- PoliticsThe Independent
Trump struggles to pronounce various words during rambling speech to veterans
Wednesday's official event in Louisville, Kentucky, nominally used to announce a cancellation of student debt owed by permanently disabled US veterans, at times resembled a Trump campaign rally, and saw the president repeatedly stumble over lines read out from a teleprompter. It followed an extraordinary huddle with reporters earlier in the day outside the White House in which Mr Trump attacked the Danish prime minister for rejecting his advances over Greenland, referred to himself as the “Chosen One”, suggested he could change the constitution to abolish birthright citizenship and talked about serving another 14 years as president. The Europe (sic), certain countries in Europe, they got to take them back because we don't want to hold them,” Mr Trump said in reference to America's presence in Syria.
- NewsINSIDER
Police are trying to arrest their way out of a mass shooting epidemic, and experts warn it could have dire consequences
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.
- WorldAssociated Press
China frees consulate staff as protesters target lampposts
Chinese police said Saturday they released an employee at the British Consulate in Hong Kong as the city's pro-democracy protesters took to the streets again, this time to call for the removal of "smart lampposts" that raised fears of stepped-up surveillance. Public security authorities in Shenzhen, the mainland city bordering Hong Kong, said Simon Cheng Man-kit was released as scheduled after 15 days of administrative detention. The detention of the locally hired consulate employee stoked tensions in semi-autonomous Hong Kong, which has been rocked by months of antigovernment protests, including one to oppose new smart lampposts that activists fear could contain cameras and facial recogniti...
- WorldReuters
Japan, U.S. reach framework trade pact, no tariff cuts on Japan cars - Nikkei
The United States and Japan have reached the broad framework of a trade agreement, with Washington maintaining tariffs on Japanese autos but Tokyo cutting tariffs on U.S. beef and pork, Japan's Nikkei business daily said on Saturday. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Economy Minister Toshimitsu Motegi reached the deal on Friday in Washington, and it will be announced at a meeting of President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expected on Sunday on the sidelines of the Group of Seven summit in Biarritz, France, the newspaper said. The report comes shortly after Motegi told reporters in Washington that he and Lighthizer had made "big progress" in their talks.
- WorldBloomberg
Putin Needs to Bury This Relic of Stalin
As Europe marks 80 years of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, which carved up eastern Europe between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, Russia is trying to defend the agreement again. There is no political benefit to doing this. President Vladimir Putin needs to abandon his Stalinist inheritance of a foreign policy based solely on national interest.
- NewsUSA TODAY
Newt Gingrich says slavery needs to be put 'in context,' calls 1619 project a 'lie'
WASHINGTON – Appearing on "Fox and Friends" on Monday morning, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said that The New York Times' 1619 Project was "a lie." The 1619 Project is an effort by the Times to commemorate the 400th anniversary of slavery's beginning in America. The 1619 Project aims to "reframe the country's history, [understand] 1619 as our true founding, and [place] the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of the story we tell ourselves about who we are."
- WorldNational Review
Brexit Held at the Border
Basically, the backstop is a promise that there will be no hard border — a customs border across the island of Ireland, between the Republic of Ireland and the six counties of Northern Ireland. Irish public officials have argued (with the support of the EU) that a frictionless border is necessary for economic and political reasons. The frictionless border is understood there as part of the the peace settlement in Northern Ireland, following the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
- LifestylePopular Mechanics
L.L. Bean's Huge End-of-Summer Sale Is Taking Up to 70% Off
Gear up for colder weather with jackets, fleece sweaters, boots, and more. From Popular Mechanics
- NewsThe Guardian
Radical gun reform may finally have a voice in Washington
And it may represent the first time in decades that the majority of Americans will get any real representation in the gun control debate in Washington. March for Our Lives' young activists endorsed an Australia-style mandatory government buyback and destruction of “assault weapons”. They want to decrease the number of guns in circulation by 30% – which would mean roughly 100m fewer firearms in American hands.
- U.S.KABC – Los Angeles
Ontario mother under arrest for death of her 2 daughters, police say
Linda Nguyen has been placed under arrest for the deaths of her two daughters, according to the Ontario Police Department.
- NewsThe Independent
Trump claim doctors treating mass shooting victims 'were coming out of operating rooms' to meet him dismissed by hospitals
Two hospitals have denied Donald Trump's claim doctors “were coming out of operating rooms” to meet him when he travelled to Texas and Ohio to console victims of two mass shootings. "At no time did, or would, physicians or staff leave active operating rooms during the presidential visit,” University Medical Center (UMC) spokesperson Ryan Mielke told local TV station KVIA. “When I went to Dayton and when I went to El Paso, and I went into those hospitals, the love for me – and 'me' maybe as the representative of the country – but for me, and my love for them was unparalleled, these are incredible people,” Mr Trump said.
- WorldAssociated Press
Hong Kong protesters form human chains to call for democracy
Supporters of Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement lined the streets and part of the city's harbor front Friday, inspired by a human chain in a historic Baltic states protest against Soviet control 30 years ago. Some raised linked hands while others switched on their smartphone lights and held the devices aloft to create a row of white lights against the nighttime skyline. Organizers hoped the chains, which traced three subway routes, would total 40 kilometers (25 miles) in length.
- WorldReuters
Netanyahu hints at Israeli involvement in Iraq blasts
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hinted on Thursday of possible Israeli involvement in attacks against Iranian-linked targets in Iraq. A series of blasts in the past few weeks have hit weapon depots and bases belonging to paramilitary groups in Iraq, many of them backed by Israel's regional foe Iran. The groups blamed the United States and Israel for the blasts on Wednesday.
- 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.
- LifestyleCar and Driver
2020 Toyota GR Supra vs. 2019 Ford Mustang Shelby GT350: Which Is the Better Driver's Machine?
This is a fight between the 2019 Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 and the 2020 Toyota GR Supra. Carroll Shelby's first Mustang GT350 was built in 1965, constructed in a small industrial building in Venice, California. Now, with the return of the Supra for 2020—albeit with more than a little help from BMW—these two legends are finally rolling off assembly lines at the same time.
WorldAFPBeijing hits back after Trudeau vows to stand up to China
Beijing on Thursday accused Ottawa of worsening bilateral relations after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vowed to stand up to China amid deepening diplomatic and trade disputes. The two countries have been locked in a feud since last December, when Canada detained top Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou and -- in apparent retaliation -- China detained two Canadian nationals over espionage-linked accusations. On Wednesday, Trudeau pushed back against Beijing in a speech that promised to "always defend Canadians and Canadian interests" and to not "back down".
- WorldThe Daily Beast
After Beating and Hernia, American Prisoner Paul Whelan Refused Hospitalization by FSB Doctors
MOSCOW–Paul Whelan, a U.S. citizen held in Russia on suspicion of spying, looked pale and sick when his prison guards brought him to Lefortovo court on Friday. He said he had been beaten and is suffering from a hernia, but his condition is hardly a surprise after eight months in Moscow's Lefortovo, a prison run but the Russian Federal Security Service, FSB, and it looks like Whelan has learned only too well how incarceration there operates. Whelan is facing 20 years in Russian prison for spying, after accepting a flashcard that allegedly contains some sensitive information.
- NewsThe Guardian
Hotline for detained migrants featured on Orange is the New Black shut down
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) has shut down a national hotline that connected detained migrants to an advocacy group, a month after the hotline was featured in a storyline in the hit TV series Orange is the New Black. Founded in 2013, the hotline connected migrants in the world's largest immigration detention system with advocates at Freedom for Immigrants, which also consulted for the award-winning Netflix production and was named in the show. “Ice is attempting to silence its critics and block people in immigration detention from connecting with communities on the outside,” said Christina Fialho, the group's co-executive director.
- NewsUSA TODAY Opinion
Released from death row, then returned — forced to prove race discrimination a second time
Next week, Tilmon Golphin, a black man who had already proved that his murder trial was tainted by racial discrimination, will be forced to fight for his life before the North Carolina Supreme Court — yet again. Golphin was just 19 in 1997 when he was charged with capital murder. During jury selection, a black man in the jury pool reported that he overheard two white jurors remarking that Golphin “never should have made it out of the woods” where he and his brother fled.
- PoliticsKGO – San Francisco
Chaotic scene as DNC votes down climate change debate at San Francisco meeting
The move sparked loud and angry backlash from climate change activists who believe the Democratic Party should change the rules to allow for a debate focused solely on climate issues.
- WorldReuters
Iran has highly accurate missiles which it has not publicized: deputy defense minister
Iran has produced highly accurate missiles which it has not publicized, Iranian Deputy Defence Minister General Qassem Taqizadeh said on Friday, according to the semi-official Fars news agency. U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out of an international agreement on Iran's nuclear program last year and stepped up sanctions on Tehran in order to curb Iran's development of ballistic missiles and its support for proxies in Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Iraq. Iran displayed what it described as a domestically built long-range, surface-to-air missile air defense system on Thursday, amid rising tensions with the United States.
- WorldThe Independent
Amazon fires: Bolsonaro actively trying to devastate rainforest, leaked documents show
Jair Bolsonaro hopes to sabotage conservation efforts in the Amazon, leaked documents show. A series of powerpoint slides reveal that Brazilian government officials intend to build a bridge, motorway and hydroelectric plant through the rainforest. The plans, which were leaked to Open Democracy, have emerged as fires rage throughout the Amazon.
- 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.
WorldAFPUK consulate staffer returns to Hong Kong after China detention: family
A British consulate employee detained in China has returned to Hong Kong, his family said Saturday. Simon Cheng disappeared after visiting the neighbouring city of Shenzhen on August 8 and was placed in administrative detention by police. "Simon has returned to Hong Kong," his family said in a Facebook post, adding he would take "some time to rest and recover".
