WorldAssociated PressUN diplomats: Russia and China block US on North Korea oil
Russia and China blocked the United States on Thursday from getting the United Nations to publicly accuse North Korea of smuggling in refined petroleum products beyond the annual quota of 500,000 barrels allowed under U.N. sanctions, diplomats said. The Russians and Chinese, who are key suppliers of petroleum products to North Korea, said they needed more time to examine the U.S. allegations, the diplomats said.
- WorldReuters
Man arrested after knife attack on German bus
A man armed with a knife attacked people on a bus in the northern city of Luebeck on Friday, injuring 10 including one seriously before he was arrested, police said, adding there was no indication he was radicalized or had a terrorist motive. "The identity of the perpetrator has been clarified: a 34-year-old German citizen resident in Luebeck," police added on Twitter. The local Luebecker Nachrichten, without citing its source, said the attacker was originally from Iran who now had German nationality and had lived in Luebeck for years.
- WorldThe Telegraph
WhatsApp to limit forwarding of messages by 200 million Indian users in effort to halt violent lynchings
WhatsApp announced limits on Friday on the forwarding of messages by its 200 million Indian users in an effort to stop a spate of horrific lynchings and to assuage government threats of legal action in its biggest market. More than 20 people have been butchered by crazed mobs in the past two months across India after being accused of child kidnapping and other crimes in viral messages circulated wildly on WhatsApp. Late on Thursday India's government, scrambling to find a response, threatened to take WhatsApp to court, saying the "medium" for spreading malicious rumours "cannot evade responsibility and accountability".
- NewsArchitectural Digest
The Iconic House from “The Brady Bunch” Is Now on the Market for the First Time in 45 Years
The late 1950s, split-level ranch home the Brady family called home on the 1970s sitcom The Brady Bunch has hit the market for the first time in 45 years for $1.885 million. One of the most recognizable homes in television history, the house is located
WorldAFP'Treasure ship' stock bubble draws South Korea warning
Rumours of a treasure trove on a Russian ship that sank off South Korea a century ago have sent a company's shares on a rollercoaster ride, triggering a warning Friday from financial regulators. Start-up business Shinil Group announced earlier this week that it had found an imperial Russian navy vessel off Ulleung island in the Sea of Japan, saying it was believed to contain gold bullion and coins worth 150 trillion won ($130 billion). Others pointed out that Russia would have had no reason to load a vast treasure trove on a ship it was sending into battle, and doubly so as it had a land route to its destination Vladivostok anyway.
- PoliticsHuffPost
Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Bring A Joint Progressive Push To Kansas
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Democratic U.S. House nominee Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez came to this Great Plains state on Friday night to try to show that their brand of progressive populism can win over voters anywhere in the country. The duo, one the 76-year-old grandfather of democratic socialism in America, the other its new 28-year-old superstar from New York City, came to a convention center here to campaign for Brent Welder, a former Obama and Sanders campaign official who is running in the Democratic primary to challenge vulnerable GOP Rep. Kevin Yoder in Kansas’ 3rd District.
- NewsTime
Tornadoes Sweep Across Central Iowa, Some Injuries Reported
Hardest hit appeared to be Marshalltown , a city of 27,000 people about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northeast of Des Moines, where brick walls collapsed in the streets, roofs were blown off buildings and the cupola of the historic courthousetumbled 175 feet (53 meters) to the ground. UnityPoint Health hospital in Marshalltown was damaged, spokeswoman Amy Varcoe said. The Marshalltown hospital’s emergency room remained open to treat patients injured in the storm, Varcoe said.
NewsAssociated PressInquest opens into British woman poisoned by nerve agent
A coroner on Thursday opened an inquest into the death of a British woman who was exposed to a military grade nerve agent, while British media reported that police may have identified suspects in an attack that poisoned a former Russian spy with the same deadly substance. Senior coroner David Ridley led a brief hearing on the death of Dawn Sturgess, but said the official cause won't be given until further tests are completed. Police said they had come into contact with a small bottle containing Novichok, a nerve agent developed in the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
- NewsThe Guardian
Rightwing rally cancelled as Maxine Waters supporters stand guard
A rightwing group that had vowed to stage weeks of protests against California’s best-known African American member of Congress, Maxine Waters, was a no-show at its own demonstration as activists thronged to offer their support outside Waters’ district office in south Los Angeles. The Oath Keepers, founded in 2009 in reaction to the election of America’s first black president, and described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as one of the country’s largest anti-immigrant and anti-government groups, had targeted Waters because of her encouragement of anti-Trump activists who refused service to cabinet members and White House aides at restaurants and other businesses. Donald Trump slammed Waters on Twitter last month, calling her an “extraordinarily low IQ person” who meant to do his supporters harm.
- NewsThe Independent
NYC explosion: Steam pipe blast engulfs Flatiron district in smoke causing traffic chaos
A steam pipe has exploded beneath a street in Manhattan's Flatiron District, blasting a whole through the asphalt of Fifth Avenue. The New York Fire Department closed a number of roads in Manhattan's Flatiron District, causing disruption to many peoples' morning commutes. There were multiple reports that a number of manhole covers exploded into the air from West 19th Street to West 21st Street.
- WorldThe National Interest
Spain’s Billion-Dollar Ethanol-Powered S-80 Super-Submarines Are Too Big to Fit in their Docks
On July 18, the Spanish newspaper El País reported that Spain’s four advanced S-80 submarines under construction had proven too big to fit in their docks at Cartagena. The naval base, located on the Mediterranean Sea in southeastern Spain, has been the home of the Spain’s submarine fleet since 1918, but its docks measure three meters shorter than the boats they will need to accommodate. The Spanish Navy—the Armada—currently operates three French-built Agosta-class S-70 submarines commissioned in the mid-1980s.
WorldAFPWhatsApp limits forwarding in India after lynchings
WhatsApp announced limits on Friday on the forwarding of messages by its 200 million Indian users in an effort to stop a spate of horrific lynchings and to assuage government threats of legal action in its biggest market. More than 20 people have been butchered by crazed mobs in the past two months across India after being accused of child kidnapping and other crimes in viral messages circulated wildly on WhatsApp. Late Thursday India's government, scrambling to find a response, threatened to take WhatsApp to court, saying the "medium" for spreading malicious rumours "cannot evade responsibility and accountability".
- EntertainmentReuters
Home comforts greet 'Wild Boars' captain after Thai cave rescue
By Patpicha Tanakasempipat MAE SAI, Thailand (Reuters) - Happiness is a birthday cake, a meal of pork-knuckle rice, a warm bed and a trip to buy a new mobile telephone. "My bed felt warm," the 13-year-old, also known as Dom, told Reuters. The 12 boys, aged 11 to 16, and the 25-year-old coach of the "Wild Boars" soccer team returned home on Wednesday after being discharged from hospital and appearing on national television to describe their ordeal inside the Tham Luang cave.
WorldAFPS. Korea's ex-president Park given eight more years in prison
Disgraced former South Korean president Park Geun-hye was convicted of charges including illegally receiving funds from the country's spy agency on Friday and given eight more years in prison, on top of her current term. Park, the South's first female president, was impeached last year after huge street protests over a sprawling scandal, and was jailed for 24 years for corruption and abuse of power in April. Friday's penalty -- issued in her absence after she refused to attend the Seoul Central District Court -- came after a separate trial for pocketing money from the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and improperly intervening in 2016 in the selection of her ruling party's parliamentary candidates.
- ScienceHuffPost
Egyptian Officials Open Black Sarcophagus, Find 3 Skeletons Inside
After approximately 2,000 years sitting untouched, a black sarcophagus recently unearthed in Egypt has been opened ― and it wasn’t pretty. Authorities in Alexandria removed the massive granite lid on Thursday to reveal the skeletal remains of three people amid sewage water that had leaked in, the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities announced. Mostafa Waziry, the head of the Supreme Council for Antiquities, had some reassuring words in response to media rumors of bad luck. “The sarcophagus has been opened, but we have not been hit by a curse,” he said, according to the Guardian.
PoliticsAssociated PressThe White House week when 'no' meant 'yes'
This was the week when "would" turned into "wouldn't" and "no" meant "yes," as President Donald Trump and his top aides tried to walk back several of his comments on Russia and the Federal Reserve. Trump was asked at the end of Monday's summit in Helsinki with Russian President Vladimir Putin: "Who do you believe" — U.S. intelligence, which accuses Russia of election meddling, or Putin, who denies it? With Putin at his side, Trump said of American intelligence officials: "They said they think it's Russia.
- PoliticsThe Guardian
Scott Pruitt aides protected him from formaldehyde while suppressing report on its dangers
Staff at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) organized for a new office desk to air out in a remote warehouse for a week so that former agency head Scott Pruitt wouldn’t have to breathe in any traces of the carcinogenic chemical formaldehyde from his furniture, emails obtained by Politico have revealed.
- WorldTime
Microsoft Says It Stopped Cyberattacks on Three 2018 Congressional Candidates
The targets, who it didn’t identify, were “all people who because of their positions might have been interesting from an espionage standpoint, as well as an election disruption standpoint,” Tom Burt, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for customer security and trust, said at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado on Thursday. A Facebook Inc. executive on the same panel at the Aspen conference said that in April, the company removed a few hundred pages on the service controlled by the St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency, which has been indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller for an alleged social media campaign aimed at interfering in the 2016 U.S. election.
- Lifestylemotor1
Porsche Panamera GTS, 718 Cayman T, 911 Speedster VINs Registered
If these filings are accurate, then Porsche has been keeping some closely held secrets from the motoring world. Filings with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration indicate that Porsche has three new models coming to the United States for the 2019 model year, and two of them are vehicles with no previous evidence about their arrival. The information came from Vehicle Identification Number details that Porsche submitted to NHTSA, and Auto Guide discovered the reports.
NewsReutersBaltimore lawsuit blames oil and gas companies for climate change
The city of Baltimore filed a lawsuit on Friday against 26 oil and gas companies and entities, including BP Plc , Chevron Corp and Exxon Mobil Corp, for knowingly contributing to what the city called the catastrophic consequences of climate change. It was the latest in a string of cases attempting to hold oil and gas companies responsible for climate change caused by carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels. It came a day after a U.S. District Court judge dismissed a similar suit by New York City, saying in his ruling that climate change must be addressed through federal regulation and foreign policy because climate change is a global problem.
- NewsThe Independent
Father of two Parkland shooting survivors shot and killed in Florida robbery
The father of two Parkland shooting survivors has reportedly been shot and killed in a robbery, just five months after his children survived one of the deadliest school shootings in US history. Ayub Ali, age 61, died on Tuesday after being fatally wounded in a robbery of his Florida convenience store, according to the Broward County Sheriff’s Office. Surveillance video released by the sheriff’s department shows the suspect engaging Mr Ali in the aisles of the store, then leading him to the cash register with a black object against his back.
NewsAFPChance the Rapper buys Chicago news site
Chance the Rapper has entered the news business by buying the Chicagoist website -- and announced the purchase through song Thursday. Chicagoist was part of a network of city-oriented websites including New York's Gothamist that found a following amid an appetite for a fresher, younger take on local news in the United States. The sites were abruptly closed last year by publisher Joe Ricketts, a conservative mogul who also owns the Chicago Cubs baseball team, after staff voted to unionize.
- NewsAssociated Press
Worker killed in Army depot explosion died of burns
A civilian worker killed in a fire and explosion at an Army facility in Pennsylvania died from burns, officials announced Friday. The Lehigh County coroner's office identified the victim as Eric Byers, a resident of central Pennsylvania. Byers was pronounced dead just after 7 p.m. Thursday at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest.
