WorldAFPUS orders new troops to Middle East to counter Iran 'threat'
The United States said it was deploying 1,500 additional troops to the Middle East to counter "credible threats" from Iran in a move denounced by Tehran on Saturday as "a threat to international peace". "Increased US presence in our region is very dangerous and a threat to international peace and security and must be confronted," Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told the official IRNA news agency. The escalation of the US military presence follows a decision in early May to send an aircraft carrier strike force and B-52 bombers in a show of force against what Washington's leaders believed was an imminent Iranian plan to attack US assets.
- NewsThe Independent
Latin American abortion rights activists warn against draconian US laws: ‘I have seen what is it like to live with a total ban’
Activists in Latin America, home to some of the world's toughest restrictions on abortion, have denounced draconian new laws in places such as Alabama, warning they could result in the deaths of women. Campaigners in Honduras, one of five nations in Latin America with complete bans on abortion, and which also prohibits emergency contraception, have urged the government of president Juan Orlando Hernández to make it legal for women to obtain “the day after pill”, and known by the acronym PAE. “The emergency contraceptive pill is essential to avoid a pregnancy when you have unprotected sex, when condoms fail or in cases of rape,” said Ana Fálope, a Honduran women's rights activist and leader of “Hablemos lo que es”, the name of the legalisation campaign, and a commonly used phrase that translates as “let's call it what it is”.
- PoliticsTime
The U.S. Just Upped the Ante on Julian Assange's Extradition With Espionage Charges
Julian Assange was indicted by the U.S. under the Espionage Act on Thursday, setting the stage for a dramatic confrontation between U.S. and Swedish prosecutors, who each want to extradite Assange before the other. Sweden had, a week earlier, re-opened a rape investigation into the Wikileaks founder and began steps to request his extradition. The only U.S. charge against Assange before Thursday was one count of conspiring to hack a password, which came with a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
WorldReutersIraqi protesters urge Baghdad to stay out of U.S.-Iran showdown
Protesters from the movement of Moqtada al-Sadr, who once led Shi'ite militiamen against U.S. forces and is also vocally critical of Iranian influence in Iraq, chanted "no to war" and "yes to Iraq" in central Baghdad and the southern city of Basra. Iraqis worry that their country will be caught up in any escalation of U.S.-Iranian tensions, which spiked earlier this month when President Donald Trump's administration said it had sent additional forces to the Middle East to counter alleged threats including from Iranian-backed militias in Iraq. Politicians and Shi'ite paramilitary leaders have called for calm and the Iraqi government has tried to position itself as a mediator between the two sides.
- NewsAOL.com
Man lights cigarette on Spirit Airlines flight in startling viral footage
Wild footage from a Spirit Airlines flight to Minneapolis, Minnesota, shows a passenger who began smoking mid-flight, breaking one of the cardinal rules of air travel. The clip, recorded by a fellow passenger on May 21, captured a visibly intoxicated man in a dark tee shirt and khaki shorts light up and take a puff before lowering the smoking cigarette to his lap and seemingly falling asleep. A man sitting across the aisle from the rule-breaking passenger can be seen flagging down a flight attendant, who rushes over and hits the man's chest to wake him up and inform him what he's doing is illegal.
- WorldThe National Interest
Eating Way Too Much Rice Almost Doomed Japan's Imperial Navy
After the war, the Emergency Beriberi Investigative Committee investigated the disease's devastation of Japanese ranks. In August 1882 in Incheon Bay near Seoul, four Japanese warships were locked in a tense stand-off with two Chinese warships that had brought troops to quell a revolt on the Korean peninsula. On paper, the Japanese flotilla outnumbered the Chinese, but the hulls of the Japanese ships hid a deadly secret.
WorldAssociated PressAP Explains: What lies ahead for UK after May's resignation
British Prime Minister Theresa May has announced she will step down as leader of the Conservative Party on June 7, starting a process that will lead to a Conservative Party leadership contest and a new British prime minister who will lead the government during the Brexit process. HOW CAN THERE BE A NEW PRIME MINISTER WITHOUT A NEW ELECTION? Under Britain's parliamentary system, a party in power can change its leader in a variety of ways, and can choose its new leader by following its own party rules.
- NewsThe Independent
Jayme Closs kidnapping: Jake Patterson jailed for life for killing girl’s parents and keeping her prisoner
The kidnapper of 13 year-old Jayme Closs has been jailed for life after she told the judge she wanted him “locked up forever” for murdering her parents and keeping her prisoner for 88 days. Jake Patterson, 21, targeted the teenager after spotting her getting on a school bus in a rural area of Wisconsin while he was driving to work at a cheese factory. After two aborted attempts to kidnap her, he dressed up in black clothing, armed himself with his father's shotgun and drove to her home in Barron in the early hours of 15 October.
- LifestyleCar and Driver
Photos of the 2020 Mercedes-AMG GLB45 Prototype
The GLB is said to take styling inspiration from the G-wagen, and it'll have multiple AMG variants just like its big sibling. From Car and Driver
WorldAFPHezbollah warns US plan could naturalise Palestinian diaspora
The head of Lebanon's Shiite movement Hezbollah warned Saturday that a long-delayed US peace plan could see Palestinian refugees permanently settled in host countries across the region. Speaking days after the US announced a May conference in Bahrain to lay out economic aspects of its long-awaited Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah warned of an "ominous deal aimed at eliminating the Palestinian cause". The right of return for more than 700,000 refugees who were expelled or fled during the creation of the State of Israel in the late 1940s -- and their millions of descendants -- is a key pillar of the Palestinian cause.
- U.S.Meredith Videos
'No Food, No Drink, No Watermelon' Boston Schoolteacher Claims Her Students Were Racially Profiled at Museum
A Boston schoolteacher alleges that her 7th grade students were racially profiled during a visit to the Museum of Fine Arts.
- NewsThe Independent
Violence and disruption against abortion clinics at highest rates since 1999
Violence and disruption against abortion clinics in the US increased to its highest levels since the 1990s last year, a report by the National Abortion Federation has found. The increase in violence was attributed, at least in part, to president Donald Trump and his administration's rhetoric. “Anti-choice individuals and groups have been emboldened by the rhetoric of president Trump, vice president Pence, and other elected officials and we are seeing this play out in more instances of activities meant to intimidate abortion providers and disrupt patient services,” said Dr Katherine Hancock Ragsdale, who serves as interim president and CEO of NAF.
PoliticsReutersTrump agrees with North Korean leader Kim on Biden: White House
U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un agree on their assessment of former Vice President Joe Biden, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said on Sunday. North Korea's state-run news agency issued a blistering attack last week on Biden, who has been critical of the reclusive communist state in the past. quot;I think they agree in their assessment of former Vice President Joe Biden," Sanders said of Trump and Kim.
- ScienceBGR News
NASA places its first order for Lunar Gateway components
NASA has big plans for returning to the Moon. Whether it can be done within the next five years, as the current administration desires, is yet to be seen, but getting human boots back on the lunar surface is something NASA firmly intends to do, and it's going to do so via a 'Lunar Gateway. The Gateway, which has been planned for some time, will be a station that orbits the Moon and provides a jumping-off point for mission both to the lunar surface and potentially beyond.
- NewsThe National Interest
The Glock 36: A Really Big Gun in a Small Package
A derivative of the 1911A1 Government, in 2011 it was finally superseded by an even lighter pistol—the Glock 36. The 1911 .45 caliber pistol, designed by John Moses Browning, was one of the most successful pistols of all time.
WorldAFPTearful May calls time on premiership overshadowed by Brexit
Her voice breaking, Prime Minister Theresa May announced her resignation on Friday after three years of Brexit turmoil, dramatically increasing the likelihood of Britain crashing out of the EU within months. May, who took over in the aftermath of the 2016 Brexit referendum, was forced to make way following a Conservative mutiny over her ill-fated strategy to end Britain's near five-decade membership of the European Union. "It is and will always remain a matter of deep regret to me that I have not been able to deliver Brexit," May said outside her Downing Street office, holding back tears.
WorldAssociated PressPolice hunt suspect after explosion in French city of Lyon
French police on Saturday hunted a suspect believed to have deposited a paper bag containing a device that exploded Friday, wounding 13 people on a busy pedestrian street in the city of Lyon. French President Emmanuel Macron called the explosion an "attack" during a live interview Friday about the European Parliament elections that run through Sunday. The man was seen arriving on foot, pushing his bike along the pedestrian-only Victor Hugo street, then leaving paper bag on a concrete block in the middle of the street near a bakery.
- WorldThe Telegraph
Facebook accused of leaving 'broken children' in wake of its commercial aims, abuse inquiry hears
Facebook has been accused of leaving 'broken children' as collateral damage in the wake of their commercial aims, the child sex abuse inquiry has heard. Barrister William Chapman, representing the victims of abuse at the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), said social media companies were not preventing paedophiles reaching children as it was “contrary to their business model” and that their apps needed to be “fundamentally redesigned”. Police also warned that tech firms were going ahead with plans to encrypt more features "in the certain knowledge" it would lead to more children being abused.
- WorldTime
I've Reported on Modi for Over a Decade. His Hindu Nationalist Ideas Will Be Even More Dangerous Now
When the results started trickling in on Thursday showing Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist BJP government were set for a landslide victory after a divisive and polarizing campaign, I was not shocked. As a journalist, I have covered Modi's career since his days as the Chief Minister of Gujarat and know his strategies all too well. Thakur, a Hindu priestess from the northern Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, is best known for being charged under a terror law for conspiring and carrying out the 2008 bomb blasts in a Muslim-majority city of Maharashtra that left 10 people dead. She swears allegiance to a radical Hindu outfit called Abhinav Bharat that aims to establish a Hindu rashtra (state) and the supremacy of Hindus not just in India but also extending to the neighboring states of Pakistan and Nepal.
- WorldReuters
RPT-Hong Kong protestors demand China be held to account for 1989 Tiananmen crackdown
Thousands of protesters marched through central Hong Kong on Sunday as part of annual demonstrations demanding that China be held accountable for its democracy crackdown in and around Tiananmen Square three decades ago. Human rights groups and witnesses say that hundreds, perhaps thousands, died in the bloodshed as Chinese tanks rolled into Tiananmen Square and soldiers fired on student-led democracy protesters, beginning on the night of June 3, 1989. The Tiananmen crackdown is a taboo subject in China and authorities have refused to accept full accountability or release the death toll.
- NewsUSA TODAY
Abortion rights groups sue to block Alabama's near-total ban
Planned Parenthood Southeast, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the ACLU of Alabama on Friday filed a long-promised lawsuit against the law signed by Gov. Kay Ivey on May 15, saying it was unconstitutional and a threat to womens' health. Abortion has been safe and legal in this country for more than 45 years and we aim to keep it that way," Staci Fox, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Southeast, said in a statement. "We are protecting the rights of our patients.
PoliticsYahoo NewsTrump's latest 'Infrastructure Week' is over in 3 minutes
Nine subsequent iterations of Infrastructure Week have now come and gone, each derailed by the purported plan's lack of specificity and the continued distraction of the investigations into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia in the 2016 election. Yet, as we saw this week, Infrastructure Week continues to play a vital symbolic role in Washington. But its ultimate meaning has less to do with fulfilling the hopeful promise of a slogan on a red hat (and solving a problem Trump and Clinton were right to identify) than with affording the president another opportunity to distract the nation from his own mounting troubles.
- Businessmotorious
Porsche 914 50th Anniversary Celebrated At Museum
The Porsche Museum in Germany opens a special exhibit dedicated to 50 years of the 914. When June 2nd rolls around, the Porsche Museum in Germany will display more than 120 Porsche 914s from private owners. However, such a project would not have been viable for the small company on its own.
- BusinessArchitectural Digest
AD PRO's 20 Favorite Furnishings from ICFF
Miss New York's International Contemporary Furniture Fair? Senior style and market editor Benjamin Reynaert shares his favorite new products that launched at the fair Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
PoliticsYahoo News VideoJudge blocks Trump from building sections of U.S.-Mexico border wall
A federal judge on Friday blocked President Trump from building key sections of his border wall with money secured under his declaration of a national emergency, delivering what may prove a temporary setback on one of his highest priorities.
