- PoliticsUSA TODAY
'It was sarcasm': President Donald Trump changes course on 'chosen one' remark
President Donald Trump said he was being sarcastic when he raised eyebrows earlier this week by referring to himself as "the chosen one" amid his ongoing trade war with China. "You know exactly what I meant," Trump told reporters at the White House late Friday before departing to the G-7 summit in France. Trump addressed the statement again on Saturday, sending a tweet from France.
- WorldReuters
Russia test fires missiles from submarines in the Barents Sea
Russia test-fired Sineva and Bulava ballistic missiles from two submarines from the polar region of the Arctic Ocean and from the Barents Sea on Saturday as part of combat training, the Defense Ministry said in a statement. The Sineva, a liquid-fueled intercontinental missile, was fired from the Tula submarine, while a Bulava, Russian newest solid-fueled missile, was launched from the Yuri Dolgoruky submarine, the ministry said. "During the launches the specified technical characteristics of submarine ballistic missiles and the efficiency of all systems of ship missile systems were confirmed," it said.
WorldAFPTear gas fired as Hong Kong police, protesters clash
Hong Kong riot cops fired tear gas and baton-charged protesters who retaliated with a barrage of stones, bottles and bamboo poles on Saturday, as a standoff in a working-class neighbourhood descended into violence, breaking an uneasy peace that had lasted several days. Earlier thousands of demonstrators, many wearing hard hats and gas masks, marched through the industrial Kwun Tong area, where they were blocked by dozens of riot police with shields and batons outside a police station. Frontline protesters -- known as "braves" -- pulled together a barricade of traffic barriers and bamboo construction poles.
- U.S.Car and Driver
20 of the Craziest Pickup Trucks Ever
A pickup truck's job is simple, but that didn't stop some makers from turning these basic workhorses into wild machines. From Car and Driver
- NewsAssociated Press
The Latest: Houston police chief supports drug raid charges
Houston's police chief says the arrest of two officers for their roles in a deadly January drug raid that killed a couple shows his agency can hold its own accountable if they do something wrong. Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said Friday he doesn't believe the actions of ex-officers Gerald Goines and Steven Bryant are indicative of a systematic problem within his agency. Earlier Friday, prosecutors announced they had filed two felony murder counts against Goines and one count of tampering with a government record against Bryant.
- LifestyleThe Telegraph
Metal detectorist finds £10,000 gold ring in garage 40 years after discarding it as worthless
A metal detectorist who discarded a gold ring in his garage for 40 years after a museum told him it was worthless has discovered its real value is £10,000. Tom Clark, 81, dug up the buried treasure while scanning an area of farmland near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, in 1979, then put it inside a metal tin and forgot about it. But the retired leather craftsman came across the rare seal ring eight years ago while sorting through items from his mother's house after she passed away.
- SciencePopular Mechanics
Ghost Particles Could Explain Just About Everything in the Universe
Scientists have learned more about the subatomic particles known as neutrinos, sometimes called ghost particles. They're known for traveling at near lightspeeds and being nearly massless, but a new study has shown the masslessness of the most massless neutrino. It's least six million times lighter than the mass of an electron.
- PoliticsThe Independent
Joe Biden asks audience to imagine Barack Obama’s assassination
Former US vice president Joe Biden has speculated about how a political assassination of Barack Obama might have affected the country in 2008. After speaking about the health care plan he introduced last month and taking a few questions, Mr Biden grew most animated as he recalled the fraught political era of 1968, when he was a college senior, and two of his political heroes, Martin Luther King Jr and Robert F Kennedy, were assassinated within weeks of each other. “My senior semester they were both shot and killed,” Mr Biden said.
- NewsINSIDER
An innocent man spent months in jail after customs officials thought honey he brought back from Jamaica was liquid meth
Leon Haughton told The Washington Post that he was stopped at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport on December 29. Haughton, a Jamaican native and green card holder with no prior convictions, told The Post that this was the first time he had been stopped by customs in the 10 years he had been traveling back and forth to visit his mother. A Maryland man spent nearly three months in jail after US Customs and Border Protection agents at Baltimore's airport thought honey he had brought back from a trip to Jamaica was liquid meth.
- PoliticsUSA TODAY
'King of Israel' and a Trump tower in Greenland: Here's what Trump had to say this week
The president has had a busy week on Twitter and with speeches. From grappling with Denmark over a potential acquisition of Greenland to joking he wanted to award himself the Medal of Honor, Donald Trump has turned heads with a series of comments. Here are the week's highlights, for anybody who needs to get caught up.
- BusinessReuters
China to soon unveil plan for retaliatory tariffs on some U.S. products: Global Times
China will soon unveil a plan to impose retaliatory tariffs on certain U.S. products, the editor in chief of China's Global Times newspaper said. "Based on what I know, China will take further countermeasures in response to U.S. tariffs on $300 billion Chinese goods. Beijing will soon unveil a plan of imposing retaliatory tariffs on certain U.S. products", Hu Xijin wrote in a tweet on Friday.
WorldAFPSouth Korea begins annual war games to defend against Japan
South Korea Sunday began two days of war games to practise defending disputed islands off its east coast against an unlikely attack from Japan, further stoking tensions between the Asian neighbours. The annual drills come just days after Seoul terminated a military intelligence-sharing pact with Tokyo, with the countries at loggerheads over Japan's use of forced labour during World War II. The two-day exercise will involve warships and aircraft, the South Korean navy said in a text message without providing more detail.
- WorldBusiness Insider
A floating nuclear plant in Russia features a gym, bar, and pool. An expert calls it 'Chernobyl on ice.'
But some environmentalists are concerned that the floating plant could fall victim to a disaster like a tsunami, resulting in a possible nuclear catastrophe. "It's riskier than running an ordinary nuclear-power station, and Russia has a checkered past when it comes to ordinary power stations," Jan Haverkamp, a nuclear-energy expert at the environmental nonprofit Greenpeace, told Business Insider. Last year, Haverkamp published a blog post that referred to the floating plant as "Chernobyl on ice."
- WorldAssociated Press
Russian doctor has trace of radiation after explosion
More than 100 Russian medical workers who helped treat victims of a recent mysterious explosion at a military testing range have undergone checks and one man has been found with a trace of radiation, officials said Friday. It was followed by a brief rise in radiation levels in nearby Severodvinsk, but the authorities insisted it didn't pose any danger. The Arkhangelsk regional administration said Friday that 110 medical workers have undergone checks that one man was found with a low amount of radioactive cesium-137 in his muscle tissue.
- WorldThe Telegraph
Cathay Pacific cabin crew union leader fired as Hong Kongers warn of spread of 'white terror'
Cathay Pacific fired a cabin crew union leader on Friday, the latest casualty in a fast-spreading “white terror” as mass protests in Hong Kong continue into their third month. Rebecca Sy, head of the Cathay Dragon flight attendant's association, said she lost her job of 17 years, without explanation, after managers saw and confirmed her Facebook account, which included messages in favour of the protests. “White terror” is a term used to describe a slew of events that create a climate of fear particularly as companies and employees worry of serious repercussions for voicing their views.
- U.S.KFSN – Fresno
Jussie Smollett case: Dan Webb appointed special prosecutor in 'Empire' actor's case
A former U.S. attorney has been appointed as a special prosecutor in the Jussie Smollett case.
- WorldThe Independent
Revered as a saint by online extremists, how Christchurch shooter inspired copycat terrorists around the world
The shooting was the first deadly attack linked to the massacres at two mosques in Christchurch – but not the last. On 3 August, a man who declared himself a “supporter of the Christchurch shooter and his manifesto” murdered 22 people in El Paso. And a week later, a gunman who hailed Tarrant as a “saint” launched a failed attack on a mosque in Norway.
- NewsINSIDER
Police are trying to arrest their way out of a mass shooting epidemic, and experts warn that law enforcement can't shoulder the entire burden
Since the El Paso and Dayton shootings left 31 people dead on August 3 and 4, at least 28 people across the US have been arrested and accused of plotting or threatening mass shootings. In the weeks since two gunmen in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, slaughtered 31 people within 24 hours, dozens of people across the US have been accused of threatening deadly shooting sprees. Among them are teenagers accused of posting violent threats on social media, grown men who authorities say possessed massive stockpiles of guns, and even a Florida mom who police say threatened to shoot up an elementary school because her children were being rezoned there.
- PoliticsUSA TODAY
Poll: Majority of Americans don't want Trump to be impeached and removed from office
A majority of Americans oppose impeaching President Donald Trump, according to a new poll by Monmouth University released Thursday. The data point -- with 59% of those surveyed responding that Trump should not be impeached and compelled to leave office -- comes as Trump's approval rating remains at 40% in the same poll. In the poll, there is a clear partisan divide on whether the House Judiciary Committee should pursue an impeachment inquiry.
- WorldReuters
Britain will withhold $37 billion from EU in no-deal Brexit: Mail on Sunday
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson plans to tell European Union leaders he will withhold 30 billion pounds ($37 billion) from the Brexit divorce bill unless they agree to changes to the deal, the Mail on Sunday reported. If Britain leaves the bloc without a trade deal, lawyers have concluded the government's will only have to pay the EU 9 billion pounds, rather than 39 billion pounds, the newspaper reported. This is because there will not be any of the costs associated with any transition period, the newspaper said.
WorldAFPJournalist killed in Mexico
The head of a Mexican news website was found stabbed to death in the center of the country, authorities said Saturday, the 10th such killing this year. The body of Nevith Condes Jaramillo "was found Saturday morning... showing injuries from a sharp object," the state prosecutor said in a statement. Condes Jaramillo, 42, was the head of a local news site in Tejupilco and was also an announcer on a community radio station.
- NewsThe Guardian
Fast-moving wildfire erupts in California, forcing thousands to evacuate
A fast-moving wildfire that broke out on Thursday in northern California has forced the evacuation of nearly 4,000 residents, racing across at least 600 acres within just a few hours, officials say. The Mountain fire, which erupted on the outskirts of a national forest in northern California, has threatened 1,110 homes and structures. Photos of the blaze posted on Twitter by the Shasta county sheriff's office showed thick black and gray smoke billowing into the area over a highway near the Shasta-Trinity national forest.
- WorldAssociated Press
Iranian oil tanker pursued by US says it is going to Turkey
An Iranian-flagged oil tanker pursued by the U.S. amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington changed its listed destination to a port in Turkey after Greece said it wouldn't risk its relations with America by aiding it. Meanwhile, Iran sanctioned a prominent Washington-based think tank that led criticism of Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers over its alleged "economic terrorism," something the organization described as a "badge of honor." The crew of the oil tanker Adrian Darya 1, formerly known as the Grace 1, on Saturday updated its listed destination in its Automatic Identification System to Mersin, Turkey, a port city in the country's south and home to an oil terminal.
- WorldThe Telegraph
UK Hong Kong consulate worker Simon Cheng freed after detention in mainland China
A British consulate employee in Hong Kong has been freed by China after being detained for 15 days on the mainland amid rising tensions between the former British colony and Beijing. Simon Cheng, 28, a trade and investment officer at the Hong Kong consulate's Scottish Development International section, went missing on August 8 on his way back from a work trip in Shenzhen, a neighbouring Chinese city. It was not until after the UK expressed “extreme concern” about his disappearance that China's foreign ministry broke its silence, confirming Mr Cheng had been detained without releasing further details.
- U.S.KTRK – Houston
2 women accused of shoplifting strollers and accidentally leaving their baby behind
Two women were arrested for allegedly shoplifting baby strollers and accidentally leaving their own baby behind as they tried to get away.
