| Anti-Putin Leader Detained as Russians Hold New Election Protest Posted: 10 Aug 2019 09:11 AM PDT ![Anti-Putin Leader Detained as Russians Hold New Election Protest]( "Anti-Putin Leader Detained as Russians Hold New Election Protest") (Bloomberg) -- Russian opposition leader Lyubov Sobol said she'd been detained by police as tens of thousands protested against the exclusion of anti-Kremlin candidates from Moscow city council elections."They won't succeed in frightening us, they won't be able to stop us demanding our electoral rights," said Sobol, a lawyer who's been on hunger strike for nearly a month in protest against the rejection of her candidacy, in a video posted on Twitter Saturday as armed and masked police broke into her election office. "It won't stop us going out to protests because we will keep doing it for as long as the authorities won't listen to Muscovites."Almost 50,000 people attended Saturday's protest, which had been agreed with the authorities, the White Counter crowd-monitoring organization said on Facebook. Police said 20,000 took part, the Interfax news service reported. Organizers had sought permission for as many as 100,000 to attend.Sobol was later bundled into a van by police and driven away. She was practically the last major opposition figure still at liberty amid the harshest state crackdown on dissent since Vladimir Putin suppressed months of protests against his return to the Kremlin as president in 2012 after four years as prime minister. Most of the other leaders were given jail terms after riot police beat and detained protesters in the largest numbers for years at unsanctioned meetings held in the capital on each of the past two weekends. More than 20,000 people attended an authorized demonstration in Moscow last month.Protesters DetainedRiot police blocked off parts of the city center after the demonstration ended and detained at least 106 people, according to the OVD Info monitoring group. Another 78 were detained by police at a protest in St. Petersburg, it said.Sobol is one of the leaders of the protest movement that erupted after officials last month refused to register opposition and independent candidates for September's elections, saying they failed to gather the required number of signatures from supporters. Opposition leaders insisted they had met the threshold and accused the Kremlin of seeking to crush any challenge amid a slide in Putin's popularity among Russians after a slump in living standards over the past five years.Armed police also entered an internet TV studio used by supporters of opposition leader Alexey Navalny on Saturday and detained 10 staff and volunteers, according to a post on his Twitter account. Navalny himself is in prison after being jailed for 30 days last month for urging supporters to join an unsanctioned protest.Investigators have also targeted Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation as part of efforts to dismantle the revived opposition movement, alleging that unnamed employees laundered about 1 billion rubles ($15 million). The investigation came as at least 10 people arrested at the peaceful rallies face mass unrest charges that could see them jailed for up to 15 years.(Updates with detentions in fourth, fifth paragraphs)To contact the reporter on this story: Irina Reznik in Moscow at ireznik@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Gregory L. White at gwhite64@bloomberg.net, Tony Halpin, John DeaneFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Escaped Tennessee inmate captured after 5-day manhunt Posted: 11 Aug 2019 03:00 PM PDT  A Tennessee convict suspected of killing a corrections administrator before escaping prison on a tractor was captured Sunday seven hours after homeowners recognized him on their outdoor surveillance camera, authorities said. Curtis Ray Watson put his hands up and was arrested as he came out of a soybean field Sunday in the west Tennessee community of Henning, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director David Rausch said at a news conference. The field is 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the prison Watson escaped from Wednesday and near a home where he was seen on a surveillance camera earlier Sunday, Rausch said.
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| Jeffrey Epstein's death is a perfect storm for conspiracy theories Posted: 10 Aug 2019 09:30 AM PDT  The death Saturday morning of financier Jeffrey Epstein, an accused sex trafficker with connections to some of the most powerful people in the world, represents a perfect storm in the world of conspiracy theories.
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| Andrew Yang breaks down in tears over gun violence as 2020 Democrats in Iowa call for action after Santa Fe shooting Posted: 11 Aug 2019 07:33 AM PDT  A week after two mass shootings left more than 30 dead, the issue of gun violence was unavoidable for Democratic presidential candidates at the Iowa State Fair.As children zoomed down slides and munched on deep-fried Oreos, caucus goers still working out which Democratic candidates to support flocked to ask candidates how they might address the epidemic of shootings.Of the 14 candidates who attended a last-minute forum in downtown Des Moines on Saturday, it was Andrew Yang, a businessman and long-shot candidate, who stole the show.At the Everytown for Gun Safety forum, when asked by a woman named Stephanie, who lost her 4-year-old son to a stray bullet, how he would address the unintentional shootings of children in America. Mr Yang asked to give her a hug and broke down in tears."I have a six- and three-year-old boy, and I was imagining," Mr Yang began, before becoming too choked up to continue. "I was imagining it was one of them that got shot and the other saw," he eventually managed, before again choking up. "I'm so sorry."It's a feeling that runs raw with Iowa caucus goers, and has a renewed sense of urgency after the killings at a Walmart in Texas and a bar in Ohio last week.Heaven Chamberlain, a 23-year-old shift leader at a trampoline park in Des Moines who came to the Iowa State Fair to see as many candidates as she could, said she is among the generation of Americans who grew up with school lock downs for shootings.Now, Ms Chamberlain is worried about her two little sisters, who she thinks could be facing the prospect of gun violence at school any day."My sisters are afraid to go to school, because they're afraid that they won't come back," Ms Chamberlain said of her 10- and 11-year-old sisters. "Sorry, I always tear up when I think about them."For many who came to see the Democrats, the fixes for mass shootings seem like common sense. They would like a ban on the semi-automatic versions of military rifles sold freely in many states and are used in many of the mass shootings that have shocked the county. They would like universal background checks. They want action."That's the one thing I'm looking for in a candidate," Makayla Warrick, a 19-year-old college student who wants to become a teacher, said. Ms Warrick was waiting to ask a question of John Delaney, and said she's a Republican, but doesn't necessarily support Donald Trump. "Now it's coming to the point where I'm scared to go into some classrooms."Candidates, for their part, provided many answers. While congressman Beto O'Rourke stayed in his home town of El Paso to help his community, others forged ahead.Senator Cory Booker stopped during the annual Iowa Wing Ding – a Democratic fundraising dinner - on Friday night and dedicated his entire speech there to the issue.Kamala Harris promised to give Congress just 100 days to act, before she would take executive action on the issue. Joe Biden told a town hall he would push for background checks, and common-sense reforms.And many, like Elizabeth Warren, said that the shootings in recent years – in Parkland, Florida, Las Vegas, and these recent two, among others – had shifted the momentum in favour of gun control."We are going to make change. We are going to pass gun safety laws in this country," Ms Warren said.Darla Connell, a 73-year-old who drove two hours to see Mr Biden and Montana governor Steve Bullock on Thursday, said the shootings in Texas and Ohio showed just how fragile things are."That can happen anywhere," Ms Connell said. "And it could just as easily have happened to either the soapbox for Steve Bullock or Joe Biden. There's a big group of people here. And, god forbid it doesn't happen here at all. But it could."
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| Police are investigating a social media threat of the 'biggest mass shooting in modern American history' targeting Walmart stores in Missouri Posted: 10 Aug 2019 11:33 AM PDT  The threat was posted this week to Reddit by someone claiming to have two AR-15 semi-automatic weapons and 22 pipe bombs.
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| 'Clearly wrong' to think he could get through to Trump on climate change, says Gore Posted: 11 Aug 2019 04:58 AM PDT  ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl sits down with former Vice President Al Gore to talk climate change, the 2020 field and President Donald Trump.
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| As Pakistan-India tensions flare, a child mistakes a bomb for a toy Posted: 11 Aug 2019 01:57 AM PDT  Deep in the mountains of the Neelum Valley, where a river separates Indian and Pakistani Kashmir, is the small village of Jabri, usually far enough away to avoid being hit by exchanges of fire between the countries' armies. "He found a bomb that looked like a toy and he brought it here," said Ali's uncle, Abdul Qayyum, pointing to their home. Pakistan's military said the device was a cluster bomb, a weapon that releases many smaller bomblets that can kill or wound people over a wider area.
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| Russia missile test blast kills five nuclear agency staff Posted: 10 Aug 2019 03:16 PM PDT  Russia's nuclear agency said Saturday an explosion during missile testing in the Arctic left five workers dead and involved radioactive isotopes after a nearby city recorded a spike in radiation levels. Rosatom said the force of the explosion on Thursday blew several of its staff from a testing platform into the sea. Russia's military did not initially say that the accident involved nuclear equipment, but stressed that radiation levels were normal afterwards.
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| Republicans can find common ground on guns, Kellyanne Conway says Posted: 11 Aug 2019 08:15 AM PDT  President Donald Trump is "actively talking to Republicans and Democrats" on background checks, Conway said.
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| UAE-backed separatists pull back after seizing Yemen's Aden Posted: 11 Aug 2019 12:45 PM PDT  Yemeni separatists backed by the United Arab Emirates began withdrawing Sunday from positions they seized from the internationally-recognized government in the southern port city of Aden. Both the southern separatists and the government forces are ostensibly allies in the Saudi-led military coalition that's been battling the Houthi rebels in northern Yemen since 2015.
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| FBI Arrests Las Vegas Man Allegedly Planning Attack on Synagogue, LGBTQ Community Posted: 10 Aug 2019 01:39 PM PDT  Conor Climo, 23, was arrested Thursday morning for allegedly owning parts of an explosive device
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| Canada cable car cord severed in 'likely sabotage' Posted: 11 Aug 2019 09:34 AM PDT  Canadian police are investigating an apparent act of vandalism after a cord carrying cable cars was severed, sending all 30 of them crashing to the ground.The company said the Sea to Sky Gondola in Squamish, north of Vancouver, was not operating at the time of the incident, and that no guests or staff members were injured.The attraction's manager told Canadian broadcaster CBC that maintenance on the line had been recently carried out "and it was a big, thick, beautiful healthy rope".The firm said the incident took place at around 04.30 local time (11.30 GMT).Police think an individual deliberately slashed the cables in the early hours of Saturday and say technical safety experts are now assessing the line."We believe the cables were cut and this was a deliberate act of vandalism," Squamish RCMP Inspector Kara Triance told CBC. "At this time, it's a crime scene."Inspector Triance said the person responsible placed themselves in "extreme jeopardy" if they had scaled a maintenance pole. She also noted the steel cable coming loose under tension would have been highly dangerous.Police are asking visitors to steer clear of the area – including away from nearby trails. They have also urged any hikers, climbers, or campers who were in the area to get in touch with them."We recognise the potential of what could have been and are thankful that no one was injured," police said in a statement.The Sea to Sky Gondola takes passengers to almost 3,000 feet above sea level, giving views of Howe Sound, a network of fjords situated immediately northwest of Vancouver, and surrounding waterfalls. Each of the gondola cars is able to hold eight passengersAdditional reporting by agencies
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| Versace apologies in flap over T-shirts sold in China Posted: 11 Aug 2019 10:39 AM PDT  Italian fashion house Versace apologized Sunday in China for selling T-shirts that it said attached incorrect country names to cities, after being attacked on social media for challenging China's territorial integrity. Versace did not identify the T-shirt in its own post on Weibo, a popular Chinese social media site, but the Global Times newspaper said the item mislabeled Hong Kong and Macao as countries. Both are former European colonies that were returned to China in the late 1990s.
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| TX Man And His 1993 Ford Mustang GT Reunited After 17 Years Posted: 10 Aug 2019 06:23 PM PDT  Ford and Hennessey Performance teamed up for the restoration.We've all probably had that one car we sold off that we wish we never would have sold, but Wesley Ryan had no choice other than to sell his 1993 Ford Mustang GT for financial reasons after his was diagnosed with cancer. That was 17 years ago. Late last year, his son and daughter had reacquired the car after find it for sale on Craigslist – it was actually his original car and the title was still in his name! Apparently the years were not kind to the car, and it was in need of some repairs, but with this kind of a story, Ford Motor Company and Hennessey Performance teamed up to give this Mustang the ultimate homecoming. Ford donated parts such as a new engine and transmission, while Hennessey put in the hard work of restoring the car, which according to mySA.com would have cost around $200,000 for the 500 to 600 man-hours of labor.The fully restored Mustang was finally reunited with its new owner this past week at Ford's world headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan with Ford executive Henry Ford III and Hennessey Performance founder and CEO, John Hennessey, on hand for the unveiling. It was definitely an emotional reunion for Ryan, whose wife and children were by his side when the black cover was removed and the restored Fox body was finally revealed. After nine months of work, the 26-year-old Mustang looked like new!Ryan's family made the initial surprise, and Ford and Hennessey came through on the car's incredible restoration. The whole story definitely shows how emotional cars can make us and how close knit the automotive community really is.We're not crying, you're crying! Source: Hennessey via mySA.com Read More... * 2015 Ford Mustang GT Hennessey Is A Supercharged Powerhouse * Mystery Surrounds Stolen 1991 Ford Mustang GT Barn Find
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| ANALYSIS-Many Sri Lankans want a strongman leader, and that favours Gotabaya Rajapaksa Posted: 10 Aug 2019 10:01 PM PDT ![ANALYSIS-Many Sri Lankans want a strongman leader, and that favours Gotabaya Rajapaksa]( "ANALYSIS-Many Sri Lankans want a strongman leader, and that favours Gotabaya Rajapaksa") Sri Lankans, angered by the government's inability to prevent the Easter Sunday terror attacks that killed more than 250 people, want a strongman back in power who can guarantee their safety and bring back economic growth. Many are rooting for Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who despite fighting allegations of war crimes, is expected to be announced as the presidential candidate of the opposition nationalist Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) party, as early as Sunday. The Rajapaksa brothers, Gotabaya and Mahinda, were credited with bringing peace to Sri Lanka in 2009 by defeating the Tamil Tigers in a brutal end to the 26-year-long civil war between the Sinhalese Buddhist majority and minority Tamil groups.
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| The 7 Best GPS Apps for Tackling the Outdoors Posted: 11 Aug 2019 01:00 PM PDT |
| Another 81 migrants rescued by charity ship off Libya Posted: 11 Aug 2019 12:42 PM PDT  French charities SOS Mediterranean and MSF rescued another 81 migrants off the coast of Libya on Sunday, who joined 130 others aboard the ship the Ocean Viking, an AFP reporter said. The young men, mostly Sudanese, who had left Libya late Saturday in a blue rubber dinghy, clapped and cheered as the ship came into view. The ship, jointly operated by SOS Mediterranean and Doctors Without Borders (MSF), has been patrolling international waters some 50 nautical miles off the coast of Tripoli.
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| Steve Scalise: Don’t blame Trump for mass shootings Posted: 11 Aug 2019 10:14 AM PDT  "The president's no more responsible for that shooting as your next guest, Bernie Sanders, is for my shooting," the Louisiana congressman said.
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| Police arrest white supremacist for threatening Walmart attack Posted: 11 Aug 2019 12:42 PM PDT  A white supremacist has been arrested after he posted a message on Facebook threatening a shooting at a Walmart in Florida, police have said.Richard Clayton, 26, was arrested after making an online threat on Friday, according to police, just days after a gunman stormed a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, killing 22 people. That suspect, Patrick Crusius, reportedly posted an anti-immigrant screed on the online messaging forum 8chan shortly before the mass shooting. Mr Clayton reportedly wrote on Facebook: "3 more days of probation left then I get my AR-15 back.""Don't go to Walmart next week," the post continued.He was charged with making written threats to kill or do bodily harm, according to Florida officials, who told the Associated Press he was held on $15,000 (£12,461) bond at the Orange County Jail. The Florida Department of Law enforcement said in a statement: "Law enforcement has zero tolerance for threats being made and will utilise the full force of the Joint Terrorism Task Force to ensure the public's safety." The country has been on high alert amid a wave of deadly mass shootings and an apparent rise in domestic terror incidents which FBI Director Christopher Wray attributed to violent white supremacy during a public Senate hearing this summer. A day before Mr Clayton's arrest, a man was charged with "making a terrorist threat in the first degree" after walking into a Missouri Walmart earlier in the week donning full body armour while carrying multiple firearms and over 100 rounds of ammunition. The suspect, 23-year-old Conor Climo from Las Vegas, reportedly possessed bomb-making materials and shared white supremacist and neo-Nazi sentiments with an undercover FBI agent.Another Florida resident was charged with threatening an attack just one day after the Walmart shooting, calling one of the chain stores in the town of Gibsonton and reportedly threatening to "shoot up the store". There have also been a series of false alarms in recent weeks where crowds have mistaken loud noises for mass shootings, including in Times Square, New York.
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| Steve Bannon: The Democrats number one focus right now is to defeat Donald Trump Posted: 10 Aug 2019 09:26 PM PDT  Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon weighs in on the future of border security and the field of 2020 Democrats.
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| Hong Kong braces for fresh protests as marchers set to defy police ban Posted: 10 Aug 2019 08:07 PM PDT ![Hong Kong braces for fresh protests as marchers set to defy police ban]( "Hong Kong braces for fresh protests as marchers set to defy police ban") Hong Kong protesters readied to take to the streets again on Sunday, defying a police ban on marches in the Chinese-controlled territory and continuing a restive weekend of demonstrations which saw police fire teargas overnight. Anti-government protests were planned in different locations in the Asian financial hub, including one at the city's international airport for a third day. Increasingly violent protests have plunged Hong Kong into its most serious political crisis for decades, posing a serious challenge to the central government in Beijing who has taken an increasingly tough line on the protests.
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| Muslim pilgrims converge on Jamarat for ritual stoning of the devil Posted: 11 Aug 2019 03:41 AM PDT  Muslims from around the world hurled pebbles at a giant wall in a symbolic stoning of the devil on Sunday, the start of the riskiest part of the annual haj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, where hundreds died in a crush four years ago. The kingdom stakes its reputation on its guardianship of Islam's holiest sites, Mecca and Medina, and organizing the world's largest annual Muslim gathering which retraces the route Prophet Mohammad took 14 centuries ago. Nearly 2-1/2 million pilgrims, mostly from abroad, have arrived for the five-day ritual, a religious duty once in a lifetime for every able-bodied Muslim who can afford it.
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| Indians mobilise for 'resettlement' amid warnings over Hindu nationalist occupation of Kashmir Posted: 10 Aug 2019 11:00 PM PDT  Rohit Kachroo can still remember flinging open his backdoor and playing on the banks of the vast River Jhelum dissecting the city of Srinagar, the capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir. But recollections of his home town stop age four-and-a-half when he was forced to flee to Delhi with three generations of his family as brutal majority Muslim mobs ran riot. "I hope that no child in the world has to see what I have seen," Rohit said. Rohit, 33, is one of many Pandit Hindus now mobilising for the 'rightful' return home after Narendra Modi revoked Kashmir's special status, tearing up rules that had barred outsiders from owning land there. But fears are growing that Mr Modi, whose Hindu nationalism won him an extraordinary re-election in May, is exploiting the plight of the Pandits to encourage Hindus across India to follow suit - leading to a Palestine-style occupation that will cement a new 'unified' nation. Police personnel struggle to detain an activist of Jammu and Kashmir Youth Congress Credit: RAKESH BAKSHI/AFP Across the border in nuclear-armed Pakistan, president Imran Khan has warned of ethnic cleansing, while militants are already plotting a renewed insurgency. For now Kashmir lies in darkness after Mr Modi ordered an unprecedented militarised lockdown, curfew and communications blackout as tensions threaten to boil over. Mr Modi's nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party ended self rule in Kashmir for the first time since 1947 on Monday. He scrapped Article 35A that banned non-permanent residents of Kashmir from buying land and property or seeking employment in the state. In a rare interview with western press by a BJP official, Ram Madhav, the party secretary, told The Sunday Telegraph the government was already looking to set-up special territories in Kashmir for returning Hindus, adding that all legal channels were now open. "Someone who has the key for his home could claim it and if someone stalls him he could go to the police or the court to get his property back," added Krishna Saagar Rao, Chief Spokesperson at the BJP, citing party ideology. He said that new powers giving greater control over the state through the national police force will make it safe for returning Hindus. A security guard stands on a street in downtown Srinagar amid a communications blackout Credit: SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP Googlesearches for "land rates in Kashmir" and "plots in Kashmir" skyrocketed this week across India suggesting residents were seriously considering making the move once tensions diffused. A hoax real estate advert was also widely circulated on social media, which seemingly offered land for sale in Kashmir while non-Kashmiri Indians requested the phone number of estate agents in Srinagar on Twitter. "What do you think would be [the] rate of a 200 square yard plot in [a] decent colony of Kashmir, which ANY INDIAN CAN BUY?" speculated lawyer and political analyst Ishkaran Singh Bhandari. Womens' rights groups condemned a deluge of social media posts from Indian men who celebrated the removal of Article 35A arguing that it was their chance to marry a Kashmiri woman, favoured by some for their fairer complexion. In Pakistan, which maintains its claim to rule Kashmir in its entirety, Pervez Musharaf, the former president, accused Mr Modi of emulating Israeli policy by annexing land for resettlement, while Raja Farooq Haider Khan, the Prime Minister of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, warned "there will be a great unrest in Kashmir, there will be killings in Kashmir" if mass Hindu migration caused demographic change. The two countries currently govern half of Kashmir each, split along a heavily militarised Line of Control over which artillery fire breaks out almost daily. "Establishing Hindu settlements is a nefarious act to change the fabric of Kashmir from a Muslim majority to a Hindu majority," said Mr Musharaf, the former President of Pakistan. Kashmir | Read more Mr Khan meanwhile suspended all bilateral trade with Delhi, expelled the Indian High Commissioner and reported its neighbour to the United Nations Security Council. Kashmiris living under the current lockdown told The Sunday Telegraph that tension was already high. Residents said the strict curfew meant they would be shot on sight if they left their homes, adding that many were starving as they are unable to access food and dying in the streets as they were refused access to hospitals. Up to 500 people - including university professors, business leaders and political activists - have also allegedly been detained by the Indian authorities. At home in India Mr Modi is under fire from opposition Congress party who have accused the prime minister of "trivialising Kashmiri Pandit's undoubted right to return". "By doing so the BJP has taken their pain and converted it into a theatre of affliction for their own hateful, selfish purposes," LaToya Ferns, a spokesperson for the opposition, said. Mr Rao, the BJP spokesperson dismissed the "highly preposterous, wishful and speculative" allegations. In a stirring address to Indians on Thursday, Modi justified his actions in Kashmir arguing that the removal of Article 370 would "rid Jammu and Kashmir of terror and separatism." Unsurprisingly, emotional Hindu Pandits welcomed the BJP's policy. Their plight is still fresh in the minds of many. The Pandit community, which made up 5 per cent of Kashmir's population, were forced to flee in the mid-1980s after mobs belonging to the majority-Muslim community began killing, raping women and damaging their temples and properties. "Even at that age you do understand what is murder and you do understand what is rape," Rohit said. The brutality peaked on 19 January 1990 when mosques in Kashmir began broadcasting messages that Pandits should either leave the state, convert to Islam or be killed. The exact number of those who fled is contested but it is thought to constitute almost the entire community, as high as 150,000 people. "If anyone can settle us back, it's Prime Minister Modi," said Renuka Dhar, now an Associate Professor at Delhi University, "no-one else has ever shown the desire or gumption." For Kachroo, a historical wrong metered out to his people can finally be righted. His mother has kept the key to their beautiful lost bungalow ever since they fled Srinagar. She might now be finally going home.
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| The Noisiest Cars That Car and Driver Has Ever Tested Posted: 10 Aug 2019 06:04 AM PDT |
| Former Billionaire Eike Batista Released From Prison in Brazil Posted: 11 Aug 2019 08:14 AM PDT ![Former Billionaire Eike Batista Released From Prison in Brazil]( "Former Billionaire Eike Batista Released From Prison in Brazil") (Bloomberg) -- Eike Batista, once Brazil's richest man, was released from jail Saturday, as an appeals judge revoked a temporary arrest order that expired on Monday.He had been detained last week as part of the ongoing corruption probe known as Carwash. His detention was ordered amid worries Batista might hinder the investigation into financial markets and privileged information.The appeal justice cut short the arrest, ruling his detention can't be used as a tool to constrain the defense. Batista spent the night at his home, according to the press office of Rio de Janeiro's State penitentiary administration secretary.Batista was already serving a 30-year sentence and under house arrest after being convicted last year of paying $16.6 million to get government contracts. His detention on Thursday included a freeze on 1.6 billion reais ($410 million) held by Batista and two of his sons, federal prosecutors from Rio said in a statement.Brazil's Carwash probe started in 2014 and has resulted in convictions of high-profile politicians and business leaders including former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The investigation raised awareness of endemic corruption and contributed to the election of President Jair Bolsonaro, who campaigned on a law and order platform.Batista's commodities and logistics empire raised his personal fortune to more than $30 billion at the start of the decade, turning him into one of the world's wealthiest people. Those riches evaporated after his group of startups went bust under a mountain of debt and insider-trading investigations.He gained the rare distinction of "negative billionaire" in 2015 when his net worth sank to more than $1 billion in debt.To contact the reporter on this story: Mario Sergio Lima in Brasilia Newsroom at mlima11@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Juan Pablo Spinetto at jspinetto@bloomberg.net, Ian Fisher, Kevin MillerFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Thousands join anti-government protests in Romania Posted: 10 Aug 2019 03:34 PM PDT  Thousands of people rallied in Bucharest on Saturday calling for the government's resignation, exactly one year after a demonstration was violently suppressed by security forces. According to the Romanian news agency Agerpres, an estimated 24,000 protesters gathered outside the government's headquarters in the capital, waving the national flag and shouting "Thieves!" and "Resign!". There's no future for young people," 19-year-old medical student Bogdan Iliescu told AFP.
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| Man jailed for saying AOC ‘should be shot’ tells police he’s ‘very proud’ he did it Posted: 10 Aug 2019 03:44 AM PDT  An Ohio man charged after writing on Facebook that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez "should be shot" told police he was "very proud" that he did it.Timothy James Ireland, 41, was indicted in Toledo for making interstate threats against AOC in addition to separate counts of being a felon and fugitive in possession of a firearm, the US attorney's office in Ohio announced on Friday.Officials say a concerned citizen reached out to U.S. Capitol Police on July 23 to warn of the threatening Facebook post, which they later confirmed was written by Ireland."She should be shot. Can't fire me, my employer would load the gun for me," Ireland wrote, according to police.The statement was apparently posted to Facebook along with a news story about the Democrat congresswoman, leading Capitol Police to call Ireland on August 2 after finding his phone number in public records.The man took full responsibility for the statement while speaking with police, adding he was "very proud" of his work, according to a criminal complaint.Ireland also admitted to having firearms that he "always carries concealed," police say.An FBI criminal history check revealed Ireland had two outstanding warrants, one for violating probation in a felony case in Florida and the other related to a failure to appear for a possession of marijuana charge in Cook County, Georgia.Ireland was also convicted in 1996 on four felony counts of dealing in stolen property in Sarasota County, according to the criminal complaint.The man was present when police raided his Toledo home five days after the phone call, the complaint read. He was detained for the active warrants and admitted to having ammunition inside his house.Investigators say they found three rounds of .32-caliber ammunition, and four rounds belonging to a .45-caliber weapon, stashed in kitchen drawers."There is absolutely no place in the marketplace of ideas for threats of violence against any person, especially those who are elected to represent the American people," US Attorney Justin Herdman said in a release."Disagreement on political issues cannot lead to acts of violence, and if it does, we will seek federal prison time."A spokesman for the Department of Justice said Ireland waived his hearing and will remain in custody at least until a bond hearing next week.Last month a police officer in the US state of Louisiana also took to Facebook to say AOC should be shot, suggesting that she "needs a round – and I don't mean the kind she used to serve".Charlie Rispoli, a 14-year veteran of the police department in Gretna, went on to call her "this vile idiot". He was sacked.His comments came after Donald Trump lashed out at 'The Squad', a group of four congresswoman including AOC, in a roundly condemned racist attack where he told them to "go back" to their countries \- despite them having lived in the US for decades.The Washington Post
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| Epstein suicide sparks fresh round of conspiracy theories Posted: 10 Aug 2019 08:05 PM PDT  Jeffrey Epstein's apparent suicide Saturday morning in a federal jail launched new conspiracy theories online in a saga that has provided fodder for them for years, fueled by Epstein's ties to princes, politicians and other famous and powerful people. Online theorists Saturday quickly offered unsubstantiated speculation — including some retweeted by President Donald Trump — that Epstein's death wasn't a suicide, or it was faked. The combination created fertile ground for theories and misinformation to breed on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
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| Some labor unions split with Biden on 'Medicare for All' Posted: 11 Aug 2019 03:56 AM PDT ![Some labor unions split with Biden on 'Medicare for All']( "Some labor unions split with Biden on 'Medicare for All'") Labor leaders dispute candidates' claims that single-payer will leave their members worse off.
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| Police warn of hot car dangers after child found dead outside Tennessee store Posted: 09 Aug 2019 05:29 PM PDT  It is not known where the parents or guardians of the child were while temperatures crept toward 90 or how long the child was left in the car.
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| CORRECTED-Ukraine searches vessel over fuel delivery to Crimea Posted: 11 Aug 2019 01:23 AM PDT ![CORRECTED-Ukraine searches vessel over fuel delivery to Crimea]( "CORRECTED-Ukraine searches vessel over fuel delivery to Crimea") Ukrainian prosecutors said they had searched a vessel in the Black Sea port of Kherson on Saturday as part of an investigation into a suspected illegal delivery of fuel to the Russian navy in annexed Crimea in 2015. Relations between Kiev and Moscow deteriorated after Russia's annexation of the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 and its backing for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian law stipulates that it is illegal to enter Crimean waters without the permission of the Ukrainian authorities.
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| India promises to ease Kashmir curfew as Pakistan accuses New Delhi government of 'ethnic cleansing' Posted: 11 Aug 2019 08:49 AM PDT  Indian security forces said they had eased a week-long curfew and restrictions on movement in Kashmir ahead of a major Muslim festival on Monday. The move came as police denied carrying out a violent crackdown against protesters in the region, despite the emergence of footage showing troops firing into a crowd. Jammu and Kashmir police said on Sunday that "not a single bullet had been fired in the last six days" and called the reports "mischievous and motivated news". They claimed the protests were small and peaceably broken up. Earlier the BBC broadcast footage apparently showing officers firing tear gas and live rounds at a crowd of 10,000 protesters after Friday prayers in the city of Srinagar. The BBC stood by its report, while the New York Times and India Today said its journalists had corroborated the incident. Jammu and Kashmir has been under a media, internet and phone blackout since Narendra Modi's Indian government revoked the Muslim-majority region's special constitutional status on August 5. A curfew enforced by thousands of Indian troops has made movement and reporting in the region difficult. The move has provoked outrage in Pakistan, which has fought two major wars with India over the disputed territory since independence. Imran Khan, the prime minister of Pakistan, on Sunday accused the Indian government of pursing "ethnic cleansing" comparable to Hitler's annexation of Czechoslovakia. Describing the move as "the Hindu Supremacists version of Hitler's Lebensraum", he said it would lead to "the suppression of Muslims in India & eventually lead to targeting of Pakistan". "Attempt is to change demography of Kashmir through ethnic cleansing," he tweeted. "Question is: Will the world watch & appease as they did Hitler at Munich? Dilbag Singh, the Jammu and Kashmir police chief, on Sunday said the curfew had been eased ahead of the Muslims festival of Eid ul-adha today. "Things are absolutely normal, not a single incident has been reported from south Kashmir even," Mr Singh told the Hindustan Times. "We are closely watching the situation," he said. Mr Singh said there were incidents of stone throwing in downtown Srinagar on Saturday, but insisted that any report of violence in the region "is false". The New Delhi government on Sunday said deliveries of food and supplies were active again to Kashmir, and banks and stores were being restocked ahead of Eid.
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| I was thrilled to be a Boy Scout, then for months I was sexually abused by my scoutmaster Posted: 11 Aug 2019 04:00 AM PDT  As a child, I thought being a Boy Scout made me part of something important. Then an adult I thought I could trust pulled me into something traumatic.
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| Hong Kong Police Deny Rumors of Plans for Mass Arrests: SCMP Posted: 09 Aug 2019 06:19 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong police dismissed online rumors about plans to arrest protesters en masse this weekend, the South China Morning Post reported on Saturday.The rumors started Thursday after speculation that a hard-line officer was being brought out of retirement to help the city cope with protests that have shaken the financial center for weeks, the newspaper said. Online rumors circulated that the police would no longer break up crowds, but arrest them immediately and charge them with rioting, an offense that could carry a maximum prison term of 10 years.Jim Ng Lok-chun, the senior police superintendent in charge of operations on Hong Kong island, said the rumors aren't true and that the "accusation is wrong," according to the paper.To contact the reporter on this story: Lulu Yilun Chen in Hong Kong at ychen447@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Peter Elstrom at pelstrom@bloomberg.net, Linus Chua, James PooleFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Salvini could take Italy out of EU, former PM warns Posted: 11 Aug 2019 11:42 AM PDT  Matteo Salvini, who plunged Italy into turmoil by pulling out of a coalition government, could eventually take the country out of the EU, a former prime minister warned Sunday. Interior Minister Salvini, who said last week that he was pulling his anti-immigrant League party out of an increasingly acrimonious coalition with the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S), "has no principles," Enrico Letta told AFP. With Salvini, an Italian 'Brexit' is not impossible," said Letta, who was Italy's premier between April 2013 and February 2014.
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| UPDATE 4-Norway mosque shooter may have killed family member first -police Posted: 10 Aug 2019 09:08 AM PDT ![UPDATE 4-Norway mosque shooter may have killed family member first -police]( "UPDATE 4-Norway mosque shooter may have killed family member first -police") The man suspected of a shooting at a mosque in Norway may also have killed a relative before launching the attack, police said late on Saturday. "A young woman was found dead at the suspect's address," assistant chief of police Rune Skjold told a news conference, adding that the man was suspected of murder.
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| NKorea fires 2 missiles into sea in likely protest of drills Posted: 10 Aug 2019 07:59 AM PDT  North Korea on Saturday extended a recent streak of weapons displays by firing what appeared to be two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea, according to South Korea's military. The fifth round of launches in less than three weeks was likely another protest at the slow pace of nuclear negotiations with the United States and the continuance of U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises that the North says are aimed at a northward invasion. The South's military alerted reporters to the launches hours after President Donald Trump said he received a "beautiful" three-page letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and predicted that they will have more talks to try resolving the nuclear standoff.
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| I Got 75 Miles Per Gallon in a Range Rover Posted: 11 Aug 2019 07:00 AM PDT  The new P400e plug-in hybrid has 398 horsepower and can get outrageous mileage—so why am I not excited about that?
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| Documents reveal the FBI kept using the Steele dossier for FISA renewals despite evidence of 'extreme bias' Posted: 10 Aug 2019 06:01 AM PDT  Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett says these documents mean that the FBI knew Christopher Steele was a 'phony' from the beginning.
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| Goldman Sachs economists say fears rise that U.S.-China trade war leading to recession Posted: 11 Aug 2019 12:53 PM PDT  "We expect tariffs targeting the remaining $300bn of US imports from China to go into effect," the bank said in a note sent to clients. U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Aug. 1 that he would impose a 10% tariff on a final $300 billion worth of Chinese imports on Sept. 1, prompting China to halt purchases of U.S. agricultural products. China denies that it has manipulated the yuan for competitive gain.
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| The Polish village where no boys have been born for almost a decade Posted: 10 Aug 2019 08:35 AM PDT  It was during a competition for junior firefighters that somebody first noticed something unusual about the small Polish village of Miejsce Odrzanskie. Every single one of the uniformed children showing off their skills was a girl. The reason is as simple as it is surprising. No boys have been born in Miejsce Odrzanskie for almost a decade, while the village's women in the rural backwater of 300 souls have given birth to 12 girls. The boy shortage is so acute that the mayor has offered a cash reward for the first family to produce a son. The world's media have descended on the village in the fields of south-west Poland not far from the Czech border to investigate the phenomenom. "Of course the media attention was a surprise for us, for the residents and the area," Rajmund Frischko, the local mayor who offered the reward—and the father of two daughters—told The Telegraph. "There has been so much talk about us in the media that for a minute there I was considering naming a street after the next boy born here," he said. "He will definitely get a very nice gift. And we will plant an oak and name it after him." "The situation was that the girls were growing up, and the kids were around us, so we didn't pay much attention to it. Until, that is, someone noticed during a competition for volunteer firefighters that the team consisted of just girls," he said. The all-girl young volunteer firefighters team in the village of Miejsce Odrzanskie, Poland, Credit: Kasia Strek/NYTNS / Redux / eyevine The mayor said doctors from across Poland has been calling him with tips on how to encourage the birth of a boy. One retired doctor had told him that the sex of a baby depended on the mother's diet, which must be rich in calcium to guarantee a son. "There is always the tried way of the Polish highlanders: If you want a boy, keep an axe under your marital bed," he joked. "We treat the whole affair as something as a curiosity," said Krystyna Zydziak, the head of the village and the mother of two daughters. "I always say that nature can find ways to balance things. There may be more girls born here but somewhere else in the world more boys are probably being born." Krystyna Zydziak of Miejsce Odrzanskie Credit: Kasia Strek/NYTNS / Redux / eyevine The lack of male births over the past few years compared to the dozen or so female births has fuelled worries about the future of the village. Miejsce Odrzanskie, like many Polish villages, has been fighting a losing battle to retain its population as people leave the fields for Poland's flourishing cities. Without men going into farming, people fear, that struggle could get harder. Ms Zydziak, said that everyone in the village had family living and working elsewhere in the EU. "Some villagers are concerned who will fill the farming jobs in the future," she said. The Facebook page of the local volunteer fire brigade, a centre of community life in the village, has taken to listing all the stories now featuring the village, along with numerous pictures of happy, if somewhat bemused, villagers being interviewed for television cameras. The all-girl young volunteer firefighters team. Credit: Kasia Strek/NYTNS / Redux / eyevine Malwina Kicler, 10, has been a volunteer firefighter for three years. The lack of boys has not stopped her crew from scooping up trophies in major competitions across Poland in the six years since the tram was founded. "Boys are noisy and naughty," she told the New York Times. "At least now we have peace and quiet. You can always meet them somewhere else." The comments below the links to the stories range from the baffled to proud "Go girls!" posts. One joked that perhaps the lack of boys was due to a particularly libidinous postman delivering more than letters to the village's womenfolk. Malwina Kicler, center, and Liliana Kicler, left, of the village of Miejsce Odrzanskie, Poland, Credit: Kasia Strek/NYTNS / Redux / eyevine Scientists have stressed that people should not jump to conclusions as to why so many girls are being born in the village. "You have to go deep into the history and check the birth statistics," said Professor Rafal Ploski, head of the genetics department at Warsaw's Medical University. "They you have to check to see if the girls' parents are not related to each other, even to a very distant extent. Then you have to conduct detailed interviews with the parents and the children, and check the environmental conditions. Only then can a trail appear." Not everyone sees the dearth of boys as a problem. One villager, perhaps making a veiled reference to Poland's war-scarred history said that the string of daughters was a good omen. "They once said that 'when boys are born there will be war, when girls are born there will be peace' so thank God it is as it is," she said.
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| Call waiting: Kashmiris queue for two-minute phone access Posted: 10 Aug 2019 10:46 PM PDT  Outside a guarded government office in Indian Kashmir's main city, an interminable queue forms every day for a near-priceless opportunity: a two-minute phone call to the outside world. Residents of Srinagar and the Kashmir Valley have been starved of phone and internet use for a week as India snuffs out opposition to its military lockdown in the Himalayan region. Only two mobile phones with an outside line are on offer in the deputy commissioner's office, but so desperate are people to contact families in the rest of India and overseas that they come from across Srinagar and beyond to wait in line.
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| Harris Takes Pragmatic Stance to Stand Out in Democratic Field Posted: 11 Aug 2019 03:23 PM PDT ![Harris Takes Pragmatic Stance to Stand Out in Democratic Field]( "Harris Takes Pragmatic Stance to Stand Out in Democratic Field") (Bloomberg) -- Kamala Harris portrayed herself as a pragmatist rather than an ideological politician as she seeks to differentiate herself among the top tier of candidates in the crowded 2020 Democratic primary."My motivation is truly about how can I fix the problems that wake people up in the middle of the night," she told Bloomberg News Sunday aboard her bus on a five-day trip across Iowa. "Wherever that fits on someone's ideological spectrum, have at it."In explaining her approach, Harris said issues that matter most to voters don't fall along ideological lines."When it comes to the basic things that do wake people up in the middle of the night, where would you put on the spectrum of ideology that everyone should have health care?" Harris said. "Where would you put on the spectrum that every child should have a decent education?"She added: "I think it's just a nice subject for a graduate school class, but it's not how people are living life."Harris, 54, has been unable to whittle away support from front-runner Joe Biden or top Elizabeth Warren after seizing the spotlight at the first debate in July with a harsh critique of the former vice president's opposition to busing in the 1970s. A Quinnipiac poll last week showed Biden leading nationally at 32%, with Harris in fourth place at 7%. Among African-American voters, Harris, who is black, fares worse: Biden 47%, Harris only 1%Earn Support"I was not a national figure before this race," Harris said. "There are people who were national figures. There were people who ran for president before at least once, if not a couple of times, and so it is perfectly logical to me that I have to earn people's recognition and support."Harris declined an opportunity to discuss Biden's two most recent gaffes -- saying "poor kids" are just as smart as "white kids" and confusing the 2012 Sandy Hook and 2018 Parkland school shootings."I just think that I can't speculate about where he was coming from when he said it," he said.But she was harshly critical of President Donald Trump's trade policies and its effects on Americans as she prepared to visit a farm in Laconia, Iowa."I'll tell you what trade should not be and it's what Trump has done," she said. "He made a bunch of promises to everyone from farm workers to auto workers that he broke, he betrayed all these people. He took unilateral action, meaning he worked with no one, to implement his so-called trade policy by tweet and it has resulted in Iowa farmers now looking at bankruptcy."Harris said her administration would take a collaborative approach to trade."I think we have to have a trade policy that is about protecting the American worker and all that we want in terms of wages and benefits and workplace safety," she said.To contact the reporter on this story: Tyler Pager in Washington at tpager1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Steve GeimannFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Bernie Sanders calls out Republican ‘hypocrisy’ over reproductive rights, vowing to codify Roe v Wade in Iowa Posted: 11 Aug 2019 06:32 AM PDT  Bernie Sanders says he is tired of Republican "hypocrisy", in which members of the party claim to abhor government meddling in the lives of Americans, but insist upon legislating what women can and cannot do with their bodies.The presidential candidate laid into the Republicans during a speech in Des Moines on Saturday night, where he was greeted by dozens of Iowa caucus goers and members of NARAL, a pro-choice advocacy group that holds forums for presidential candidates.And, the Vermont senator said that Democrats must go on the "offensive" in fighting for abortion rights, to counteract what he described as a well-funded attack determined to undermine Roe v Wade, the US Supreme Court case that established women's right to have an abortion."How hypocritical can they be?" Mr Sanders asked those inside of the Hilton Embassy ballroom just a short drive from the Iowa State Fair."Right now, all across the country, there is a well-funded and extreme attack on the right of women to control their own body and their own future, and we've seen that right here in Iowa," he said. "We are here today to say as loudly and clearly as we can that we will not go backwards. We absolutely must stand up to these attacks together."Mr Sanders' speech came just a day before he was set to take part in that fair's annual "Political Soapbox", where candidates seeking the support of Iowa flock to make their cases from a slightly raised stage, surrounded by hay.And Mr Sanders took to the stage after most of the other candidates seeking the Democratic nomination, who number almost two dozen.Earlier on Saturday, for instance, Elizabeth Warren delighted fairgoers with her calls for "big systemic change" to the American political system, drawing what to that point had been the largest showing of the whole affair — much larger than the turnout for Joe Biden on Thursday, and noticeably bigger than the crowd Kamala Harris had attracted earlier in the day.In the Hilton ballroom in downtown Des Moines, supporters who listened to Mr Sanders promise to codify Roe, and to repeal the Hyde Amendment, said its his consistency that stands out to them — and why they could consider supporting him against those other candidates.To prove the point, one speaker who held the mic before Mr Sanders even recited a 1993 quote of his, arguing for women's rights.Pierse Coen, 19, a college student from Nebraska, said Mr Sanders calling out Republicans on such an important issue is necessary, given the stakes."I think it's important that he calls Republicans out for their hypocrisy," she said, noting she would expect a similar sort of a check on Democrats.And, she said his experience speaks for itself: "I like his consistency. He doesn't waver. He just stays strong."Makayla Meyer, 15, a Des Moines high school student, said she is attracted to Mr Sanders' unapologetic push for his values."There's a lot of people who say America can't be a socialist government, but Bernie stands by who he is," she said.Jake Atkinson, 23, a recent university graduate who was visiting from London, said that the anger he sees in Mr Sanders can speak to people on a broad range of issues, helping people connect them and understand the bigger picture — and thinks that's how the Democrats can win the next presidential election."He really nails the intersectionality of all the issues, and how they're all related," Mr Atkinson said. "I think that's how we beat Republicans in 2020."
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| The Latest: Israel says suspects in soldier's death arrested Posted: 10 Aug 2019 10:55 AM PDT ![The Latest: Israel says suspects in soldier's death arrested]( "The Latest: Israel says suspects in soldier's death arrested") The Israeli military says it has arrested Palestinians suspected of involvement in the killing of an off-duty Israeli soldier in the West Bank this week. Israel's Channel 13 TV reported that the suspects were two brothers from Hebron. A Hamas spokesman says four Palestinian militants who were killed crossing the Gaza perimeter fence were engaging in "an individual act," stressing that the operation was not planned by Hamas.
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| Background Checks Won't Stop Many Mass Shootings. We Need Them Anyway, Experts Say Posted: 10 Aug 2019 01:30 PM PDT  Many public health experts agree background checks are a crucial part of efforts to limit gun deaths
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