WorldAFPFears in US of bad peace deal with the Taliban
An Afghanistan peace agreement that the US seems close to reaching with the Taliban has prompted worries that President Donald Trump's desire to quickly withdraw US troops could further plunge the country into civil war. Trump said Friday he was pleased with talks on ending the war, 18 years after the September 11, attacks that prompted the US invasion of Afghanistan in the first place. In recent days several US officials have suggested that an accord could be imminent in discussions with the Taliban in Qatar.
- PoliticsTime
Trump Administration Asks Supreme Court to Permit Employment Discrimination Against Transgender Workers
The Trump administration's Department of Justice is asking the Supreme Court to set a legal precedent that would enable employers to fire employees because they are transgender. The Department of Justice has submitted a brief to the Court Friday asking the Justices to rule that Title VII, a federal law that prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of sex, race, color, religion or national origin, does not protect transgender people. The brief concerns R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, one of three cases that the Supreme Court agreed to hear earlier this year that concern whether Title VII can be applied to LGBTQ workers.
- WorldAssociated Press
Thailand's lost baby dugong dies from shock, eating plastic
An 8-month-old dugong nurtured by marine experts after it was found lost near a beach in southern Thailand has died of what biologists believe was a combination of shock and ingesting plastic waste, officials said Saturday. The female dugong — a large ocean mammal — was named "Marium" and became a hit in Thailand after images of biologists embracing and feeding her with milk and seagrass spread across social media. Last week, she was found bruised after being chased and supposedly attacked by a male dugong during the mating season, said Jatuporn Buruspat, director-general of the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources.
- WorldReuters
Grace 1 tanker raises Iranian flag, changes name to 'Adrian Darya-1'
An Iranian tanker caught in a stand-off between Tehran and the West has raised an Iranian flag and has had a new name painted on its side, Reuters images of the stationary vessel filmed off Gibraltar showed on Sunday. British Royal Marines seized the vessel in Gibraltar in July on suspicion that it was carrying oil to Syria, a close ally of Iran, in violation of European Union sanctions. Video footage and photographs showed the tanker flying the red, green and white flag of Iran and bearing the new name of 'Adrian Darya-1' painted in white on its hull.
- LifestyleCar and Driver
View Photos of the Bentley EXP 100 GT at Pebble Beach
View Photos of the Bentley EXP 100 GT From Car and Driver
- NewsMiami Herald
Mom aims head-on at a tanker to kill herself, sons. When truck dodges, she doubles back
Police say a Gainesville, Florida, mom of two young boys told a friend she was going to kill herself and her sons by crashing her car with everyone inside. Later that day, on Friday afternoon, Gainesville police say that Melissa Gail Mack tried to made good on her threat by loading her children, ages 4 and 6, into her van. According to the police report, Mack left the northbound lanes of US-441, switched to a southbound lane, and aimed to hit a tanker truck head-on, the Gainesville Sun and WCJB first reported.
- NewsINSIDER
A couple in Australia and their pet dog were attacked by a giant carnivorous lizard
A 72-year-old man was seriously injured after attempting to break up a fight between his pet dog and a giant Goanna lizard, the Australian Broadcasting Company reported. Attempting to save his pup, a long-haired Jack Russell named Lilly, the man sustained a laceration and possible fracture on his right arm. Goannas are a carnivorous monitor lizard found in Australia.
- U.S.Meredith Videos
Rhode Island Prison Officer Resigns After ICE Protesters Allege He Drove a Truck Into Them
A Rhode Island correctional officer has resigned on Friday after a truck he was allegedly driving rammed into peaceful protesters on Wednesday night outside the Wyatt Detention Center.
- NewsUSA TODAY
Fugitive lived in isolated bunker for 3 years to evade arrest in Wisconsin
A Wisconsin fugitive was sleeping in a homemade bunker the morning of Aug. 9 when his three-year run from the law came to an end. A hiker walking in the woods off the Ice Age National Scenic Trail in Ringle came across a shelter dug into the side of an embankment, according to a Marathon County Sheriff's Office incident report. The hiker opened the log-paneled door a crack, peeked in and saw a man sleeping on a cot surrounded by tools and canned food. The hiker later led Marathon County deputies to the hidden bunker, where they arrested Jeremiah Button, 44, on a Portage County warrant for child sex crimes.
NewsAFPUS murderer executed after choosing electric chair
A man put to death in the US state of Tennessee on Thursday for murdering a woman and her daughter chose in his final hours to be electrocuted rather than executed by lethal injection, prison officials said. Stephen West, who was convicted in the two killings more than 30 years ago, waited until Wednesday to choose his method of execution -- one day after Tennessee's Republican Governor Bill Lee refused his request for clemency. "After thorough consideration of Stephen West's request for clemency and a review of the case, the State of Tennessee's sentence will stand, and I will not be intervening," he said in a statement.
- PoliticsYahoo News
2020 Vision: Trump gets surprise Log Cabin Republicans endorsement
Click here for Yahoo News' 2020 tracker] Log Cabin Republicans back Trump During the 2016 election, Log Cabin Republicans, the conservative LGBT organization, declined to endorse Donald Trump for president, even after Trump's vow, at the Republican convention, to “do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from violence and oppression. Since taking office, Trump and his administration have effectively rolled back rights for the LGBT community, reinstating a ban on transgender troops from serving in the U.S. military; reversing departmental protections against discrimination against transgender people; banning the flying of pride flags at U.S. embassies; and siding with a Colorad...
- WorldAssociated Press
Yemen rebel drone attack targets remote Saudi oil field
Drones launched by Yemen's Houthi rebels attacked a massive oil and gas field deep inside Saudi Arabia's sprawling desert on Saturday, causing what the kingdom described as a "limited fire" in the second such recent attack on its crucial energy industry. The attack on the Shaybah oil field, which produces some 1 million barrels of crude oil a day near the kingdom's border with the United Arab Emirates, again shows the reach of the Houthis' drone program. Shaybah sits some 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) from Houthi-controlled territory, underscoring the rebels' ability to now strike at both nations, which are mired in Yemen's yearslong war.
- WorldReuters
Mexico to deport U.S. citizen suspected of supporting 'violent jihad'
Mexican authorities arrested a U.S. citizen suspected of supporting militant Islamists in an example of Mexico's security cooperation with the United States even as the two neighbors grapple with sharp disagreements over trade and migration. The unidentified American man sought by Interpol was under investigation for supporting terrorist groups and will be deported to the United States later on Friday, the Mexico's attorney general's office said in a statement. The man was detained at a migrants office near Mexico's border with Guatemala in the town of Huehuetan with the help of officials from Mexico's National Migration Institute.
- WorldThe Telegraph
Jihadi Jack: Isis fighter stripped of British citizenship by Home Office
The Isis fighter known as Jihadi Jack has been stripped of his British citizenship, prompting a diplomatic row between the UK and Canada, it has been reported. Muslim convert Jack Letts, 24, who had held dual UK and Canadian citizenship, declared he was an "enemy of Britain" after travelling from Oxfordshire to Syria at the age of 18 to join the terror group. He has begged to be allowed to return to the UK, insisting he had "no intention" of killing Britons, after he was captured by Kurdish forces in 2017.
- NewsThe Independent
Mormons ban vaping, green tea and any drinks ending in 'ccino'
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints wants to make clear that vaping, green tea and fancy coffee drinks are off limits under the religion's dietary code, which is meant to keep members from consuming unhealthy substances. Mormon leaders pointed to an article in its youth magazine New Era which reminded readers that the Word of Wisdom prohibits “hot drinks”, understood to mean tea and coffee, and harmful or habit-forming substances. E-cigarettes are highly addictive, “iced tea is still tea” and any drink ending in “-ccino” probably has coffee and breaks the rules, the church wrote.
- NewsCharlotte Observer
GPS monitoring violates some sex offenders’ rights, NC Supreme Court rules
Sex offenders have rights, too, and in some cases the state has been violating those rights, the NC Supreme Court ruled on Friday. The ruling concerns people who have been ordered to submit to satellite-based monitoring for the rest of their lives, which forces them to wear a tracking device so law enforcement can track their location via GPS using an ankle bracelet. Nearly 500 North Carolina sex offenders could now be freed from lifetime surveillance by the GPS monitoring program.
- NewsBusiness Insider
Epstein died by suicide using his jail bed sheet while his guards slept, according to report
The New York Times reports that accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein tied his jail bed sheet around his neck and used it to hang himself, breaking several bones in the process, while in federal custody at the Metropolitan Correctional Center. Initial autopsy reports that revealed Epstein broke several bones in his neck, including his hyoid, a U-shaped bone in the front and middle of the neck, led conspiracists to suspect foul play. The bone can be broken during suicide by hanging, but is more commonly associated with strangulation, although medical experts and the coroner who oversaw Epstein's autopsy say he died by suicide.
- SciencePopular Mechanics
X-Ray Scans Uncover da Vinci's Hidden Painting in All Its Glory
While studying a Leonardo da Vinci painting in 2005, researchers found a hidden painting underneath. Researchers are still unsure why Da Vinci originally covered it up. Thanks to books and movies like The da Vinci Code, the name Leonardo da Vinci isn't just associated with being a polymath and a historically important genius, but also a mystery.
WorldAFP'Nightmare' as Egypt aided China to detain Uighurs
Abdulmalik Abdulaziz, an Uighur student, was arrested and handcuffed by Egyptian police and when they removed his blindfold he was surprised to see Chinese officials questioning him in custody. "They never said their names or mentioned who they were exactly," said Abdulaziz, 27, who spoke to AFP helping to uncover new details of the 2017 arrests of over 90 Uighurs from the mostly Muslim Turkic minority. Abdulaziz, like most swept up in the three-day crackdown in the first week of July 2017, was an Islamic theology student at Al-Azhar, the Sunni Muslim world's most prestigious educational institution.
- NewsYahoo News
How Kamala Harris was shaped by 'the People's Republic of Berkeley'
If you have any sense of who my family is, you will know that at best they found it a curious decision — and with some of them, I had to defend this decision like one would a thesis,” Harris said onstage. But what I said is, 'Look, do we always and only have to be on the outside, trying to change it from the outside, banging down the door on bended knee? Can't we always also be thinking about how we can be on the inside, where the decisions are being made?
- NewsAssociated Press
The Latest: At least 13 arrests in Portland protests
Police in Portland, Oregon, arrested at least 13 people during demonstrations by right-wing groups and antifascist counterprotesters that have continued for hours. Police spokeswoman Lt. Tina Jones said at least one person was taken to a hospital Saturday and three others evaluated by medics. Police used concrete barriers and closed bridges to try to keep the rival groups separated.
- WorldBloomberg
Tens of Thousands Mass in Park for Rainy Rally: Hong Kong Update
Tens of thousands of Hong Kong protesters defied a torrential downpour as they gathered in the centrally located Victoria Park for the weekend's major rally, after two nights of demonstrations ended peacefully and without police firing tear gas. Sunday's rally was organized by the Civil Human Rights Front, which has drawn some of the biggest crowds in about three months of protests, and was confined to the park after police denied a request for a march from the site. The demonstrations that started in June against a bill that would allow extraditions to the mainland have since morphed into a broader criticism of China's rule over the financial hub.
- WorldReuters
Argentina detains businessman at center of Mexican corruption scandal
Argentine authorities and Interpol detained on Friday a businessman who was at the center of a Mexican corruption scandal in 2004 that hurt the reputation of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who at the time was Mexico City's mayor and is now the nation's president. The detained Argentine businessman Carlos Ahumada was filmed in 2004 giving bundles of money to Lopez Obrador's main ally in the City Council, Rene Bejarano. Support for Lopez Obrador at the time was battered by the graft scandal.
- NewsUSA TODAY
Store clerk found guilty of murder for chasing, fatally shooting teen who stole $2 drink
Anwar Ghazali, a former convenience store employee accused of shooting and killing 17-year-old Dorian Harris on March 30, 2018, was found guilty of murder in the second degree by a jury today in a Shelby County criminal court. Ghazali, 29, who did not testify during his trial, was expressionless after the verdict was read. In Tennessee, second-degree murder is punishable by 15 to 60 years in prison.
- NewsThe Independent
‘We’ve been bullied out of the water by the sharks’: Rise in great white numbers triggers panic on US beaches
A rise in great white shark sightings is causing panic on beaches on the US east coast, according to reports. Authorities in Cape Cod have put up warning signs and shut down beaches dozens of times in response to an increasing number of sightings. Between July and the first week of August, there have been at least 59 beach closures due to shark sightings on Cape Cod and Islands, in southeastern Massachusetts, according to the Boston Globe, with some 42 beach closures occurring in the first week of August alone.
