| 'Five Eyes' in the dark: Will Trump and Barr destroy trust in U.S. intelligence? Posted: 15 Oct 2019 07:11 AM PDT  The effort by President Trump and his attorney general to enlist foreign law enforcement and intelligence agencies in their smear of Joe Biden may do lasting damage to relationships with their counterparts in other countries and the critical "Five Eyes" intelligence-sharing agreement.
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| What's causing record rates of STDs? Posted: 14 Oct 2019 08:25 AM PDT  After decades of decline, rates of certain STDs have spiked to record levels, according to the CDC. What's causing the increase?
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| Booze run from behind bars: Inmates escape from Texas federal prison, return with whiskey Posted: 15 Oct 2019 08:11 AM PDT  The men left the prison grounds and cut through a neighboring ranch before getting caught by authorities.
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| Jeep Gladiator Gets Even More Rugged as a Military-Spec Vehicle Posted: 15 Oct 2019 07:07 AM PDT  Jeep and AM General could re-enlist with the U.S. Army as soon as next year.
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| India blocks SMS services in Kashmir after trucker killed Posted: 15 Oct 2019 07:53 AM PDT  Text messaging services were blocked in Indian Kashmir just hours after being restored when a truck driver was killed by suspected militants and his vehicle set ablaze, authorities said Tuesday. Separately, Indian officials said a 24-year-old woman died in the latest exchange of artillery fire with Pakistan over their de-facto border dividing the blood-soaked Himalayan region.
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| Netanyahu asks Putin to pardon American-Israeli jailed on drug charges Posted: 15 Oct 2019 10:17 AM PDT  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday to pardon an American-Israeli woman sentenced to 7-1/2 years in jail for a few grams of cannabis found in her luggage at a Moscow airport. Naama Issachar's case has opened up an unusually public rift between Israel and Russia. Issachar was arrested in April after Russian police discovered 9 grams (0.3 oz) of cannabis in her bags during a layover in flights from India to Israel.
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| Court Ruling Extends Vote Protest of Philippine Marcos’ Son Posted: 15 Oct 2019 02:50 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- The Philippines' top court on Tuesday decided to release the initial results of the vice-presidential vote recount, which the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos' son said will delay his chance to assume the post.Former Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said he is "frustrated" by the court's decision not to resolve his election protest against Vice President Leni Robredo victory in the 2016 polls. Robredo is already halfway through her six-year term.The court instead decided to make public the result of the recount covering three provinces that will serve as basis for any further action on Marcos' challenge. It also asked the two camps to comment on Marcos' plea to nullify votes in three other provinces due to supposed irregularities in the 2016 elections."The proper vice president -- myself -- is being robbed of years of service," Marcos said in a televised interview. President Rodrigo Duterte, who has faced questions on his health, has repeatedly said Marcos is his preferred successor if he had to leave office before his single term expires in 2022.Robredo, leader of the opposition party, said she welcomes the court decision, as she urged the court to already junk Marcos' protest. "The mere fact that this has been dragging on for so long only provides Marcos a platform for his lies," she said in a separate televised briefing.(Updates with comments from Marcos and Robredo from fourth paragraph.)To contact the reporter on this story: Andreo Calonzo in Manila at acalonzo1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Cecilia Yap at cyap19@bloomberg.net, Muneeza NaqviFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Exclusive: Trump lawyer Giuliani was paid $500,000 to consult on indicted associate's firm Posted: 15 Oct 2019 03:44 AM PDT  President Donald Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, was paid $500,000 for work he did for a company co-founded by the Ukrainian-American businessman arrested last week on campaign finance charges, Giuliani told Reuters on Monday. The businessman, Lev Parnas, is a close associate of Giuliani and was involved in his effort to investigate Trump's political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, who is a leading contender for the 2020 Democratic Party nomination. Giuliani said Parnas' company, Boca Raton-based Fraud Guarantee, whose website says it aims to help clients "reduce and mitigate fraud", engaged Giuliani Partners, a management and security consulting firm, around August 2018.
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| Woman will spend 60 years in prison for first-degree murder of boyfriend Posted: 15 Oct 2019 06:46 AM PDT  A woman who poured gasoline on the couch where her sleeping boyfriend lay and then shut the door after seeing him jump up and yell "hot, hot" will spend 60 years in prison for first-degree murder.
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| All of the Google Pixel and Home Products on Sale Now Posted: 15 Oct 2019 12:39 PM PDT |
| School suspends girls, says rape-awareness note was bullying Posted: 15 Oct 2019 02:38 PM PDT  A 15-year-old girl was suspended for bullying after trying to draw attention to what she believed was an unaddressed problem of sexual assaults involving students at her high school. Aela Mansmann, a 15-year-old sophomore at Cape Elizabeth High School outside Portland, has been at odds with Cape Elizabeth Schools for a month after posting a note in a bathroom that said: "There's a rapist in our school and you know who it is." She and two other students who left similar notes were ordered suspended. The American Civil Liberties Union of Maine is taking on Mansmann's case and calling on federal court to stop her suspension.
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| We found 85,000 cops who’ve been investigated for misconduct. Now you can read their records. Posted: 14 Oct 2019 05:25 PM PDT  USA TODAY is leading a national effort to obtain and publish disciplinary and misconduct records for thousands of police officers.
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| Here's who will be onstage for tonight's Democratic debate hosted by CNN and The New York Times, what time it'll start, and how to watch Posted: 15 Oct 2019 07:25 AM PDT  The debate, which will feature 12 candidates all debating on one stage, will be hosted at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio.
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| Brazil probes whether 'ghost ship' carrying Venezuelan oil involved in spill Posted: 15 Oct 2019 01:27 PM PDT  A huge oil spill off Brazil's northeastern coast may have involved a "ghost ship" carrying Venezuelan oil in breach of US sanctions, an expert close to the probe into the disaster said Tuesday. Brazil has accused its South American neighbor of responsibility for the leakage that began in early September and affects a 2,000-kilometer (1,200-mile) stretch of the Atlantic coast -- charges Venezuela's state oil giant PDVSA denies. Describing the incident as "very complex and unprecedented," Brazil's navy says it is investigating "lots of hypotheses" for the cause of the massive spill, including a ship accident.
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| Russia assumes mantle of supreme power broker in Middle East as US retreats from Syria Posted: 15 Oct 2019 10:00 AM PDT  Russia's status as the undisputed power-broker in the Middle East was cemented as Vladimir Putin continued a triumphant tour of capitals traditionally allied to the US and Russian troops entered a hastily evacuated US base in Syria The Russian president, who spent Monday in Saudi Arabia's crown prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh, landed in the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday morning. He was met at the airport by Abu Dhabi's powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan and fighter jets coloured the sky white blue and red, the colours of the Russian tricolour, as they traveled to the Royal palace. Mr Putin presented the crown prince with an endangered gyrfalcon bred at a Russian breeding centre in Kyrgyzstan. It is Mr Putin's first visit to the UAE since 2007. Russian and Syrian forces driving near Manbij on Tuesday morning Credit: OMAR SANADIKI/ REUTERS Part of the visit is about business. Russia's sovereign wealth fund said a dozen agreements worth more than $1.3 billion were to be signed during the visit. But the visit also underscores an attempt by Russia to strengthen ties with traditional US allies in the Middle East following Donald Trump's decision last week to pull troops out of Syria. The move leaves Moscow the decisive military power in Syria, and US allies, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE, are likely to see friendship with Moscow as important if they are to contain regional rivals Iran and Turkey. Kremlin has worked closely with Iran to prop-up Bashar Assad in Syria, leaving it with valuable diplomatic leverage on either side of the conflict between Tehran and Riyadh. The shift in power has implications for conflicts in the wider region. SyriaEasternEuphratesRussia|n PMC inside the US base in Manbij abandoned this morning. pic.twitter.com/II2FI68aBx— MrRevinsky (@Kyruer) October 15, 2019 Mr Putin said he and his opposite numbers were "intensively coordinating in the regional and international issues that are related to the situation in Syria, Libya, Yemen and the situation in the Arab Gulf." A symbolic confirmation of Russia's new role as regional power broker came when Russian forces entered a hastily abandoned US base in Syria. The Russian take over of the base near the strategic town of Manbij was captured by Oleg Blokhin, a veteran war correspondent who has often embedded with the Russian army and private military contractors in Syria, who filmed himself exploring the base on Tuesday morning. "Good morning everyone from Manbij!" he said in the video. "I'm standing in an American base. There were here just yesterday, and today it is us. Let's have a look at how they lived here." In a second video he played with raising and lowering the electronically-operated barrier at a base checkpoint. "It's all in working order," he remarked. Vladimir Putin gave Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi an endangered Gyrfalcon, from a Russian breeding centre in Kyrgyzstan Credit: Alexei Nikolsky/TASS The American-led coalition later confirmed it had abandoned the area as part of staged a "deliberate withdrawal" from northeast Syria. "We are out of Manbij," it said on Twitter. The move puts Russian troops in a buffer zone between regime forces and Turkish-backed rebels. It is speculated that they may also assume a role separating Kurdish militias from Turkish forces. Russian and Syrian regime forces moved into strategic border cities in northern Syria after the formerly US-allied Kurdish-led administration of the region struck a deal to halt Turkey's offensive there. Under the agreement, troops loyal to the Assad government and backed by Russian forces are to secure the border with Turkey, allowing Damascus to regain control of a region it lost nearly ten years ago. Such an outcome may satisfy Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who launched his offensive into Syria on Wednesday last week in a bid to crush the autonomous administration in the area run by the Kurdish YPG, which has links to the banned Turkish Kurdistan Workers Party. However, in a sign of tensions with Turkey, Mr Putin's Syria envoy said that Russia considered the Turkish military operation in northern Syria "unacceptable." Asked whether the Kremlin had given Ankara a green light for the operation in advance, Alexander Lavrentiev said: "No. We had always urged Turkey to show restraint and always considered some kind of military operation on Syrian territory unacceptable."
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| Meet USS Barb: The Navy's Special World War II Submarine That Terrified Japan Posted: 15 Oct 2019 03:00 PM PDT  It sank the most Japanese vessels by tonnage.
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| Pastor at Pro-Trump conference: 'We've come to declare war' Posted: 15 Oct 2019 03:53 PM PDT ![Pastor at Pro-Trump conference: 'We've come to declare war']( "Pastor at Pro-Trump conference: 'We've come to declare war'") If the video depicting a fake President Trump massacring members of the media -- which was condemned by the White House -- wasn't too much to handle already, ProPublica and WNYC released more disturbing audio from the conference where the footage was originally shown.While speaking at the pro-Trump conference in Miami, Florida, at the Trump National Doral Miami, Mark Burns, a pastor, told the crowd multiple times that "we've come to declare war." As he continued, he reportedly asked if anybody was "read to go to war for Donald J. Trump, this nation?" as the audience reportedly cheered him on.Additionally, radio host Wayne Allyn Root reportedly boasted about a time in his childhood when, as one of the few white students at a predominantly black high school, he knocked one classmate unconscious and shattered another kid's teeth. "My buddies and I were high-fiving and laughing," Root reportedly said during his speech. "Man, it was funny."Root reportedly went on to say that "you've got to be a natural-born killer" to win in politics. Listen to the audio clips at ProPublica.
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| Latest: California oil fire health warning lifted Posted: 15 Oct 2019 10:25 PM PDT  Authorities have lifted shelter-in-place orders for some 12,000 people in Northern California after containment of a fire at a fuel storage facility that sent up a huge cloud of smoke. Contra Costa County's public health agency had told people to stay indoors with their windows and doors sealed after the fire erupted Tuesday afternoon at the NuStar Energy tank farm in Crockett. Authorities say they've contained a fire at a fuel storage facility in the San Francisco Bay Area that prompted a shelter-in-place warning for some 12,000 nearby residents.
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| Sears and Kmart closing more stores in late 2019 and early 2020. Is your location closing? Posted: 14 Oct 2019 11:04 PM PDT ![Sears and Kmart closing more stores in late 2019 and early 2020. Is your location closing?]( "Sears and Kmart closing more stores in late 2019 and early 2020. Is your location closing?") More than 100 Kmart and Sears stores will close by the end of 2019 and more closures are expected to continue into early 2020.
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| Russian troll freed in Belarus after arrest for US election tampering Posted: 15 Oct 2019 09:07 AM PDT  Anna Bogacheva was detained and briefly threatened with extradition to the US after being named in Mueller reportRobert Mueller alleges that Anna Bogacheva and others posed as US citizens to set up social media accounts aimed at swaying the 2016 presidential vote. Photograph: Tom Brenner/ReutersA Russian national charged with attempting to meddle in the 2016 American presidential elections was briefly threatened with extradition to the United States after being arrested in Belarus, before she was was freed by local authorities. Anna Bogacheva was detained late on Monday evening by police at a hotel in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, while on holiday with her family, according to RIA Novosti, the Russian state news agency. Her lawyer said she had been detained under an international arrest warrant issued by the United States.Bogacheva was one of 13 Russians indicted last year by the US justice department after the investigation into election interference led by the special counsel Robert Mueller. Three Russian entities, including a notorious state-backed "troll farm" called the Internet Research Agency, were also indicted. Russia's foreign ministry confirmed on Tuesday that Bogacheva had been arrested and said that it was providing consular assistance. But shortly after the foreign ministry statement, Russia's embassy in Minsk announced that Bogacheva had been freed. A spokesman for Belarus' general prosecutor's office said that there were "no grounds" for her arrest or extradition to the United States. "She has been released," the spokesman said, adding that Minsk would apply to have the international warrant for her arrest invalidated on the territory of Belarus. Mueller alleges that the St Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency's employees, including Bogacheva, posed as US citizens to set up social media accounts aimed at swaying the 2016 presidential vote that brought Donald Trump to power, as well as sowing "discord" in the US political system. US investigators say the Internet Research Agency is controlled by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a wealthy businessman known as "Putin's chef" because his companies often provide catering services to the Kremlin. Prigozhin is also reported to provide mercenaries for Russia's military operations in Syria, Ukraine and parts of Africa. Bogacheva is accused of working as a translator for the agency and overseeing its data analysis group. She and Alexander Krylova, another agency employee, travelled to the United States in June 2014 on what US investigators say was an intelligence gathering trip. Bogacheva's arrest in Minsk briefly looked set to derail relations between Belarus and Russia. Viktor Vodolatsky, an MP from Vladimir Putin's ruling United Russia party, accused Belarus of a "betrayal" before news of her release broke.
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| Amazon Pledges $1 Million More in Heated Seattle Elections Posted: 15 Oct 2019 11:36 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Amazon.com Inc. is reaching into its deep pockets in an effort to make Seattle more business-friendly, pledging an additional $1 million to a corporate-backed group ahead of next month's contentious city council elections.The contribution disclosed on Tuesday brings Amazon's donations this election cycle to the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce's Civic Alliance for a Sound Economy (CASE) to $1.45 million, and likely cements the company's status as the biggest spender in its hometown's elections. The splurge marks a dramatic change for the e-commerce giant, which largely avoided city politics for most of its 25 years, even as it grew into Seattle's largest employer and contributed to a boom that brought about rapidly rising housing costs, snarled traffic and a homelessness crisis."We are contributing to this election because we care deeply about the future of Seattle," Amazon spokesman Aaron Toso said in an emailed statement. "We believe it is critical that our hometown has a city council that is focused on pragmatic solutions to our shared challenges in transportation, homelessness, climate change and public safety."Amazon's relationship with city hall was a focus of heated debate last year around a proposed tax on large businesses to fund services for the homeless. The city council passed -- and then, under pressure from a business-backed repeal effort, rescinded -- the so-called head tax after Amazon paused construction planning on a piece of its corporate campus and threatened to back out of a lease for a major downtown skyscraper. Amazon would later confirm its intent to sublease that building anyway.Seven of Seattle's nine city council seats are up for election this year.Socialist councilmember Kshama Sawant, who sought to link Amazon to the tax and has made calls to tax the company a fixture of her reelection campaign, faces a competitive race in the Nov. 5 general election. Egan Orion, a community leader from Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood, is backed by CASE and individual contributions from more than a dozen Amazon executives.Amazon's latest commitment makes the company the biggest spender so far this election cycle, according to CASE, topping the $855,000 spent by a group affiliated with the Service Employees International Union. mazon this year has also hosted and sponsored city council candidate forums, and contributed $400,000 to a campaign to defeat a ballot measure that would cut Washington state car-tab taxes at the expense of transportation projects.To contact the reporter on this story: Matt Day in Seattle at mday63@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Jillian Ward at jward56@bloomberg.net, Molly Schuetz, Robin AjelloFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Mayor Pete’s Husband to Embark on European Fundraising Tour Hosted by Elite Allies Posted: 14 Oct 2019 03:37 PM PDT  Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg's husband will head out on a three-day European tour to raise money for the campaign next week, according to NBC.Under U.S. campaign finance law, campaigns cannot raise money from foreign nationals, but can accept donations from American citizens or green-card holders abroad. Invitations reviewed by NBC are requiring potential donors to bring a copy of their passport or green card in order to be admitted.Chasten Buttigieg plans to make stops in London, Paris, and Geneva at events hosted by Buttigieg allies, including Hollywood screenwriters, corporate executives, and former Obama administration employees.In London, Chasten Buttigieg will attend a reception hosted by Eric Beinhocker, a professor at Oxford alumnus of consulting giant McKinsey & Company, where Pete Buttigieg also once worked. Beinhocker donated to Buttigieg's mayoral campaign in 2010, according to records. Later that evening, Buttigieg will attend a cocktail party hosted by Dustin Lance Black, who won an Oscar for the 2008 film "Milk," and called Buttigieg's campaign "a message of hope" in May.Both events are being co-hosted by Kevin MacLellan, the chairman of global distribution and international at NBCUniversal, who hosted a July fundraiser for Buttigieg at his Los Angeles home with husband Brian Curran and LGBT celebrities Ellen DeGeneres and Sean Hayes.Chasten Buttigieg will then head to Paris for a reception and dinner with the national campaign's investment chair, followed by a fundraiser a day later at the home of Charles Adams, former President Obama's ambassador to Finland and a steady fundraiser for Buttigieg over the last few months.Buttigieg's campaign announced a third-quarter fundraising number of $19.1 million in October, good for third overall among the Democratic field, but down from the $24.8 million raised in the second quarter.
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| China's Missiles Could be a New 21st Century Kamikaze Weapon Posted: 14 Oct 2019 06:00 AM PDT  When most people think of a twenty-first-century successor to the kamikaze, they probably think of a suicide bomber. They might have it all wrong.
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| Dutch police discover family locked away for years in isolated farmhouse Posted: 15 Oct 2019 08:46 AM PDT  Dutch police acting on a tip-off discovered six young adult siblings who had apparently spent years locked away in a secret room in an isolated farmhouse "waiting for the end of time," local broadcasters reported on Tuesday.
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| Kamala Harris Tries and Fails to Make a Trump Twitter Ban an Important Election Issue Posted: 15 Oct 2019 07:43 PM PDT  Shannon Stapleton / ReutersSen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) unsuccessfully tried at Tuesday's Democratic presidential debate to win Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) over to her push for Twitter to ban Donald Trump, an issue that is quickly becoming a signature of Harris' presidential bid. Harris told Warren that she was "surprised" the Massachusetts senator hadn't backed her call, issued in early October, for Twitter to ban Trump from its site. In her letter to Twitter, Harris cited Trump's attacks on the Ukraine phone call whistleblower and his tweet about "civil war" as reasons for Twitter to deplatform the president."I would urge you to join me because here we have Donald Trump, who has 65 million Twitter followers and is using that platform as the president of the United States to openly intimidate witnesses, to threaten witnesses, to obstruct justice," Harris told Warren during the debate. "And he and his account should be taken down."Warren demurred, saying that she was focused on beating Trump in the presidential election. "Look, I don't just want to push Donald Trump off Twitter," Warren said. "I want to push him out of the White House. That's our job."Harris continued to press Warren to call for Trump to be banned from Twitter. "So join me in saying that his Twitter account should be shut down," Harris said. "No," Warren said."No?" Harris said. Twitter announced new rules Tuesday for tweets from Trump and other world leaders that may violate the site's rules. The new rules include a provision making it harder to share tweets that violate Twitter policies.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Mexican president confirms Pemex union boss under investigation Posted: 15 Oct 2019 10:15 AM PDT  The veteran leader of Mexico's powerful oil workers' union faces formal accusations of wrongdoing, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Tuesday, slowly turning up pressure on the labor boss to step aside. Earlier this year, sources said the attorney general's office had accused Pemex union chief Carlos Romero Deschamps and several relatives of illicit enrichment and money laundering, charges he has consistently denied. "Complaints have been presented to the attorney general's office," Lopez Obrador told a regular news conference.
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| Tour boat captain not to blame in deadly Danube crash Posted: 15 Oct 2019 09:18 AM PDT  Experts have concluded that the captain of a sightseeing boat that collided on the Danube River with a much larger cruise ship was not responsible for the deadly crash that killed 28 people, including himself, Hungarian police said Tuesday. All but two of those killed were South Korean tourists aboard the Mermaid. Seven South Koreans on the boat survived but the remains of one missing female South Korean tourist have not been recovered.
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| A Florida man called the sheriff's office to report stolen marijuana. The deputy's response: 'Stop calling' Posted: 15 Oct 2019 08:12 PM PDT ![A Florida man called the sheriff's office to report stolen marijuana. The deputy's response: 'Stop calling']( "A Florida man called the sheriff's office to report stolen marijuana. The deputy's response: 'Stop calling'") The Pasco County Sheriff's Office in Florida told a man to stop calling 911 to report $20 worth of stolen weed.
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| Boris Johnson is reportedly very close to agreeing a Brexit deal with the EU Posted: 15 Oct 2019 08:13 AM PDT  EU sources told Bloomberg that a deal could be concluded as early as Tuesday, with the UK set to agree a new compromise deal.
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| GOP endorsement eludes indicted California congressman Posted: 14 Oct 2019 11:22 PM PDT  In a sign of a turbulent campaign to come, indicted U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter failed to win the endorsement Monday of his local Republican Party after arguing that he is the best candidate for the job despite his approaching federal trial. Hunter faced significant odds of winning the two-third support he needed for the nod from the San Diego Republican Party, with several other GOP candidates dividing the vote, including former Rep. Darrell Issa. "I've got this seat," Hunter said, with three other candidates seated beside him.
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| 7 Indigenous Pioneers You Need to Know Posted: 14 Oct 2019 11:19 AM PDT |
| Funeral prank by deceased grandfather leaves mourners laughing Posted: 14 Oct 2019 12:39 PM PDT  A funeral prank that had a deceased grandfather talking from beyond the grave left mourners laughing.
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| UPDATE 1-Erdogan says Turkey will never declare ceasefire in northern Syria Posted: 15 Oct 2019 03:42 PM PDT ![UPDATE 1-Erdogan says Turkey will never declare ceasefire in northern Syria]( "UPDATE 1-Erdogan says Turkey will never declare ceasefire in northern Syria") President Tayyip Erdogan told U.S. President Donald Trump that Turkey will never declare a ceasefire in northeastern Syria and that it will not negotiate with Kurdish forces it is fighting in its offensive into the region. Turkey pressed ahead with its offensive against the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia in northern Syria on Tuesday despite U.S. sanctions and calls for it to stop, while Syria's Russia-backed army moved on the key city of Manbij that was abandoned by U.S. forces.
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| CNN’s Anti-Religious Town Hall Posted: 14 Oct 2019 08:41 AM PDT  LGBT activists gathered last week for CNN's "Equality" town hall with the Democratic presidential candidates. The advocates present were, in the words of Human Rights Campaign President Alphonso David, the "tip of the spear in our fight for full equality."The "spear" metaphor grew more apt as the night went on.Religious freedom was the second-most-popular whipping post. The candidates talked about the concept with palpable derision, as if religion — save Islam, which they predictably if incoherently exempted — were a ruse used to cement old prejudices. No one actually believes those folksy things about God, heaven, and hell, right? Never considered was the notion that people hold earnest religious beliefs that in turn inform their views on sexual morality.The town hall was also evidence that the LGBTQ movement has grown more jaded and contemptuous, even as it has achieved more and more of its ostensible aims. If conciliation was ever the preferred tone, it is no longer. Instead, it is now increasingly unashamed and vituperative scorn.How would Elizabeth Warren, for instance, respond to someone on the campaign trail who said that they believed in the traditional definition of marriage? "Well, I'm gonna assume it's a guy who said that," she said. That elicited a laugh from the audience, men being the only acceptable punchline to the humorless scolds in the crowd. She continued, "I'm gonna say then just marry one woman. I'm cool with that." Then, after a pause: "If you can find one."(Social science notwithstanding on that last jab.)Beto O'Rourke piled on further, affirming his belief that "freedom of religion is a fundamental right, but it should not be used to discriminate."You are, in other words, "free" to practice your religion, so long as you practice it in a manner that Beto O'Rourke — the skateboard-wielding ex-congressman who posts videos of his dental visits on social media — sees fit. Some animals are more equal than others: O'Rourke will be happy to "discriminate" against your church if it happens to hold an unpopular position on sexual ethics. He literally said so seconds later, when asked by Don Lemon if religious institutions should "lose their tax-exempt status if they oppose same sex marriage." O'Rourke's response:> There can be no reward, no benefit, no tax break for anyone, any institution, any organization in America that denies the full human rights and the full civil rights of every single one of us. And so as president, we are going to make that a priority and we are going to stop those who are infringing upon the human rights of our fellow Americans.What "human right" are religious organizations "infringing upon" when they "oppose" same-sex marriage? Do people have a "civil right" to have their sexual preferences validated by private religious organizations? Is there a "human right" to have your particular sexual union baptized by religious traditions with centuries of contravening theological directives?Pete Buttigieg took this same tack, insisting that "the right to religious freedom ends where religion is being used as an excuse to harm other people." Which of course depends entirely on what Buttigieg means by "harm." There is certainly "harm," for instance, in mutilating the genitals of a young girl — a more ecumenical venture than progressives care to admit — but does a baker's refusal to bake a cake that violates his religious convictions "harm other people"? What if a church refuses to host a ceremony that offends its moral precepts? Does "religious freedom end" when someone refuses to grant moral approbation to someone else's choices and behavior?Indeed, that was the Freudian subtext of the entire town hall. "Equality?" That has, even on activists' own terms, been long achieved. Notice, Alphonso David didn't simply want "equality" — whatever that means — but "full equality": your approval. Not simply your toleration, but your moral assent and your unhesitating affirmation. It's not enough to live and let live. You will, in Erick Erickson's words, "be made to care."First, we were told that good sense held that we ought to allow two consenting adults to do as they wished in the privacy of their own bedroom. Fair enough — what business is it of ours? Next came civil unions. Fine. Then, marriage was redefined at a federal level on the basis of specious legal reasoning. Next, religious florists, bakers, and caterers were asked to violate their consciences and dragged before the courts if they declined. And now, at long last, the public exercise of religious faith, and the very belief itself, the very notion that one has rights to "oppose" practices that violate their private conscience, are under siege.All of which, we were told, would "never happen." As the town hall put on display, it's not for want of trying.
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| Marianne Williamson isn't on the debate stage but reminded people she's still running Posted: 15 Oct 2019 05:39 PM PDT  "No, they're not the only Democratic candidates for President of the United States," she tweeted as the debate started.
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| UAW Strike against General Motors Could Be Nearly Over Posted: 15 Oct 2019 06:17 PM PDT  After a month, potential movement in the auto strike that has idled nearly 50,000 U.S. workers.
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| A 75-year-old cruise ship passenger jumped overboard a Carnival-owned ship between Portugal and Spain (CCL) Posted: 15 Oct 2019 11:14 AM PDT  A Costa Cruises representative said the woman "voluntarily" jumped from the balcony in her cabin on the Costa Pacifica ship.
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| Shooting kills 6 in Puerto Rico, leads to emergency meeting Posted: 15 Oct 2019 05:00 PM PDT  Puerto Rico's governor called an emergency meeting Tuesday after six people were killed in a mass shooting in a San Juan housing project and gunfire left two people dead a day earlier in the island's north. A police statement said the violence left five men and one woman dead. The brazen murders led Gov. Wanda Vázquez to convene a gathering of her security team, led by public security chief Elmer Román and justice secretary Dennise Longo Quiñones.
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| Warren's charmed campaign just entered a brutal new phase Posted: 15 Oct 2019 11:04 PM PDT  WESTERVILLE, Ohio — Elizabeth Warren has enjoyed many of the trappings of a front-runner: the polling lead in Iowa and New Hampshire, a near-tie with Joe Biden nationally, explosive fundraising, big crowds. Otterbein was named after the founder of the United Brethren in Christ, but the mood was anything but brotherly as Warren faced a barrage of criticisms from most of the other 11 Democrats on stage.
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| What Did America Offer North Korea at Working-Level Talks? One Report Claims To Know. Posted: 15 Oct 2019 05:05 AM PDT  And it makes absolutely no sense at all.
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| This church in Pennsylvania holds a ceremony to bless guns Posted: 15 Oct 2019 04:19 AM PDT  Dozens of couples carrying assault rifles took part in a blessing of their weapons at a church in Newfoundland, Pennsylvania. Members of the World Peace and Unification Sanctuary, an unofficial sect of the Christian Unification movement, were invited to "show their willingness to defend their families, communities and nation". The weapons are meant to represent the "rod of iron" referenced in the biblical Book of Revelation, which was used to control God's enemies. The semi-automatic rifles are similar to the weapon used to kill 17 people in the shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida in February 2018. The church believes that the Florida shooting could have been prevented if the teachers were armed. Members carry guns while some wear crowns, often made of bullets Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty In the aftermath of the tragedy the debate over gun control raged across America, with shocked students calling for immediate action on gun control. Despite this, the US's largest gun lobby, the National Rifle Association (NRA) has hindered attempts to restrict the accessibility of firearms, using its financial and political clout. Weapons are not loaded and the guns are secured with zip ties to stop them firing Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Now, two decades on from the 1999 Columbine school shooting, it is easier to purchase assault rifles after a temporary ban under the Bush administration expired.
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| UPDATE 3-Tens of thousands of Hong Kong protesters plead for U.S. help Posted: 14 Oct 2019 03:00 AM PDT  Tens of thousands of mostly young pro-democracy activists rallied in Hong Kong on Monday in the first legal protest since the introduction of colonial-era emergency laws and pleaded for help from the United States.
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| Trump meets with parents of British teen killed in crash Posted: 15 Oct 2019 06:04 PM PDT  President Donald Trump met Tuesday with the parents of a British teenager who was killed in a car crash involving an American diplomat's wife. The White House declined to say what message the president had delivered, but a spokesman for the family suggested they may have been disappointed by it. "Meeting with President Trump complete," tweeted the spokesman, Radd Seiger.
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| Pennsylvania man charged in decades-old rape case after DNA links him to attack Posted: 15 Oct 2019 08:36 PM PDT  Decades after a woman was raped near the University of Delaware campus, police identified a suspect based on DNA and "cutting-edge technology."
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