize in the July 29 Mega Millions drawing has claimed her money at N.C. lottery headquarters in Raleigh, officials said Thursday. Marjorie Robert of Huntersville bought her $2 ticket at Shop N Save on Mecklenburg Highway in Mooresville, according to a lottery news release. She matched the five white balls, beating odds of 1 in 12.6 million, according to the lottery.
WorldYahoo NewsHow did Ukraine strike deep inside Russian-occupied Crimea?
How did Ukraine blow up Russia's Saki Air Base in southwest Crimea on Tuesday? Was it with supersonic ballistic missiles, perhaps made in the United States? Whatever it was, Ukrainians on social media haven't been this excited since their military sank the Moskva, the flagship cruiser of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, in April.
PoliticsINSIDERTrump baselessly bashed Obama for transferring records from the White House to Chicago. Here's why Obama was allowed while Trump is under scrutiny by the FBI.
It's unclear what the FBI was looking for, but several reports linked the search warrant to the National Archives' request this year for the Justice Department to investigate whether Trump broke the law when he took classified government records with him to Mar-a-Lago. In the days following the raid, Trump and his allies on Fox News delivered the whataboutism defense of Obama transferring records from the White House to Chicago for his presidential library. "What happened to the 30 million pages of documents taken from the White House to Chicago by Barack Hussein Obama?
WorldUkrayinska PravdaUkrainian soldier brings down Russian Su-25 attack jet
OLENA ROSHCHINA – WEDNESDAY, 10 AUGUST 2022, 18:46 A serviceman of the National Guard of Ukraine has brought down a Russian Su-25 attack jet during aircraft's sortie on the Zaporizhzhia front. Source: National Guard of Ukraine on Facebook Quote: "The Ruscists have lost another Su-25 attack jet. During an enemy sortie on the Zaporizhzhia front, a National Guard guardsman has used an Igla MANPADS [man-portable air defense system - ed.] to launch a missile on the Su-25 jet.
WorldReutersChina withdraws promise not to send troops to Taiwan if it takes control of island
BEIJING (Reuters) -China has withdrawn a promise not to send troops or administrators to Taiwan if it takes control of the island, an official document showed on Wednesday, signalling a decision by President Xi Jinping to grant less autonomy than previously offered. China's white paper on its position on self-ruled Taiwan follows days of unprecedented Chinese military exercises near the island, which Beijing claims as its territory, in protest against U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit last week. China had said in two previous white papers on Taiwan, in 1993 and 2000, that it "will not send troops or administrative personnel to be based in Taiwan" after achieving what Beijing terms "reunification".
U.S.OxygenMissing California Teen Kiely Rodni’s Mom Shares Final Text, When She ‘Knew Something Was Wrong’
Missing California teen Kiely Rodni sent her mom one final message late Friday night. The 16-year-old texted her mom, Lindsey Rodni-Nieman, from a party at the Prosser Family Campground in Truckee — about 15 miles north of Lake Tahoe — saying she planned to leave the party in 45 minutes and would come “straight home.” “Numerous resources and agencies have responded to help locate Kiely over the past several days,” the Placer County Sheriff's Office said in an update Tuesday.
U.S.INSIDERThe scientific theory of why some Americans don't want Brittney Griner to come home from a Russian prison
The WNBA superstar Brittney Griner has been sentenced to nine years in a Russian prison. A political scientist said two theories could explain why. Given the timing of her detainment, the nature of her alleged offense, and the reputation of Russian courts, Griner is widely considered to be a political pawn that Moscow is using as leverage against the United States.
WorldReutersLike a scene from 'Parasite': Floods lay bare social disparity in South Korea
Using a plastic bowl, Ha In-sik bailed water out of his lower ground apartment in the low-income housing district of Sillim in southwestern Seoul on Wednesday, where flooding caused by torrential rain forced his family to sleep at a nearby park. The 50-year-old man, along with his wife and daughter had collected home appliances, furniture, books and even cutlery, and put them outside to see what was salvageable. The scene bore uncomfortable similarities with the sewage-flooded semi-basement flat depicted in the 2020 Oscar-winning South Korean film "Parasite," that was a tale of growing social disparity in Asia's fourth-largest economy.
PoliticsAZCentral | The Arizona RepublicIf you thought the Trump raid was a fiasco, turns out you were right
The Justice Department and FBI did not understand what they were doing when they ran 30 federal agents and technicians up the gut of Mar-a-Lago Club and into the living quarters of a former president of the United States. No, we had to divine that something was wrong when Justice didn't have the brass to stand up and explain why it demolished 246 years of precedent and allowed government agents to rifle through the drawers of a former American president. Newsweek called them “two senior government officials” with “direct knowledge of the FBI's deliberations.”
WorldBusiness InsiderJeff Bezos' megayacht is close to being finished — here's what it looks like up close
Jeff Bezos' yacht was spotted floating at a shipyard in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The vessel appears fully assembled, masts included, after it was towed up the river last week. Bezos' yacht sparked controversy after the shipbuilder asked to dismantle a landmark to let it pass.
U.S.Associated PressWisconsin woman in Slender Man attack drops release request
One of two Wisconsin women who were sent to a state mental health facility after a 2014 stabbing attack on a sixth-grade classmate that they claimed was to appease the horror character Slender Man has withdrawn her petition for release. In June, Morgan Geyser, 20, asked Waukesha County Judge Michael Bohren to order her release as he did last year for her co-defendant, Anissa Weier, who spent nearly four years at a mental health facility in Oshkosh. Bohren appointed three doctors to evaluate Geyser's mental state.
U.S.FTW OutdoorsWatch: ‘Idiot’ nearly takes fatal leap in Bryce Canyon National Park
In Yellowstone National Park, for instance, tourons are constantly getting too close to bison, some with disastrous results. Well, stupidity isn't solely reserved for Yellowstone, as one touron in Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah proved. TouronsOfYellowstone's Instagram page posted video of a tourist leaping over a lookout railing and falling backwards upon landing, and sliding to the edge of a cliff.
U.S.INSIDERA California man says in court documents he caught his wife trying to kill him by pouring Drano in his drinks
Chen put cameras in the house to see if his wife was poisoning him and said he caught her doing so. A Newport Beach doctor said he caught his wife poisoning him with Drano on three separate occasions, a request for a restraining order filed on August 5 in the Orange County Superior Court showed. Jack Chen filed for divorce and asked the court for a restraining order against his wife, Yue "Emily" Yu.
PoliticsAssociated PressBiden begins summer vacation with family in South Carolina
The White House did not respond to requests to provide details on Biden's vacation schedule, activities or when he planned to return to Washington. The president will stay at a friend's home on the island that the family has used for previous visits, according to a White House official. Biden, accompanied by first lady Jill Biden, departed the White House by motorcade to Joint Base Andrews outside the capital, where Air Force One was on hand to take them to Joint Base Charleston.
WorldPopular Mechanics4 Weapons the War in Ukraine Is Proving Obsolete
Russia's invasion of Ukraine, now in its fifth month, is seeing new technologies replace old ones on the battlefield. Trenches, howitzers, and even aircraft and tanks are facing serious challenges as the Russian and Ukrainian armies battle it out with one another. Russia's war in Ukraine, now entering its 169th day, has seen its share of upsets and surprises.
WorldUkrayinska PravdaPutin sends Medvedev to Ukraine, he obliges
YEVHEN KIZILOV – THURSDAY, 11 AUGUST 2022, 21:37 Dmitry Medvedev, the former President of Russia and current Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation visited the occupied part of Luhansk Oblast where he held a security meeting on behalf of Vladimir Putin. Source: Medvedev on Telegram Quote from Medvedev: "On Thursday I visited the Luhansk People's Republic where I met with the heads of the LPR [so-called Luhansk People's Republic], Leonid Pasichnyk, and the DPR [so-called Donetsk People's Republic], Denys Pushylin."
WorldReutersChina calls U.S. 'main instigator' of Ukraine crisis
China, which Russia has sought as an ally since being cold-shouldered by the West over its invasion of Ukraine, has called the United States the "main instigator" of the crisis. In an interview with the Russian state news agency TASS published on Wednesday, China's ambassador to Moscow, Zhang Hanhui, accused Washington of backing Russia into a corner with repeated expansions of the NATO defence alliance and support for forces seeking to align Ukraine with the European Union rather than Moscow. "As the initiator and main instigator of the Ukrainian crisis, Washington, while imposing unprecedented comprehensive sanctions on Russia, continues to supply arms and military equipment to Ukraine," Zhang was quoted as saying.
“The media has anointed men who have sex with men as the biggest threat to our survival from monkeypox.”
“Rich countries have ignored endemic monkeypox in West and Central Africa for far too long, despite having effective vaccines.”
“The biggest worry for Americans is not the disease: It’s that our response to it shows how little we have learned from COVID-19.”
“Monkeypox should be a relatively easier virus to control, but only if the United States takes the needed steps now.”
“Global health officials must advocate for and enact a unified, coherent approach to fighting the monkeypox pandemic.”