Great 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.

This 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.

Brian 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.

Taliban 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.

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  Taliban founder says strict punishment, amputations to return to Afghanistan

  Fox News
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  Taliban: Executions and strict punishments will return

  Axios

A 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.

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  Tennessee grocery store attack: 'He kept on shooting'

  Associated Press
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  Gunman kills one and then himself at Tennessee supermarket, 12 wounded

  Reuters

Romanian 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.

When 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.

Leopard’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.

California 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.

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  California becomes 1st state to set quota limits for retailers like Amazon

  Yahoo News Video
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  California governor signs bill aimed at unsafe warehouse quotas

  TechCrunch

Neighbors 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.

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  No signs of Gabby Petito's boyfriend after days of searching

  Associated Press
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  Former Law Enforcement Officer Says Brian Laundrie ‘Shouldn’t Have Been Able To Leave That House’

  Dr. Phil CBS

Chipotle 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.

Dad 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.

Mary 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.

Bill 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.

Woman 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.

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  Aircraft Drops Water Over Fawn Fire as Woman Arrested in Relation to Blaze

  Storyful
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  Suspected arsonist arrested in Shasta County as Fawn Fire burns

  KCRA - Sacramento Videos

Commission 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.

Michigan 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.

China sends 24 fighter jets toward Taiwan in show of force

China sent 24 fighter jets toward Taiwan in a large display of force Thursday, after the self-governing island announced its intention to join an 11-nation Pacific trade group that China has also applied to join. China's People's Liberation Army flew fighter jets toward Taiwan twice on Thursday, once in the morning with 19 planes, and once in the afternoon with five more. Taiwan deployed air patrol forces in response to the Chinese jets and tracked them on its air defense systems, the island's Defense Ministry said in a statement.

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  Taiwan asks to join trade group, says China might interfere

  Associated Press
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  Taiwan blasts 'arch criminal' China for Pacific trade pact threats

  Reuters

White House Is Telling Federal Agencies to Prepare for a Shutdown

Officials said the request was in line with traditional procedures ahead of a potential shutdown, but were confident Congress had enough time to prevent a shutdown. We fully expect Congress to work in a bipartisan fashion to keep our government open, get disaster relief to the Americans who need it, and avoid a catastrophic default, especially as we continue to confront the pandemic and power an economic recovery,” said White House budget office spokesperson Abdullah Hasan in an email. In the meantime, prudent management requires that the government plan for the possibility of a lapse in funding.

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  Prepare for government shutdown, White House to tell U.S. agencies

  Reuters
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  Federal Government Prepares for a Shutdown

  The Fiscal Times

‘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.

Buckle up: Arizona Republicans to show 2020 recount results

Donald Trump supporters hired by Arizona Senate Republicans to review the 2020 vote count are preparing to deliver their findings on Friday, the climax of a bizarre quest to find evidence supporting the former president's false claim that he lost because of fraud. Election officials in Arizona and around the country expect more of the same Friday from the review team they say is biased, incompetent and chasing absurd or disproven conspiracy theories. “Every time Trump and his supporters have been given a forum to prove this case, they have swung and missed,” said Ben Ginsberg, a longtime Republican election attorney and vocal critic of Trump's push to overturn the election.

Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes reportedly sent a text to her ex-boyfriend and former COO referring to herself as 'best business person of the year'

More texts between Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and former COO Ramesh Balwani have surfaced. In one, Holmes said, "total confidence in myself best business person of the year," CNBC reports. In another, Balwani said, "They are not investing in our company they are investing in our destiny."

Brian Laundrie may have lied about going to Carlton Reserve, search-and-rescue expert says: 'He could be almost anywhere'

The National Association for Search and Rescue's executive director said Laundrie could be anywhere. Laundrie's family, who reported him missing, told police he went to Carlton Reserve. The director said Laundrie may very well have lied to his parents about where he was going.

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  No signs of Gabby Petito's boyfriend after days of searching

  Associated Press
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  Search for Brian Laundrie

  WFTX - Fort Myers Scripps

Boy 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.