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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- LifestylePopular Mechanics
Air Purifiers That Will Actually Help You Breathe Better
Clean and maintain your indoor air with these popular air purifiers. From Popular Mechanics
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.
- U.S.WABC – NY
Sister of officer who died by suicide Wednesday says NYPD is 'broken'
The NYPD is well aware of this mental health emergency, as nine of its officers have died by suicide since January. But Eileen Echeverria, whose brother's was the most recent death, said something is "broken" inside the department.
- 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.
- 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.
- WorldReuters
UPDATE 1-U.S. and UK presence in Gulf brings insecurity -Iran Revolutionary Guards navy chief
The presence of America and Britain in the Gulf region brings insecurity, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards navy, Alireza Tangsiri, was reported as saying by the ILNA news agency. Tensions have spiked between Iran and the U.S. and Britain in the Gulf after the Islamic Republic shot down an American drone in June and seized a British tanker last month for violating maritime regulations. Iran seized the tanker two weeks after British Royal Marines detained an Iranian tanker on suspicion of violating European Union sanctions by taking oil to Syria, a close ally of Iran.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- PoliticsNational Review
The Bogus Story That Launched a ‘Collusion’ Probe
The George Papadopoulos Origin Story has never added up. It has been portrayed as the Big Bang, the Magic Moment that started the FBI's investigation of “collusion” — a suspected election-theft conspiracy between Donald Trump's campaign and Vladimir Putin's regime. You would probably also think Papadopoulos, Suspect One in The Great Cyber Espionage Attack on Our Democracy, might have rated a tad more than the whopping 14-day jail sentence a federal judge eventually imposed on him.
- NewsAssociated Press
Mormon church warning: Beware of those fancy coffee drinks
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has issued a warning to members that coffee is prohibited no matter how fancy the name, that vaping is banned despite the alluring flavors and that marijuana is outlawed unless prescribed by "competent" doctors. The new guidance in the August issue of a church youth magazine does not include fundamental changes to the religion's strict health code, but the clarifications are significant and seem to reflect growing concern about young Latter-day Saints' adherence to the rules. The article says it aims to clear up issues that could be confusing for young people within the religion's "Word of Wisdom," a set of rules about what foods and drinks are good for members and what substances they should avoid.
- 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
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.
- NewsINSIDER
A Wisconsin college student was arrested after tearing up a classmate's swastika sign
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee junior Grae Hosmanek was arrested at a student-run event organized by Students Supporting Israel In May and his now fighting to clear her record. UWM Police Department Chief Joseph LeMire told Yahoo Lifestyle that the man was not causing a disturbance and that officers warned Hosmanek against intervening. A University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee student was arrested after tearing up a classmate's swastika sign, and now she's fighting to clear her record.
- NewsUSA TODAY
Frustrated Philadelphia mayor calls for gun control. Here's why it hasn't happened in his city.
As the standoff between a man wielding an assault-style rifle and Philadelphia officers unfolded Wednesday night, Mayor Jim Kenney huddled at police headquarters and listened to round after round of gunfire crackle over the radios. “Our officers deserve to be protected and they don't deserve to be shot at by a guy, for hours, with an unlimited supply of weapons and an unlimited supply of bullets,” Kenney said to reporters, frustration building in his voice. A Pennsylvania law bans local municipalities from enacting gun control measures that are more strict than those adopted by the state.
- BusinessSacramento Bee
Cal Fire said Tubbs Fire wasn’t caused by PG&E. Victims win the right to sue utility anyway
Victims of the deadly Tubbs Fire in 2017 won the right to pursue lawsuits against PG&E Corp. on Friday in spite of state investigators' declaration that the utility wasn't to blame for the fire. Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Montali gave Tubbs victims' lawyers the green light to take PG&E to court, arguing that the amount PG&E owes those victims must be resolved before the PG&E bankruptcy can be settled. PG&E has said it owes all wildfire victims about $30 billion.
