| British man who ‘faked death’ while facing rape charges arrested in US Posted: 28 Jul 2019 08:14 AM PDT  A British man has been arrested in the US after allegedly faking his own death while facing rape charges in Scotland.Kim Gordon, also known as Kim Vincent Avis, disappeared in February after his son reported that he had not come out of the sea after swimming at a Californian beach.But investigators said the boy's account "fell apart" and he could not say how they supposedly travelled to Monastery Beach, which is locally nicknamed Mortuary Beach because of frequent drownings.The Monterey County Sheriff's Office concluded that Mr Gordon had not entered the water after an extensive search including a helicopter, boats, divers and a drone."We continued to investigate the case and learned that Avis was out on bail for 24 felony sexual abuse charges pending in Scotland," a spokesperson said."After speaking with his ex-wife, we became suspicious of the drowning report. We reinterviewed his son and determined he was not telling the truth."Mr Gordon's son was returned to Scotland by the local child protection department, while local police, Scottish authorities and Interpol continued the investigation.Authorities said the 55-year-old was traced to Colorado Springs following a sighting and arrested on Friday morning.Mr Gordon is being held by US marshals in the city, ahead of an extradition hearing later this month.A Police Scotland spokesperson said: "Police Scotland is aware of reports from the USA regarding Kim Gordon or Avis and is liaising with the relevant authorities."Scottish media reported that he was facing 24 charges, including allegations of rape, sexual and physical assault.Mr Gordon, who formerly busked and sold jewellery in Inverness, failed to attend a court hearing in Edinburgh in March.
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| US drug busts in Pacific net cocaine worth $350 mn Posted: 27 Jul 2019 08:46 AM PDT  The US Coast Guard have seized $350 million worth of cocaine in a series of operations in the Pacific Ocean, captured in a dramatic video showing suspected drug smugglers frantically tossing their cargo from a speeding boat. The Coast Guard released images late Friday of the high-speed chase by one of its cutters, one of six recent interdictions in international waters of the Pacific Ocean, off the Mexican and Latin American coasts. The Coast Guard did not specify how many arrests were made in the latest actions, but said that so far this fiscal year it has detained more than 400 suspected smugglers in the Eastern Pacific while seizing more than 230,000 pounds of cocaine.
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| Sorry, AOC and Bernie Sanders: Scandinavia Is No Socialist Paradise Posted: 27 Jul 2019 03:40 PM PDT  Liberals like Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., frequently hold up Scandinavian countries as successful experiments in "democratic socialism." A historian and native Swede, however, is speaking out against their failure to observe the clear capitalistic traits of Scandinavian markets."Whatever you think about Sweden and what we did, you have to realize that we had a great society first," Johan Norberg, a Swedish historian, filmmaker, and Cato Institute senior fellow, said in a recent lecture titled "No, Bernie! Scandinavia Is Not Socialist!" "We were incredibly wealthy, we trusted each other socially, there was a decent life for everybody. That's what made it possible to experiment with socialism; then it began to undermine many of those preconditions," Norberg said during the June 20 event hosted by The Fund for American Studies and the office of Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. "That's the one thing that it's important for people to get, because if they just look at Sweden and think, 'Oh look, they're socialist and seem to be doing quite all right,' then they've sort of missed the point," Norberg added. It appears both Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez have missed the point, according to the historian. In April, Sanders explained his views on democratic socialism to an audience gathered in Burlington, Iowa:
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| Duterte Visits Quake-Hit Philippine Area as Tremors Continue Posted: 28 Jul 2019 03:58 AM PDT ![Duterte Visits Quake-Hit Philippine Area as Tremors Continue]( "Duterte Visits Quake-Hit Philippine Area as Tremors Continue") (Bloomberg) -- President Rodrigo Duterte visited the northern Philippine province of Batanes on Sunday, a day after earthquakes struck the region and killed at least eight people including a newborn.Duterte conducted an aerial inspection of the damage and order authorities to ensure supplies are provided to victims, the Manila Bulletin said on its Twitter account. He pledged 40 million pesos ($783,000 million) to the province, after his spokesman Salvador Panelo said early Sunday that the president will initiate "the rebuilding of one of the most treasured destinations in the country."The government's disaster risk-monitoring agency has recorded about 180 aftershocks following early Saturday's 5.4 and 5.9 magnitude temblors in the town of Itbayat that left 63 people injured. One person is missing, while nearly 3,000 are staying at a public market after more than a dozen houses, two health facilities and two schools were damaged, the agency said on its website.Duterte also asked the coast guard to patrol Batanes and proposed expanding its runway, the Manila Bulletin said.Houses in Batanes, at the northern tip of the Philippines and less than 400 kilometers away from Taiwan, are made of meter-thick walls of cobblestone and limestone designed to withstand strong typhoons. There are more than 17,200 people in the province, according to statistics agency's 2015 data, and they rely mostly on agriculture for a living.Located along the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Philippines is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. In 2013, a 7.2 magnitude quake hit Bohol province and areas in central Philippines, killing more than 200 people and affecting 600,000 families.(Updates with details of Duterte's visit from first paragraph.)To contact the reporter on this story: Cecilia Yap in Manila at cyap19@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.net, Shikhar BalwaniFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| 'I promise you, you're wrong': Fox News' Wallace shuts down Mulvaney claim Mueller vindicated Trump Posted: 28 Jul 2019 02:37 PM PDT  "The record will show what it shows. I promise you, you're wrong," Wallace said after Mulvaney claimed Mueller had cleared Trump of obstruction.
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| Trump wins SCOTUS case to allow Pentagon funding to build border wall Posted: 28 Jul 2019 10:43 AM PDT ![Trump wins SCOTUS case to allow Pentagon funding to build border wall]( "Trump wins SCOTUS case to allow Pentagon funding to build border wall") Retired ICE supervisor Thomas Kilbride says the Supreme Court did the right thing, this is a big victory for the president.
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| Woman dies while trying to reach ‘Into the Wild’ bus in Alaska Posted: 26 Jul 2019 06:31 PM PDT ![Woman dies while trying to reach 'Into the Wild' bus in Alaska]( "Woman dies while trying to reach 'Into the Wild' bus in Alaska") A Belarusian woman who was trying to hike to an abandoned bus at the edge of Denali National Park in Alaska made famous in the book and movie "Into the Wild" died after being swept away in a river, state troopers said on Friday. Veramika Maikamava, 24, was pulled underwater when she tried to cross the Teklanika River with her husband Piotr Markielau, also 24, in their journey to the site where hiker Christopher McCandless perished in 1992, the troopers said. There is a rope stretched across the river to help hikers, but waters were waist-high and swift-running when the newly married couple tried to cross on Thursday night, said Ken Marsh, an Alaska State Trooper spokesman.
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| Taliban vows future Afghanistan won't be terrorists' hotbed Posted: 26 Jul 2019 09:28 PM PDT  America's longest war has come full circle. The United States began bombing Afghanistan after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to root out al-Qaida fighters harbored by the Taliban. Now, more than 18 years later, preventing Afghanistan from being a launching pad for more attacks on America is at the heart of ongoing U.S. talks with the Taliban.
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| Every Mid-Engined Sports Car—Including a Few You Might Afford! Posted: 27 Jul 2019 05:59 AM PDT |
| Turkey Stockpiled F-16 Parts Ahead of Getting the Russian S-400 Anti-Air System Posted: 27 Jul 2019 08:30 PM PDT  NATO member Turkey is determined to acquire ballistic missile technology, and aims to co-produce the next generation of the S-400, the officials added, citing discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Erdogan said his country will take delivery of the S-400 within days.A Bloomberg report says Turkey has been stockpiling parts for F-16s and other military equipment in anticipation of a U.S. sanction for acquiring the Russian S-400 air defense system.Two anonymous officials from Turkey who spoke to the news outlet refused to clarify on what types of spares were accumulated, how much was acquired and how long they can last.Relations between the two countries deteriorated over the course of the Syrian civil war, when the U.S. armed a Kurdish militia that Turkey views as a terrorist group, and in the aftermath of a 2016 coup attempt against Erdogan that his government blames on a Turkish imam residing in the U.S.(This first appeared earlier in July 2019.)NATO member Turkey is determined to acquire ballistic missile technology, and aims to co-produce the next generation of the S-400, the officials added, citing discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Erdogan said his country will take delivery of the S-400 within days."The first batch of S-400s will be delivered in a week or 10 days," Haberturk newspaper cited him as saying in a report Monday. "I've clearly told this to Trump, Mr. Putin also said it."
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| Arizona lawmaker criticized for saying US might look like South America Posted: 28 Jul 2019 08:17 AM PDT  Sen. Sylvia Allen, a Republican from Snowflake, made the comments at an event celebrating Mormon political pioneers, according to the Phoenix New Times.
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| Bernie Sanders denounces 'greed' of American drug companies Posted: 28 Jul 2019 01:26 PM PDT  Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders accused American pharmaceutical companies Sunday of letting diabetic patients die out of "greed," after he accompanied a group of Americans to Canada to buy insulin. Sanders joined the group, which took a bus from the US city of Detroit to Windsor, Ontario to restock on insulin, which costs 10 times more in the United States than in its northern neighbor. "How come the same exact medicine, in this case insulin, is sold here in Canada for one-tenth of the price it is sold in the United States?" Sanders demanded after visiting a Windsor pharmacy.
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| Trump campaign appoints beauty queen who was ‘stripped of title over offensive tweets about Muslims and black people’ Posted: 28 Jul 2019 09:24 AM PDT  A student who lost her beauty queen title over tweets about Muslims and black people is joining a Trump campaign advisory board.Kathy Zhu said she was crowned Miss Michigan but lost her title after organisers discovered her tweets."It has been brought to the attention of Miss World America (MWA) that your social media accounts contain offensive, insensitive and inappropriate content," MWA appears to have said, in an email Ms Zhu posted online.The organisation stated the removal of the title would be enforced "effective immediately", adding that the Republican supporter must remove any reference to herself being a MWA participant on all social media platforms.But the 20-year-old has now been appointed to a Trump campaign advisory board, despite the controversy."I am so excited to now be part of the Women For Trump Coalition Advisory Board!" Ms Zhu said on Friday."Let's get Trump re-elected for 2020!"The official Trump campaign Twitter account described the University of Michigan student as "a patriot who has continued to stand for American values despite being stripped of her crown"."Thank you for your support of President Trump," the account added.Ms Zhu's controversial tweets have now been deleted.According to screenshots obtained by the Orlando Sentinel, the student had encountered and taken umbrage at a "try a hijab" booth at her university campus."So you're telling me that it's now just a fashion accessory and not a religious thing?" she wrote. "Or are you just trying to get women used to being oppressed under Islam?" In a second post, the student replied to a tweet about police violence against the African American community."Did you know that the majority of black deaths are caused by other blacks? Fix problems within your own community first before blaming others," she wrote.In a statement earlier sent to The Independent the 20-year-old said: "I stand by each and every one of my tweets on my account."She added that in her opinion, "Coming out as a conservative is way harder than coming out as gay in today's society."In 2016, Ms Zhu starred in a YouTube video with TV network Fusion titled: "Why this 18-year-old is voting for Donald Trump."While several social media users have expressed messages of support towards her, others have condemned the student over her comments."Don't get it twisted – Kathy Zhu was stripped of her title for disgusting tweets. Tweets that were racist. Not because she is a conservative," one Twitter user wrote.The Independent has contacted Miss World America for comment.
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| Police: 1998 Arkansas school shooter killed in crash Posted: 28 Jul 2019 02:39 PM PDT  A man who was 11 years old in 1998 when he and a friend fatally shot four students and a teacher at their Arkansas middle school has died in a crash on a northeastern Arkansas highway, the State Police said. Drew Grant, 33, who had legally changed his name from Andrew Golden and had been living in Jackson, Missouri, died at around 9 p.m. Saturday, television station KAIT reported. The vehicle he was driving crashed head-on into another vehicle on Highway 167 near Cave City, which is about 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of Little Rock.
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| Indian villagers beat tiger to death after attacks Posted: 28 Jul 2019 09:46 AM PDT  An investigation has been launched in India after a tigress blamed for injuring a number of villagers was clubbed to death in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. The killing was compared to a "lynching" by Indian media and online commentators after news channels aired footage of over 40 villagers beating the tiger to death with sticks and clubs. Forestry Department officials said they tried to intervene and remove the animal from the game reserve that bordered the village in Uttar Pradesh but rangers were also set upon by the mob and had to flee for their lives. Villagers said the tiger had attacked people working in the fields - a claim disputed by forestry officials. The incident took place last week after a child "suddenly went near the tigress without any reason," said Naveen Khandelwal, Divisional Forest Officer at the Pilibhit Tiger Reserve. When the youth raised a cry, villagers rushed to save him. Around 40 people entered the jungle and assaulted the tigress, leaving it seriously injured, said Mr Khandelwal. A post-mortem conducted by wildlife experts concluded that the tigress died "due to shock" as a result of blood hemorrhage, broken bones and numerous injuries with sharp and blunt objects, according to local media. Mr Khandelwal said locals also attacked the forest officials monitoring the tigress and created obstacles in their work. Four people have been arrested and an investigation has been ordered into the incident. Around 30 people were killed by tigers in India in 2018, and more than 60 tigers have died or been killed so far this year across the country. Tigers were close to extinction in India a few years ago due to poaching. But the country is now home to more than half the world's tiger population with more than 2,220 found in special reserves in a 2014 census. The Indian government is expected to announce a further increase in tiger numbers in the 2018 census.
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| Hong Kong’s Economy Hit by Protests, Finance Secretary Chan Says Posted: 27 Jul 2019 10:39 PM PDT ![Hong Kong's Economy Hit by Protests, Finance Secretary Chan Says]( "Hong Kong's Economy Hit by Protests, Finance Secretary Chan Says") (Bloomberg) -- Social unrest gripping Hong Kong has affected the city's economy and businesses, and the unemployment rate is likely to rise from current levels, Financial Secretary Paul Chan said in a blog post.In the Chinese-language post on his website, Chan said many local retail and catering businesses had experienced a "sharp decline" in business, and he warned that the longer the historic protests go on, the more pressure they will pile on small and medium enterprises."For foreign tourists and enterprises, the unrest in Hong Kong dampens their appetite for traveling and investment," Chan said in translated comments. If the movement lasts, he said, "everyone's employment and livelihood will be at stake."The Hong Kong government will consider countermeasures to stabilize the economy, Chan said, without providing details.The overall economic downturn that Hong Kong is experiencing, including because of external factors such as the U.S.-China trade war and frictions in the technology sector, will "inevitably be transmitted to the job market." The jobless rate will likely rise from its current 20-year low of 2.8%, Chan wrote. The import and export, wholesale and construction industries are among the most affected and their situations have begun to deteriorate, he said.Read more about the protests' hit on Hong Kong's economyOver the past eight weeks, hundreds of thousands of people have demonstrated against proposed legislation that would ease extraditions to mainland China. While the planned law has been suspended, the movement has grown to include calls for Chief Executive Carrie Lam's resignation, causing a political crisis in the city.Hong Kong is set to report preliminary second-quarter gross domestic product on July 31. The government will also conduct an interim review of the year's economic growth forecast to reflect possible changes in the coming months more accurately, Chan said.There have been signs this month that the mass demonstrations are starting to take a toll on the financial hub's economy as big-spending travelers stay away. Some global luxury retailers said the unrest weighed on sales due to store closures and fewer tourists. The Hong Kong Retail Management Association expressed concern that civil unrest could damage the city's image as a safe environment, culinary capital and haven for shoppers.\--With assistance from Evelyn Yu.To contact the reporter on this story: Eric Lam in Hong Kong at elam87@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Christopher Anstey at canstey@bloomberg.net, Karen Leigh, Stanley JamesFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| World War III? How Russia, China, Japan and South Korea Nearly Started a War Posted: 27 Jul 2019 02:25 AM PDT  The morning dawned peacefully enough on July 22 as Chinese and Russian warplanes soared towards a rendezvous point over the Sea of Japan for what was to be their first-ever joint patrol.As Russia's defense ministry put it, this was intended to deepen "Russian-Chinese relations within our all-encompassing partnership, of further increasing cooperation between our armed forces, and of perfecting their capabilities to carry out joint actions, and of strengthening global strategic security."Representing the PLA Air Force were two H-6K jet bombers which threaded their away through the international airspace of the Korean Strait to meet over the Eastern Sea with two modernized Russian Tu-95MS "Bear" bombers, each with four turboprop engines with noisy contra-rotating propellers.Accompanying the Bears was a Russian A-50 Mainstay airborne early warning plane with a huge rotating radar dish mounted on a dorsal pylon to helped coordinate the multinational elements.These aircraft repeatedly entered and exited South Korea's air-defense identification zone (ADIZ), so the South Korean air force dispatched eighteen domestically-built F-15K Slam Eagle and KF-16 jet fighters to intercept them.
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| Puerto Rico chaos: Governor-apparent Wanda Vázquez doesn't want the job Posted: 28 Jul 2019 02:28 PM PDT  The woman in line to become governor of Puerto Rico said she hopes Gov. Rosselló appoints a secretary of state who would then serve as his successor.
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| Israel says Arrow-3 missile shield passes U.S. trials, warns Iran Posted: 28 Jul 2019 01:18 AM PDT  Israel's U.S.-backed Arrow-3 ballistic missile shield has passed a series of live interception tests over Alaska, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday, casting the achievement as a warning to Iran. Jointly manufactured by U.S. firm Boeing Co, Arrow-3 is billed as capable of shooting down incoming missiles in space, an altitude that would destroy any non-conventional warheads safely. It passed its first full interception test over the Mediterranean Sea in 2015 and was deployed in Israel in 2017.
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| Trump Fed pick’s push for gold troubles lawmakers Posted: 28 Jul 2019 03:57 AM PDT  Prominent economists agree that a return to a gold-linked dollar would not be better for the average American.
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| Kenya governor of president's home area held for corruption Posted: 28 Jul 2019 10:53 AM PDT |
| Brazil miners kill tribal leader in Amazon land invasion Posted: 28 Jul 2019 11:33 AM PDT  Armed miners have reportedly invaded a village in a remote part of Brazil and killed a tribal leader. Villagers fled but were planning to return, sparking fears of a "bloodbath," according to local reports. The violence began last week when the indigenous leader was reportedly stabbed to death in an area belonging to the Waiapi tribe in Amapa state, in the north of the country. It came as around 50 miners, known as "garimpeiros," were said to have overrun the Waiapi village of Mariry. The leader's body was reportedly found with stab wounds in a river. The village is 186 miles from the state capital and a team of police departed to investigate. Randolfe Rodrigues, an opposition senator from Amapa, writing on his Facebook page, said: "The situation is urgent." He warned of a "bloodbath" and added: "This is the first violent invasion in 30 years since the demarcation of the indigenous reserves in Amapa." Jawaruwa Waiapi, a Wajãpi leader, said the government should send soldiers because the miners were armed with rifles. He said: "We're in danger." There are more than 1,000 Waiapi living in remote villages near the Brazilian border with French Guiana. Brazil's tribal peoples have long faced pressure from miners, ranchers and loggers. Activists say the threats have intensified since Jair Bolsonaro, the pro-business president, took power in January vowing to increase development in the Amazon rainforest. The Waiapi live deep inside the Amazon in an area rich in gold, manganese, iron and copper. Their territory is one of hundreds Brazil's government demarcated in the 1980s for the exclusive use of indigenous inhabitants, and access by outsiders is strictly regulated. Reports of the attack emerged as Mr Bolsonaro once again defended mining in the Amazon, highlighting the "absurd quantity of minerals" there. Mr Bolsonaro said he was looking for the "first world" to help Brazil exploit the areas.
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| 'Abortion is freedom': Pro-choice billboard adverts protest all-male council declaring city ‘sanctuary for the unborn’ Posted: 28 Jul 2019 08:56 AM PDT  Almost overnight, a small town nestled in the heart of the Southern Bible Belt has become a battleground for America's deeply divisive debate over women's reproductive rights.There are no abortion clinics in Waskom, located near the Louisiana border, but last month an all-male city council passed an ordinance largely written by an anti-abortion group declaring it a "sanctuary city for the unborn".Officials insisted it was a preventive measure, designed to allay the council's fears that the signing of strict abortion bans in the neighbouring state could prompt clinics to move across the border and into their town of about 2,200 residents.Responding to the proclamation, abortion rights activists from Austin, around 300 miles away, erected two billboards on the edge of town that asserted "abortion is freedom" and directed women needing care to a website with information on local services.That small act of external resistance has galvanised many of the of men and women who live in the town.Heated disagreements have broken out on local Facebook groups since the billboards appeared, and a small number of women have reached out to the billboard sponsors to thank them for their visible protest.Others in town said they were considering volunteering to collect signatures from those who oppose the ban and setting up a support network for those who need it.The majority of local residents of Waskom interviewed by The Washington Post said they supported the ordinance and resent more liberal parts of the state plastering their views on billboards in a largely conservative community."I think they did it to take a dig at Waskom," said Jayna Lay, 37, who owns a local garage. "They send the wrong message in my opinion. 'Abortion is freedom', that's a messed up phrase. That's pretty much saying, 'Kill your children and you're free'. That's crazy to me."Ms Lay said she knew the council's action would cause controversy. "The day before the meeting, Facebook exploded. But I would never see Waskom having an abortion clinic anyway; it's such a small town full of churches."Corey Gossens, 31, who works in the railroad industry, was one of the few Waskom residents willing to speak out publicly against the ban."It baffles me how a group of all white middle-class men adopted an ordinance making abortion illegal within the city limits of Waskom," he said."It's been my personal experience that some people of this calibre in these small towns are in support of a pro-life stance only when it doesn't directly involve their lives and their perfect little white-picket-fence world."Mr Gossens asserted that men who agreed with the ordinance "would likely drive hours away from home with their pregnant teen daughter in tow for an appointment with Planned Parenthood, if they thought the birth of this hypothetical child would compromise their position in society, or their seat on the church pew".He added: "I have seen this myself, and many who remain silent beside me will attest. This is why I feel the billboard is a beautifully and perfectly timed juxtaposition to the absolute insanity taking place in a town that is barely on the map."Women living in Waskom who oppose the ordinance and support the message of the billboards would only speak on the condition of anonymity. They said they feared being "shunned" by their churches and, in some cases, even their own husbands."A woman should be able to have the right to have an abortion," said one woman, who spoke with unconcealed fury about the council's move. "You can't just take people's rights away. There is a reason why you get an abortion – we don't know what happens behind closed doors."There are young ladies around here I've spoken to whose family don't believe that an uncle has been raping them. So they've been forced to get an abortion. Things get swept under the rug here."There are women here who agree with me and a lot who have had abortions but are too afraid to say anything," she added. She offered no further details.Delma Catalina Limones, the communications manager for NARAL Pro-Choice Texas, which helped pay for the billboards, said they had no contact with anyone in Waskom until the billboards were erected. "People reached out to thank us for them," she said.The city ordinance declared her organisation, along with other reproductive rights allies, "criminal," despite the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalising abortion. "Organisations that perform abortions and assist others in obtaining abortions are declared to be criminal organisations," the ordinance states.It adds that it "shall be unlawful" for any of these organisations to offer "services of any type," rent office space, purchase real property or establish a "physical presence of any sort" within Waskom."We refuse to be intimidated, and we will continue to work to expand and protect abortion access in Texas," Ms Limones said.Cristina Parker, communications director for the Austin-based Lilith Fund, an organisation that also helped fund and erect the billboards, said her group wanted local women to know abortion was still legal and available to them.When abortion bans are voted on, "it does create a lot of confusion," she said.Jesse Moore, the local mayor, insisted the matter was closed. "We have no intentions whatsoever to go [head] to head with anybody who opposes it," he said in an interview in his Waskom office. "As far as I am concerned, we are done with the abortion clinic issue."Texas has historically been at the forefront of the abortion rights battle. Roe v Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision, originated here.As the state-by-state battle over abortion rights has intensified this year, Republican lawmakers have increasingly pushed strict bans on the procedure as part of a strategy designed to give the Supreme Court the opportunity to overturn the landmark ruling.Neither side indicated they expect the Waskom ordinance to advance that far.Mr Moore insisted the move in Waskom was solely about stopping a clinic from ever opening in the city.He said he "didn't hear a word" of opposition from anyone who attended the packed meeting when the ordinance was passed, and that the meeting prompted "the largest crowd I have seen"."I want to make clear that we passed that ordinance to keep abortion clinics out of Waskom," he said. "I don't like what they [the billboards] say, but they have got that right."The abortion clinic closest to Waskom is Hope Medical Group for Women, just over 20 miles across the border in Shreveport, Louisiana.Mr Moore said the council "got wind" that this clinic was planning on relocating, or putting a satellite office in Waskom.The clinic's administrator, Kathaleen Pittman, said there was never a plan to move."Hope Medical Group for Women never had any intention of moving there," Ms Pittman said. "Information provided to the city of Waskom was absolutely incorrect."Townspeople point to external groups as stirring up confusion and using the town as a front for both sides of the debate to promote their agendas.Lobbying for the ordinance was led by Right to Life of East Texas, whose director, Mark Lee Dickson, applauded the move on Facebook."Mark approached us and we talked to him about it," Mr Moore said. "He and his group came up with an ordinance and a resolution."There were some little changes made to it, and we decided that was the one we were going to go with; we felt like it fit us better than anything we'd seen."It is not hard to find residents who are willing to speak in support of their council's new ordinance. Erin Grable, 47, rejected the idea that an abortion is acceptable in any circumstance.As she served customers settling down for lunch at Jim's Bar-B-Que, she described herself as a Christian."So of course I don't believe in abortion," she said. She said she believed there are a "million other options that nobody wants to talk about," including adoption.Asked whether she supported the right of a woman to seek an abortion in cases of rape or incest, she replied: "In my heart, no. I'm a full-on Christian, and I think there are always different things you can do."I pray for people who are lost, in my mind. People who believe in abortion ... need prayer."She also rejected criticisms levied at the male council members who passed the ordinance. "The thing they don't want to tell you is that 90 per cent of the people at that meeting were female," she said."They want to say we are letting men make our decisions. I think that's ridiculous. We are strong women in Texas; we know what we think and believe all by ourselves, and we will tell you."Suzan Maxwell, 58, owns an embroidery printing business, added she, too, is "very proud" of what has happened in the town.A recent Washington Post-ABC poll found support for legal abortion stands at its highest level in more than two decades, with a 60 per cent majority nationwide who say abortion should be legal in most or all cases.Even in Waskom, some uncertainty surfaced. Speaking on the outskirts of the town, Damon Anderson, 60, a father to one daughter, said he struggles to justify the right to abortion when women have access to birth control. However, he said, in the instance of rape or incest, it was "different."He said: "If you got raped or beaten, I think you should have a choice as to whether you want to be a mother or not."I wouldn't necessarily want an abortion clinic in this town," he added. "I would hate to know that there are babies being killed across the street, but people have got to go somewhere."Washington Post
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| 2020 Trump campaign press secretary reacts to Fox News poll showing Biden ahead of Trump Posted: 27 Jul 2019 07:02 PM PDT  Kayleigh McEnany weighs in on the latest Fox News poll that shows Joe Biden leading President Trump by 10 points in a head-to-head match up.
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| The Navy Reportedly booted SEAL Team 7 out of Iraq Posted: 26 Jul 2019 09:00 PM PDT  When the commander of Special Operations Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve unceremoniously booted SEAL Team 7 out of Iraq this week, the U.S. Special Operations Command justified it "due to a perceived deterioration of good order and discipline within the team during non-operational periods."But according to an alarming new report in the New York Times, "deterioration of good order and discipline" seemed to be an understatement.While the Navy initially indicated that an alcohol-soaked July 4th party was the core driver of the decision, a senior Navy official revealed to the New York Times' David Philipps that a senior enlisted platoon member had allegedly raped a female service member assigned to the SEAL platoon.In addition, "when commanders began investigating the allegations, the entire platoon invoked their right to remain silent" under the Fifth Amendment, Philipps reports. "At that point, the official said, commanders decided to send the whole platoon home, including the lieutenant in command."When reached for comment by Task & Purpose, SOCOM spokesman Ken McGraw said the command was "unable to confirm the nature of any allegations that are currently under investigation."
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| Emmett Till memorial will be made bulletproof after photo of gun-toting students surfaces Posted: 28 Jul 2019 02:04 PM PDT  Emmett Till's memorial will be bulletproof after outrage over a photo of three gun-toting Ole Miss students posing in front of the sign.
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| Vatican says no recent bones found in search of ossuary Posted: 28 Jul 2019 07:33 AM PDT  Experts say they have found no recent bones in their examination of a ossuary as part of a search for a teenager who disappeared 36 years ago, Vatican officials said Sunday. A Vatican spokesman said a team of specialists, who completed their work Sunday, had found no bones old enough to match those of Emanuela Orlandi, the missing teenager. Forensics specialist Giovanni Arcudi, who led the team, said they had found "no bone structure dating back to a period later than the end of the 19th century," said the statement.
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| U.K. Deploys Destroyer to Protect Shipping in Strait of Hormuz Posted: 28 Jul 2019 08:05 AM PDT ![U.K. Deploys Destroyer to Protect Shipping in Strait of Hormuz]( "U.K. Deploys Destroyer to Protect Shipping in Strait of Hormuz") (Bloomberg) -- The U.K. has deployed one of its Type 45 warships to help escort commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz after Iran seized a British vessel amid heightening tensions with the West.The frigate, HMS Duncan, will operate alongside the Royal Navy's HMS Montrose Type 23 to shepherd British-flagged ships through the strait, the Ministry of Defence said in a statement. The air defense destroyer will operate until late August, it said.Oman, which shares the waterway with Iran, said it was in talks with "all parties" to restore stability to the waterway."We don't mediate, but in this case we are more concerned than others to ensure the stability of navigation," Foreign Minister Yousef Bin Alawi said after discussions with Iranian officials in Tehran. Oman has close ties with Iran.Tensions have flared in the strait in recent weeks as Iran pushes back against U.S. sanctions that are crippling its oil exports. Iran's Revolutionary Guard detained the Stena Impero this month and is still holding the ship. That move came after U.K. forces seized an Iranian tanker near Gibraltar early this month for allegedly violating sanctions against Syria.Oil ChokepointThe strait is a vital thoroughfare for the energy industry, accounting for about a third of the world's seaborne oil flows. The U.K. said last week under former Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt that further measures would be taken to respond to Iran, without giving detail on those plans."Freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz is vital not just to the U.K., but also our international partners and allies," Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said in the statement. "Merchant ships must be free to travel lawfully and trade safely, anywhere in the world."The Type 45, manufactured by BAE Systems Plc, was designed to replace the Type 42 warships that formed part of the Royal Navy's fleet during the Falklands War. The final Type 42 was retired in 2013.The U.K. and Iran are maintaining contacts to try to resolve the situation. In a letter published Sunday by state-run Islamic Republic News Agency, President Hassan Rouhani congratulated Boris Johnson on becoming the U.K. prime minister and said he hoped this would usher in improved ties between London and Tehran.Britain's ambassador to Iran, meanwhile, said he had "good and detailed talks" with a senior hardline lawmaker who heads the Islamic Republic's parliamentary commission for National Security and Foreign Policy.Envoy Robert Macaire said in a tweet that it was "important to keep these channels of discussion open" after meeting with cleric and lawmaker, Mojtaba Zonnour, in Tehran. Zonnour was formerly Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's representative to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.Unraveling DealThe standoff over the tankers has fanned the intense strains in the region over renewed U.S. sanctions on Iran following Washington's abandonment of the multipower nuclear deal with Tehran last year. The other signatories to the deal met with an Iranian envoy in Vienna on Sunday to try to salvage the agreement.Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi characterized the talks as "constructive" but said his country will continue to scale back its commitments to the nuclear deal unless European powers guarantee Iran's ability to gain economic benefits promised in the accord, the semi-official Fars news reported.(Updates with Oman working to stabilize Hormuz in 3rd paragraph, Rouhani letter to Johnson in ninth, Iranian deputy foreign minister's comments in 13th.)\--With assistance from Arsalan Shahla and Vivian Nereim.To contact the reporter on this story: Benjamin Katz in London at bkatz38@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.net, Amy TeibelFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Cuban officials attend funeral service for Cardinal Ortega Posted: 28 Jul 2019 02:52 PM PDT |
| Guatemalan activists protest migrant asylum pact with US Posted: 27 Jul 2019 06:39 PM PDT  Hundreds of Guatemalans gathered Saturday to protest an agreement that President Jimmy Morales' government signed with Washington to require migrants passing through the Central American country to seek asylum here, rather than pushing on to the U.S. The protesters also carried signs calling for Guatemala to maintain its sovereignty and expressing support for a United Nations-backed anti-corruption commission that Morales expelled from the country.
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| Climate change warning as Arctic Circle burning at record rate Posted: 27 Jul 2019 05:41 AM PDT  An unprecedented outbreak of wildfires in the Arctic has sent smoke across Eurasia and released more carbon dioxide in two months than the Czech Republic or Belgium does in a year. As 44C heatwaves struck Europe, scientists observed more than 100 long-lasting, intense fires in the Arctic in June, the hottest month on record, and are seeing even more in July, according to Mark Parrington of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. Mostly in Alaska and Russia, the infernos have collectively released more than 120 million tonnes of CO2, more than the annual output of most countries. It is the most carbon emitted since satellite monitoring began in the early 2000s. This will further exacerbate climate change and has sent smoke pouring toward more populated parts of the world. Pollutants can persist more than a month in the atmosphere and spread thousands of kilometres. "You ask people about the Arctic, they think ice, polar bears, a clean environment, but clearly that's changing and that's no longer the case," Mr Parrington said. "It should be an alarm bell that something isn't right, but the way it could directly affect them is the long-range transfer of smoke pollution. I don't think it's getting as far as western Europe just yet but that could happen." The huge amounts of carbon from the fires will exacerbate climate change Credit: Maxar Technologies via AP While some have estimated that up to half a million kilometres have burned worldwide this year, Russia has been especially hard hit. Already, dangerous levels of smoke pollution have been reported this week in the cities of Chelyabinsk, Tomsk and Novosibirsk, where a curtain of smog turned the daytime sun a deep red. The number of patients in some cardiac wards have reportedly doubled. Fires first erupted in the peatlands of northern Siberia in June and have been joined by blazes in the massive boreal forests south of the Arctic circle. More than 30,000 square kilometres of Russian territory are currently burning, already about as much as in 2018 and twice as much as in 2017. This has created a 4.5 million square kilometre "smoke lid" that reaches as far east as the Pacific Ocean and as far south as Kazakhstan. To the west, thick smoke haze has drifted into more populated parts of the country, obscuring the streets of cities like Yekaterinburg and Perm and being detected all the way in Kazan on the Volga River. "This morning I thought a rubbish bin was burning outside the window, but it hasn't passed, the smoke is staying there," Yekaterinburg resident Yevgenia Panasyuk told local television. Impressive extent of heavy smoke across much of central Russia/Siberia, Alaska & Canada from numerous intense boreal & Arcticwildfires shows up in latest Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service aerosol optical depth forecast https://t.co/N5E33mccshpic.twitter.com/br0kkT02HY— Mark Parrington (@m_parrington) July 24, 2019 Once rare in the cold, wet tundra and forests, fires in the Arctic, which is warming at twice the world average, have been flaring up with increasing frequency. The Copernicus satellite system has observed an average of 50 to 60 Arctic hotspots on summer days since it began monitoring in 2003. This summer it has been seeing about 250 per day. And while in the past Arctic blazes would typically go out in a few days, the duration of this year's fires, many of which of have been burning for nearly two months, is shocking, Mr Parrington said. The long-term effects could be dire. Already in June, fires began to deposit soot known as "black carbon" on Arctic sea ice, accelerating its melt. Russia has mobilised 2,715 personnel and 28 aircraft but they are only fighting fires in about 1,500 square kilometres of territory. A brush fire burns in South Anchorage, Alaska Credit: Loren Holmes/Anchorage Daily News via AP Like in Alaska and Canada, not all fires here receive a response. Since 2015, Russia has declined to combat blazes in vast, remote "control zones" unless they threaten towns. "The logic is clear, we need to save money," the head of the Krasnoyarsk region said this month. But the policy of leaving fires alone until they spread to populated areas has resulted in an "environmental disaster at a national level," Greenpeace Russia said on Friday. It claimed that hundreds of villages were within the control zones, calling on these boundaries to be redrawn and for the government to send additional firefighting forces to defend villages. Also on Friday, a study published in Science found that some Alaskan glaciers were melting 100 times faster than previously thought. Drawing on data about the terminus of a glacier in LeConte Bay collected by local high students since 1983, scientists scanned the glacier with sonar, radar and time-lapse cameras for two summers to discover that the underwater part of it was melting up to 16 feet per day in August. Their results have demonstrated that glaciers are more sensitive to warming ocean temperatures than researchers had known.
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| Fighting talk: Ireland raises stakes in Brexit showdown Posted: 28 Jul 2019 02:53 AM PDT  With the prospect of a no-deal Brexit becoming ever more likely under Boris Johnson, the remaining EU member state with most to lose -- Ireland -- is hardening its rhetoric. Ireland has a land border with Britain that it wants to keep free-flowing after Brexit and it fears massive economic disruption if Britain crashes out of the EU. Since Johnson took over on Wednesday, Irish leaders have warned his plans are unrealistic and could lead to the break-up of the United Kingdom and a united Ireland.
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| Chaser: ‘World’s smartest dog’, which knew over 1,000 words, dies aged 15 Posted: 28 Jul 2019 01:44 PM PDT  Many owners struggle to teach their dogs to sit, fetch or even bark on command, but John Pilley, a retired psychiatrist, taught his border collie to understand more than 1,000 nouns, a feat that earned them both worldwide recognition.In 2004, Mr Pilley bought a black-and-white border collie he named Chaser.For three years, Mr Pilley trained her for four to five hours a day. He showed her an object, said its name up to 40 times, then hid it and asked her to find it.He used 800 cloth animal toys, 116 balls, 26 Frisbees and an assortment of plastic items to ultimately teach Chaser 1,022 nouns.Chaser died on Tuesday at 15. She had been living with Mr Pilley's wife, Sally, and their daughter Robin in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Mr Pilley died last year at 89.Another daughter, Pilley Bianchi, said on Saturday that Chaser had been in declining health in recent weeks."The vet really determined that she died of natural causes," Ms Bianchi said. "She went down very quickly."Ms Bianchi, who helped her father train Chaser, said the dog was buried in the backyard with the family's other beloved dogs and with some of her father's ashes."What we would really like people to understand about Chaser is that she is not unique," Ms Bianchi said."It's the way she was taught that is unique. We believed that my father tapped into something that was very simple: he taught Chaser a concept which he believed worked infinitely greater than learning a hundred behaviours."Ms Bianchi said her father's experiment was "uncharted territory" in animal cognition research, pointing to news media coverage calling Chaser "the world's smartest dog"."Her language learning is very high-level, powerful science," she said.Chaser understood that words have independent meaning and understood common nouns as well as proper nouns, Ms Bianchi said.Greg Nelson, a veterinarian at Central Veterinary Associates in Valley Stream, New York, said humans were learning that animals have a deeper understanding of the world around them."People have always been under the belief that animals respond to commands based on a rewards system," he said."Learn limited commands and tricks, then get a treat." But "they do have a language among themselves, spoken and unspoken," he added.New York Times
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| How do living conditions in Rep. Cummings' Baltimore district compare to those at the border? Posted: 27 Jul 2019 06:52 AM PDT ![How do living conditions in Rep. Cummings' Baltimore district compare to those at the border?]( "How do living conditions in Rep. Cummings' Baltimore district compare to those at the border?") Republican strategist Kimberly Klacik says the conditions in Rep. Elijah Cummings own district are worse than those at the border.
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| How North Korea Could Launch a Nuclear War from the Sea Posted: 26 Jul 2019 10:00 PM PDT  North Korea's Kim dynasty has long practiced an unsubtle form of political signaling which can be summed up: when things aren't going its way, launch some missiles.Thus after National Security Advisor John Bolton, who has long advocated forceful "regime change" in North Korea, met with South Korean officials in July 2019, Pyongyang celebrated his arrival by test-firing two new short-range ballistic missiles.And as U.S. troops prepared to embark on their its first major military exercise with South Korea after a long hiatus in August 2019, on July 22 Pyongyang released photos of Kim Jong Un in gray suit visiting a dry dock to inspect what analysts have concluded is an old Romeo-class submarine modified to launch ballistic missiles through its sail (conning tower).A KCNA press release pointedly indicated the submarine's role in "strategic tasks"—a very thinly-veiled reference to its role launching nuclear weapons.
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| Mobster 'Whitey' Bulger buried 3 bodies at Boston home now on sale for $3.5M Posted: 27 Jul 2019 11:31 AM PDT  A house where James "Whitey" Bulger killed and buried three people is located in a South Boston neighborhood that's experiencing a real estate boom.
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| Vietnam detains 380 Chinese people in illegal online gambling bust Posted: 28 Jul 2019 09:36 AM PDT ![Vietnam detains 380 Chinese people in illegal online gambling bust]( "Vietnam detains 380 Chinese people in illegal online gambling bust") Police in Vietnam on Sunday detained more than 380 Chinese people accused of running the country's largest-ever underground online gambling ring, the government said. Gambling is illegal in Vietnam in most cases, though foreigners are allowed to gamble at local casinos. Last year, Vietnam said it would allow some local citizens to gamble at selected casinos on a trial basis.
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| Blast, gunbattle at Afghan VP candidate's office, 2 dead Posted: 28 Jul 2019 09:29 AM PDT  The political office of the Afghan president's running mate was hit by a large explosion and stormed by several gunmen who remained holed up inside, Afghan officials said Sunday. The attack in the capital, Kabul, killed at least two people and came on the first day of campaigning for presidential elections, scheduled for late September. Vice-presidential candidate and former intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh was "evacuated from the building and moved to a safe location," said Nasrat Rahimi, the interior ministry spokesman.
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| From Africa to Mexico: How far would you go for the American dream? Posted: 28 Jul 2019 12:07 AM PDT  Hobbling from snake bites, men and women traversing one of the world's most dangerous stretches of jungle are abandoned to their fate. Corpses float by in the brown churn of the angry river. In the heart of the Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama there is no time to wait for the incapacitated, the infirm or those not strong enough to push on. "The only thing you can do is help yourself," says Tangie Sule, aged 29, shaking his head as he recalls the days and months he spent on one of the world's most extraordinary migration journeys. The route from South to North America is well trodden by those seeking a new life in the US. But this year has seen a sharp rise in migrants from an entirely different continent. Tangie, like the 50 or so people he was travelling with through the rivers, mountains and swamplands of the Darien Gap, is from Cameroon. Tangie is one of hundreds of Africans now camped at the Mexico border in a seemingly interminable queue for an asylum hearing Credit: Erin Siegal McIntyre /The Telegraph He is one of a growing cohort of refugees from war-torn Central Africa to escape to visa-friendly entry points in South America and hit the road on the long march to the US border. As Europe has tightened immigration controls, and the numbers crossing the Mediterranean fallen away precipitously, citizens of troubled African nations have started looking west across the Atlantic. And why not? Brazil and Ecuador's visa requirements allow citizens of many countries in Africa to travel there with relative ease. Tens of thousands have made the epic trek in recent years. Last year 2,958 African migrants were detained in Mexico alone, according to government figures, up from 785 in 2014. Many more go undetected. Tangie is one of hundreds of Africans now camped at the Mexico border in a seemingly interminable queue for an asylum hearing – an increasingly rare occurrence under the administration of United States President Donald Trump. Standing outside the San Isidro border crossing in Tijuana, Mexico, mere meters from his final destination, he remembers the days and months he spent between here and his home town 10,000 miles away. African migration map to the US Tangie's story A former money transfer agent, Tangie fled his home in Cameroon and flew to Quito, Ecuador. From there, he travelled north across the Americas to reach Mexico and, hopefully one day, the United States. Tangie, an Anglaphone, left Cameroon after he was persecuted by police working for the dominant, French-speaking majority, he says. "I did not decide to leave but I had to leave because my life was at risk," he says. He loves his country but says he was forced out. After being arrested twice and tortured for his activism work for the Southern Cameroon National Council, which represents the English-speaking minority, the police came looking for him in his home. "My younger brother was in the house with my sister. As he saw them coming; he tried to run and they shot him. They shot him dead," he says. Tangie just starting out in the Colombian jungle, near Capurgana Tangie left his home town of Bamenda, and his wife and one-year-old child, to take a flight to Quito, now a gateway into the Americas for thousands of African migrants fleeing violence and poverty at home. From Quito he crossed over the border by land into Colombia. "I met African brothers and they told me 'we should go far, let's migrate, let's leave this place', so we started from Colombia and we went to Panama. We trekked by foot." But blocking their way was the infamous Darien Gap. The treacherous 60-mile zone of dense rainforest that separates Colombia and Panama is infested with drug traffickers as well as poisonous snakes and spiders. It is the only break in the Pan American highway, which runs from the tip of Chile to Alaska. Tangie and a group of some 50 Africans who met in Colombia entered the thick jungle through the coastal town of Capurgana, after paying for a rickety speed boat to take them across the bay at the end the Atrato River. Not everybody came out the other side. "It was a horrible experience believe me – if I had known what it was going to be like I would have remained in Colombia," says Tangie. "You find somebody dying but you cannot help that person. We were in a group of Cameroonians of more than 50, believe me – around 45 of us made it. The others died on the way – they got swept away [by] the rivers in the jungle. Snake bites. There's nothing you can do. The only thing you can do is help yourself." He continues: "We had people who could not resist the mountain. All we did was tell the person take it easy, take it slow, we will wait for you at the summit. "There are times when we got to the summit and we waited hours for people and they don't come. There are people that had snakebites and we didn't have any medication for them – we saw their legs starting to get black and all we could do was abandon them. "We had people being carried by the [river] water – you just see their corpses left by the water on the bank." African migrant route to the US - Darien Gap The Darien Gap isn't just home to the usual jungle features of poisonous wildlife, fast-flowing rivers and challenging climate conditions. Often referred to as the 'mouth of the funnel' this slice of land is where tons of cocaine from Colombia moves north, heading for the world's biggest retail market – the United States. Weapons are also trafficked through the Darien Gap to be used by criminal gangs and /or guerrilla armies operating in the region. After finally making it over the Panama border, Tangie and his companions were given shelter in makeshift camps at the northern end of the Gap. After that, he says that they were bussed through the country at the expense of the government, who he says didn't want migrants wandering around looking for help. The same happened in Costa Rica, where Tangie says that they were given a pass that gave them permission to pass through within 25 days. Migrants crossing irregularly the border between Guatemala and Mexico. Credit: Encarni Pindado /The Telegraph "We left and went to Nicaragua, Nicaragua to Honduras – who also gave us passes – and then we went to Guatemala. When we got to Guatemala we were told that if we were arrested we would be deported so we had to smuggle ourselves from Guatemala to Mexico," says Tangie. He and his fellow travellers managed to get on a bus through Guatemala to the Suchiate river that runs along part of the border with Mexico. It is the main entry point for migrants from Central and South America and its economy is almost entirely based round the flow of goods, and people. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people arrive at the final stopping point in Guatemala – Tecun Uman – and then take one of the dozens of cycle taxis up to the river's edge. From there they cross on makeshift rafts, operated by oarsman who navigate the waters high or low for the price of a dollar per person. African migration route to the US - Suchiate river People smugglers are charging migrants some $3,000 for help getting from here to the United States border, said Oswaldo Garcia, who has been working as an oarsman for the last 14 years. To get from Central American countries to as far as the city of Houston, and evade Customs and Border Patrol, it's much more expensive and costs between $9,000 to $12,000. Since the first mass caravan in October 2018, official vigilance on the river has been growing. Most recently, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) sent some 21,000 troops from the newly created National Guard to both of Mexico's borders – part of the deal he cut with President Donald Trump in June to avoid threatened tariffs. The security force is new, and was created by AMLO this year to bring down Mexico's record homicide rates – in part caused by warring drug gangs. Instead, it has been tasked with apprehending migrants, and preventing them from coming into Mexico or trying to cross its northern line into the United States illegally. Never in its modern history has Mexico sent troops to its northern border with the US to prevent migrants from crossing - historically the country has depended on the remittances sent home by Mexicans in El Norte (the North, as the U.S is referred to in Mexico). Central American migrants queue at The Mexican Comisssion for Refugees in Tapachula Credit: Encarni Pindado /The Telegraph Less than 40kms away, a 45-minute drive from the Suchiate River, lies the city of Tapachula, and this is the first hub within Mexico for migrants wanting to declare themselves to the authorities. Most want legal status in Mexico to avoid having to stay out of sight and reduce their chances of being extorted by corrupt officials or, worse, kidnapped and blackmailed by crime gangs. Outside the offices of its immigration agency, INM, hundreds of people congregate everyday to get information about refuges and boarding houses and temporary legal status in the country as they move north to the U.S border. Black bin bags, cardboard boxes, blanket rolls and disposable eating plates surround babies sleeping on blankets on the ground, clad in nothing but nappies to counter the humid heat of Mexico's most southern state, Chiapas. People here are from a spectrum of countries: the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Cameroon, Angola, Eritrea and even India – nationalities very rarely seen seen on this migrant trail a decade ago. Some of them are asking for asylum in Mexico. Percentage of US refugee arrivals that are African Emmanuel, aged 42, a teacher from Angola, came via Brazil to Mexico. Softly spoken and traveling alone, he isn't wedded to the idea of getting to the United States. "I don't know the procedure here," he says. "But as long as I can get a visa and find a job to do, I'm in Mexico. I can't be here without working." But most, like Aginetta, aged 30, from Kinshasa, Congo, who was traveling with her daughters aged 1 and eight, had their eyes on the US. "It's difficult to be here," she says. "I don't have money to eat or sleep or drink." Much like the US, Mexico has been overwhelmed by the wave of migrants coming from the region and other continents in the last year. In Tapachula housing is at full capacity, and many migrants are sleeping in the streets. Broadly speaking, people in Mexico have been tolerant of migrants, aware of the troubles they are fleeing. But generosity has worn thin since the first mass caravans in October last year. Migrants crossing the Suchiate river, the border between Guatemala and Mexico Credit: Encarni Pindado /The Telegraph Tangi said that he and his fellow African travellers have encountered negative reactions in Mexico. "Permit me but there is a lot of racism here. Even in the bus, people take their clothes and cover their noses and it's not comfortable for them." These factors discourage many from making Mexico their final destination, and the majority end up clustering in towns along the northern border, waiting to ask for asylum in the US. Tijuana has a shabby charm in parts and American-style roads and restaurants in others. Both seedy and sophisticated, it is traditionally a popular tourist playground for Americans in cities like San Diego on the other side of the line. The crossing where Tangie and his friends are waiting, the San Ysidro, is thought to be the busiest land crossing on the border and in the world. But increasingly, tourists are staying away as they become bottlenecks for people wanting to get to the US. Migrants like Tangie are growing increasingly desperate as they wait for a way out and a change of scene. African migrants apprehended on the US-Mexico border A photo of the bodies of Oscar and Valeria Martinez, a father and his two-year-old girl from El Salvador who drowned trying to cross the Rio Grande that separates the US and Mexico on parts of the border, recently sent ripples around the world. Many experts saw it as a direct result of Trump's "Remain in Mexico" policy. "The US policy of metering who can request asylum at the ports of entry, which can mean weeks or months of waiting in dangerous Mexican border towns, drove this father to make the desperate decision to cross the river with his family," said Maureen Meyer, director of the Mexico and Migrant Rights program at Washington Office for Latin America (WOLA) think tank. "[The number of Africans migrating to Mexico] is a problem in a lot of senses," added Maria Dolores Paris Pombo, a professor at Mexico's Colegio de la Frontera Norte. "Mexico has no tradition of integration, not even for Central Americans.... Racism in Mexico is very strong and there is very little support – including for applying for asylum. Most people have to support themselves from within the community." Where there is desperation, corruption thrives. A number of migrants told The Telegraph said that by paying between $800 to $1,000, those waiting can advance their place in the line to speed up entry. "People are now buying their number before getting in," said Tangie. Cameroon native Tangie Sule will spend months awaiting his asylum interview in the United States from Tijuana Credit: Erin Siegal McIntyre /The Telegraph For Tangie and his friends from Cameroon the wait will be long. Trump is making most asylum applicants wait in Mexico whilst their cases are processed – the "Remain in Mexico" policy – because the US immigrant processing system is overwhelmed, some say 'broken'. In the first week of June, more than 500 people from Africa were arrested by US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) on the Del Rio part of the border in Texas, including one group of more than 100 people, according to CBP. That's more than the total of 211 African migrants detained there over the whole of 2018. The migrants from Africa, a rising number from Asia taking a similar route, and Latin America are all part of a growing tide that Trump has called an "invasion" and declared a national emergency. Last week Tangie was still at the border – having been there for more than six weeks. In his final communications with The Telegraph, he said that he was considering crossing the border illegally as the numbers in line had failed to advance. "I have been persevering," he said via a WhatsApp message. "But life in Tijuana is getting harder day after day. I have no choice but to get into the US illegally. If you don't find me online, just pray for me." 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| Iran invites Pompeo for interview by reporter once detained in US Posted: 28 Jul 2019 02:53 AM PDT  Iran on Sunday invited Mike Pompeo to be interviewed by a state television anchor who was once detained in America, after the top US diplomat said he was willing to talk to its people. Pompeo said Thursday in an interview with Bloomberg that he would "happily" go to Tehran and willingly appear on Iranian television to explain US reasoning behind its sanctions against the Islamic republic. "Our reporter Ms. Marzieh Hashemi can go and interview (Pompeo) so that he can say what he intends to say," government spokesman Ali Rabiei said, quoted by official news agency IRNA.
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| US soldiers now stationed inside migrant detention camp as ‘prison guards’ Posted: 27 Jul 2019 01:03 PM PDT  Soldiers are monitoring migrants at a detention centre in Texas, in what one congressman fears comes close to a breach of the Posse Comitatus Act, a cornerstone of US society.Under the 1878 federal law members of the army are prohibited from acting as a domestic police force.Active-duty troops are only allowed to help police officers under limited exceptions to the act, including when expressly authorised by law or by the constitution.But troops are currently keeping watch over detainees at a facility in Donna, Texas, according to NBC News.The soldiers reportedly stand watch in a large room where the migrants are held.The soldiers are unarmed, meant to be present for welfare checks and are not supposed to interact with the detainees, instead referring any issues directly to Border Patrol officers.But one politician has expressed concern that the soldiers may find themselves in a legal grey area.John Garamendi, a Democrat who chairs the House Armed Services Committee's Subcommittee on Readiness, said the situation teetered "on the edge of the Posse Comitatus law.""It's not the role of the US military to be a prison guard," he said, adding the situation was "certainly mission creep" and could put soldiers "in a precarious legal situation."The US military's Northern Command defended the troops' presence at the detention centre."At the Donna facility specifically unarmed military personnel monitor the migrants for signs of medical distress, possibility for unrest, unusual behaviour and unresponsiveness," a spokesperson said."In the event of a medical emergency or other reportable event, our military personnel immediately notify [Border Patrol] personnel on-site who respond to the incident or event in question.""Monitoring the wellness of migrants is not a law enforcement function, and this activity has been reviewed by our legal staff to ensure compliance with the Posse Comitatus Act and applicable law."[Border Patrol] personnel are always present to provide force protection, physical security and perform their law enforcement duties."Donald Trump's repeated attempts to increase US military involvement at the border have consistently raised Posse Comitatus concerns.The White House sent 2,100 extra troops to the southern border on 18 July, as part of its ongoing efforts to secure the US' southern border.As of 8 July, there were about 4,000 service members at the border, the Pentagon said.
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| AP Explains: How big a threat is an electromagnetic attack? Posted: 27 Jul 2019 07:29 AM PDT  When much of Venezuela was plunged into darkness after a massive blackout this week, President Nicolás Maduro blamed the power outage on an "electromagnetic attack" carried out by the U.S. Blackouts are a regrettably frequent part of life in Venezuela, where the electric grid has fallen into serious disrepair. "In Venezuela, it's a lot easier for him to say we did something to him than he did it to himself," said Sharon Burke, senior adviser at New America, a nonpartisan think tank, and former assistant secretary of defense for operational energy at the Department of Defense.
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