WorldReutersIndia's battered Congress party closes ranks after election setback
The head of India's main opposition Congress party, Rahul Gandhi, offered to quit on Saturday after a crushing election defeat but senior party officials rejected his offer and called instead for a major internal shake-up. Gandhi, 48 and the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, had been under intense pressure since results released on May 23 showed Congress won only 52 of the 542 seats up for grabs in the country's general election. While that marked a marginal improvement on the party's showing in the 2014 general election, it did not stop Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from winning a landslide mandate with 303 seats.
- NewsUSA TODAY
Powerful EF3 tornado kills 2, injures 29 in Oklahoma town recovering from flooding
A powerful, EF3 tornado killed at least two people, destroyed a motel and devastated a mobile home park in the Oklahoma City suburb of El Reno overnight as severe weather continued to threaten the nation's middle section Sunday. Twenty-nine people were injured, some critically, and a search and rescue effort was underway in areas reduced to rubble, El Reno Mayor Matt White said Sunday. The National Weather Service rated the tornado as an EF3 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, about 75 yards wide at its widest point and on the ground for 2.2 miles.
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.
- 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”.
- WorldThe Telegraph
Emmanuel Macron embarrassed by Marine Le Pen in elections but emerges as EU kingmaker
Emmanuel Macron suffered defeat at home in the European elections but could console himself with securing a kingmaker role that could determine the next five years of EU politics. The ardently Europhile French president was narrowly beaten by Marine Le Pen's virulently anti-EU National Rally in the French vote but stands to benefit from a fragmentation in support for the older centrist parties in the European Parliament. Ever since the first European elections in 1979, the centre-right European People's Party and centre-left Socialists and Democrats have dominated EU politics.
- 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.
- U.S.KFSN – Fresno
Dating scam artist from California had 20 alleged victims in 8 states
Alleged victims of a social media "Don Juan" are emerging from across the nation as LAPD widens its fraud investigation of Wilson Edward Jackson.
- 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
WorldAssociated PressUS sanctions on Iran felt in Iraqi Shiite tourist districts
For years, Karar Hussein has sold sweets in his shop near the entrance to one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines, accepting whatever currency was offered to him by his clients, many of them religious tourists from neighboring Iran. Hussein and many other shop owners in Baghdad's northern Shiite holy neighborhood of Kadhimiya have seen sales drop sharply over the past year since President Donald Trump began re-imposing sanctions on Iran, home to the largest number of Shiite Muslims around the world. The value of Iran's currency, the rial, has decreased almost fourfold, pushing the price of nearly everything beyond the reach of ordinary Iranian consumers in Iran and abroad.
- WorldReuters
UPDATE 3-Iran will defend itself against any aggression, says foreign minister
Iran will defend itself against any military or economic aggression, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Sunday, calling on European states to do more to preserve a nuclear agreement his country signed. Speaking at a Baghdad news conference with his Iraqi counterpart Mohammed al-Hakim, Zarif said Iran wanted to build balanced relations with its Gulf Arab neighbors and had proposed signing a non-aggression pact with them. "We will defend against any war efforts against Iran, whether it be an economic war or a military one, and we will face these efforts with strength," he said.
NewsUSA TODAY51 attorneys general call on Betsy DeVos to cancel up to 42,000 disabled veterans' student debts
In April last year, DeVos announced a new partnership between the Departments of Education and Veterans Affairs that would match borrowers in the Department of Education's records system with disabled veterans in the Department of Veterans Affairs records system. People deemed eligible for loan discharges would be mailed a letter including an application for "totally and permanently disabled" (TPD) status. Under the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008, if student borrowers die or become permanently disabled, they are eligible to have their loans forgiven, so a successful granting of TPD status would allow for the complete discharge of student loans.
- NewsThe Independent
Missing yoga teacher found alive two weeks after disappearing in Hawaii forest
A yoga instructor who had been missing in a Hawaiian forest for more than two weeks has been found alive. Amanda Eller, 35, was last seen early on the morning of 8 May as she set off on a hike in the Makawao Forest Reserve trail on Maui island. Ms Eller's friends and volunteers who joined the 17-day search said she had lost her shoes in the jungle and was suffering from sunburn, but otherwise had no other injuries.
- 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.
WorldAFPFive key takeaways from the EU elections
The EU elections have been marked by successes for the far right, a surge by the Greens and setbacks for traditional parties across the continent. AFP selects five takeaways as the first results come in across Europe: - Far-right, populists advance - The first results and projections suggested France's eurosceptic far-right National Rally party led by Marine Le Pen was set to finish top in France, narrowly ahead of the ruling faction of President Emmanuel Macron. In Italy, Interior Minister Matteo Salvini's far-right League was set to win the most votes, and Germany's far-right AfD was set to improve on their 2014 score of 7.1 percent, with exit polls seeing it coming in at 10.5 percent.
BusinessReutersHuawei founder says he would oppose Chinese retaliation against Apple: Bloomberg
Huawei Technologies' founder and Chief Executive Ren Zhengfei told Bloomberg https://bloom.bg/2HT7DUY that retaliation by Beijing against Apple Inc was unlikely and that he would oppose any such move from China against the iPhone maker. When asked about calls from some in China to retaliate against Apple, Ren said that he would "protest" against any such step if it were to be taken by Beijing. "That (Chinese retaliation against Apple) will not happen first of all and second of all, if that happens, I'll be the first to protest," Ren said in the interview with Bloomberg.
- LifestyleBGR News
10 deals you don’t want to miss on Saturday: 4K TV for $199, $25 true wireless earbuds, Apple Watches, more
The weekend is here but the daily deals are just as good as they have been all week long. Highlights from today's roundup include a 43-inch 4K TV with built-in Fire TV for just $199.99 (and discounts up to $70 on the 50-inch and 55-inch models), AirPods 2 for just $139.99 (order now to lock in the deal and they'll ship when they're back in stock), another pair of awesome true wireless earbuds for only $25.49 if discounted AirPods 2 are still too pricey, all-time low prices on Apple Watch Series 3 models from $199 and Series 4 models from $349, deep discounts on SanDisk Ultra microSD cards, renewed Philips Hue white LED bulbs for $10 each when you buy a 4-pack, a fantastic compact Vizio sound bar for just $79, and a $20 Alexa smart speaker that's just as good as a $50 Echo Dot.
WorldAFPTwo journalists released in Libya: TV channel
Two Libyan journalists held by an armed group for more than three weeks have been released, the television channel they work for said Saturday. "We congratulate the press world for the release of our two colleagues, Mohamad al-Gurj and Mohamad al-Chibani, who were kidnapped by Haftar's forces on May 2 while they were covering the assault on Tripoli," said the private channel Libya al-Ahrar, which is based in Turkey. The capital's southern suburbs have been the target of an offensive launched April 4 by Khalifa Haftar, military strongman of an eastern administration aimed at seizing Tripoli from an internationally-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA).
PoliticsAssociated PressJudge blocks Trump from building sections of border wall
A federal judge has blocked President Donald 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. U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam Jr.'s order, issued Friday, prevents work from beginning on two of the highest-priority, Pentagon-funded wall projects — one spanning 46 miles (74 kilometers) in New Mexico and another covering 5 miles (8 kilometers) in Yuma, Arizona. On Saturday, Trump pledged to file an expedited appeal of the ruling.
- 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.
- WorldThe Telegraph
Rouhani says Iran could hold referendum on nuclear programme as tensions with US rise
Iran's president Hassan Rouhani has suggested that the Islamic Republic could hold a public referendum on its nuclear programme, in the wake of rising tensions in the Persian Gulf. "Article 59 of the Constitution (referendum) is a deadlock breaker ... and could be a problem-solver at any junction," the semi-official news agency ILNA quoted Rouhani as saying late on Saturday. The statement followed Mr Rouhani's public dressing-down by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for his handling of the country's fast-unravelling nuclear deal.
- LifestyleThe Daily Beast
Scouted: These Portable Bluetooth Speakers Have a 4.9-Star Average Rating — and Are On Sale Right Now
The folks at one of Scouted readers' favorite electronics brands Anker has repackaged their extremely highly rated Bluetooth speakers into a perfect Father's Day gift — and marked down the price by 23%. The Soundcore Flare portable speakers, which play multi-directional sound and sync to each other for custom style surround sound, are $50 right now (that's the lowest price they've ever been) and come with a limited edition travel case. The enhanced bass, all-around 360-degree sound, and LEDs that phase, pulse, and shine in sync with your music, got reviewers to rate the Flares 4.9 stars, on average — a rare occurrence to be that well-liked.
- WorldThe Independent
Pope Francis likens abortion in any scenario to ‘hiring a hitman’
Pope Francis has compared having an abortion to hiring a hitman and said the procedure can never be condoned, even when the foetus is gravely sick. Speaking at a Vatican-sponsored anti-abortion conference, he urged doctors and priests to support families to carry all pregnancies to full term. The pontiff said that the matter was not a religious issue but a human one.
- U.S.WLS – Chicago
Violent Memorial Day weekend leaves 27 shot, 5 killed
At least 27 people have been shot, five fatally, in Chicago so far over Memorial Day weekend, including five people shot in a single incident Sunday on the Near West Side.
WorldReutersGermany in push to resurrect Afghan talks with Taliban
Germany, a leading donor and member of the NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan, has been talking with the Taliban and the Afghan government in an effort to restart peace talks to end 18 years of conflict, officials said. While the Taliban have been talking with U.S. officials since October about a withdrawal of international troops, they have so far refused formal talks with the Western-backed government, which they dismiss as a "puppet" regime. Berlin's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Markus Potzel, has visited Kabul for talks with the Afghan government and met Taliban officials in Doha at least twice this month.
- U.S.Architectural Digest
Get the Charming Look of the Kentucky Getaway
A former Kentucky tobacco farm morphs into a high-voltage weekend wonderland of pattern, color, and open-armed hospitality Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
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