- PoliticsYahoo News
Senate GOP moves forward on health care bill in dramatic procedural vote
WASHINGTON — Over the sound of protesters crying “kill the bill,” 50 Republican senators cast their votes to begin debate to repeal Obamacare on a razor-thin margin Tuesday afternoon. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. — who was recently diagnosed with brain cancer — cast the 49th “yes” vote after making a dramatic entrance back to the Capitol, greeted by applause from his colleagues. Vice President Mike Pence cast the tie-breaking vote to begin the debate.
- PoliticsYahoo News
Imagining Trump’s big, beautiful wall. You might have to.
An artist’s rendition of what President Trump’s proposed wall would like, according to his stated specifications. The ever-evolving vision for the wall President Trump wants to build along the border with Mexico got some new details earlier this month, the latest in the growing list of specifications for meeting Trump’s signature campaign promise — which is still in need of a source of funding. “One of the things with the wall is you need transparency,” said Trump, referring to the physical construction, not the political process by which it is authorized, designed and paid for.
- NewsInside Edition
Fake Street Signs Warning of 'Easily Startled Police" Appear After Cop Shoots Minnesota Woman
Fake street signs warning of “easily startled” cops have popped up in Minnesota, sparked by the fatal police shooting of an area yoga teacher who called 911 to report a possible sex assault near her home. One was seen in St. Paul and another in Minneapolis, according the Star Tribune. The orange metal signs were bolted onto real street postings and warned “Twin Cities Police Easily Startled." A policeman with guns blazing is depicted in silhouette.
NewsAssociated PressCondemned killer arrives at death house ahead of execution
A condemned killer in Ohio arrived at the death house a day ahead of his scheduled execution Wednesday with several requests for a delay pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. Ronald Phillips arrived at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville around 10:15 a.m. Tuesday, about 24 hours before he was set to die in Ohio's first execution in more than three years, a prisons spokeswoman said. The last execution in Ohio was in January 2014, when a condemned inmate repeatedly gasped and snorted during a 26-minute procedure with a never-before-tried drug combination.
- WorldTime
Wildfires Force 10,000 People in Southern France to Evacuate
Wildfires in southeastern France have forced the evacuation of at least 10,000 people overnight Tuesday, officials said. The blaze, near Borme-les-Mimosas on the Mediterranean coast, came one day after France reached out to the European Union for extra help in fighting wildfires raging through the country’s arid south, Agence France-Presse reports. “It’s an area that doubles or triples its population in summer,” a fire official said.
- NewsThe Telegraph
Richard Dawkins hits back at cancellation of Berkeley event for 'abusive speech against Islam'
Richard Dawkinswants "a public apology" from a California radio station that cancelled an event with the scientist because of his “abusive speech against Islam”. The influential academic and writer was scheduled to speak about his memoir A Brief Candle in the Dark at an event organised by Berkeley’s KPFA Radio next month. “We had booked this event based entirely on his excellent new book on science, when we didn’t know he had offended and hurt – in his tweets and other comments on Islam – so many people," KPFA wrote in an email to ticket buyers.
WorldReutersVenezuelan agents seize two more court appointees: opposition
By Anggy Polanco and Andrew Cawthorne CARACAS (Reuters) - Two more people named to an alternative Supreme Court in defiance of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government were arrested on Wednesday by intelligence agents during a fast-escalating political showdown, the opposition said. Jesus Rojas and Zuleima Gonzalez were seized in central Anzoategui state after another appointee, Angel Zerpa, was arrested at the weekend, the opposition-led National Assembly said. Venezuela's majority-backed opposition is demanding Maduro abandon a Sunday election to create a controversial congress with powers to rewrite the country's constitution and override all other institutions.
- SciencePopular Mechanics
Surface Water Seen Trapped in Rocks on the Moon
It seems we're always finding water on Mars-but a paper published in Nature Geoscience today reveals more space water much closer to home. Using data from the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter, two researchers from Brown University found something thought to be long gone: Water on the surface of the moon. The researchers specifically focused on pyroclastic rock, which is volcanic in origin.
- WorldYahoo News Photo Staff
Wildfires force French Riviera evacuations
French authorities ordered the evacuation of up to 12,000 people around a picturesque hilltop town in the southern Cote d’Azur region as fires hopscotched around the Mediterranean coast for a third day Wednesday.A raging wildfire began late Tuesday in
PoliticsYahoo NewsMcCain: ‘I will not vote for this bill as it is today’
A week after his brain cancer diagnosis, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., returned to Washington to cast a crucial vote to begin debate on the GOP health care legislation. … I will not vote for this bill as it is today,” McCain said emphatically. Tuesday’s dramatic procedural vote on the controversial health care bill narrowly passed when Vice President Mike Pence cast the tie-breaking vote, opening the floor to debate on controversial legislation that would dismantle the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
- PoliticsForeign Policy Magazine
SitRep: Trump Tweets Classified CIA Program; Top WH Officials Burning Out
President Donald Trump appears to have declassified a CIA operation to arm Syrian rebels during a furious round of Tweets attacking the Washington Post on Monday night. The president, who previously disclosed classified information to Russian government officials in the Oval Office, (and in another slip-up confirmed the leak himself), complained, without offering evidence, that a recent Post story about the program “fabricated the facts.” The story which broke last week is here. Remarkably, Trump also attacked the acting head of the FBI Andrew McCabe: “Problem is that the acting head of the FBI & the person in charge of the Hillary investigation, Andrew McCabe, got $700,000 from H for wife!” McCabe’s wife, Dr. Jill McCabe, actually received funding from Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe for her Senate run.
- NewsThe Independent
Father of teen abused by female teacher claims school threatened boy with paddling for 'spreading rumours'
The family of an eighth-grade boy who was abused by his teacher say the school threatened to paddle him as punishment for “spreading rumours”. Jennifer Caswell, 31, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2015 for sex crimes against the student, who is thought to be 15 years old. The teenager, who has not been identified, was allegedly told to “keep his mouth closed” by Marty Webb, the Principal of the high school he attended in Oklahoma.
- WorldYahoo News Video
China fires back at US accusations over aerial encounter
China on Tuesday denied its fighter jet pilots operated dangerously during an encounter with a U.S. surveillance plane in international airspace in which the American pilot took evasive action to avoid a possible collision.
- NewsInternational Business Times
Passengers Stranded In Vegas, Stay In Vegas
Allegiant Air reportedly left almost 200 passengers stranded in Las Vegas, Nevada Sunday following a canceled flight to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, according to FOX 5 Vegas. The airline informed customers that they would not be placed on another flight until Thursday, leaving passengers stranded at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas for four days after their original scheduled flight.
- NewsAssociated Press
Agency: Small plane broke apart in Georgia storm, killing 4
Federal investigators who examined the wreckage of a small airplane crash that killed four people earlier this month in Georgia concluded that the aircraft broke apart in midair after flying into a thunderstorm. The National Transportation Safety Board released a preliminary report Tuesday into the July 1 crash, which occurred in Murray County, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) northwest of Atlanta. The agency concluded the plane "was destroyed during an inflight breakup" and said witnesses were watching a thunderstorm overhead when the crash occurred.
WorldAFPIsraeli removal of holy site metal detectors not enough: Erdogan
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday welcomed Israel's removal of metal detectors from a highly sensitive Jerusalem holy site but said it was "not enough". Israel installed metal detectors at entrances to the Haram al-Sharif mosque compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, after an attack on July 14 that killed two policemen. "Israel took the right step to remove the metal detectors to help lower tension," Erdogan said.
EntertainmentInverse MediaThis Map Predicts Who Will Die Next in 'Game of Thrones'
According to sophisticated machine learning calculations, the Queen of Dragons will soon meet her demise. In early July, a computer scientist at Central European University’s Center for Network Science, Milan Janosov, predicted the fates of the Game of Thrones characters that have yet to be impaled, poisoned, or have their brains bludgeoned. To create his algorithm, Janosov first built a network of the realm’s social system based on how often characters interacted with each other.
BusinessReutersGlaxoSmithKline's new boss streamlines R&D, axes slew of drugs
By Ben Hirschler LONDON (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline's new chief executive announced plans on Wednesday to narrow the focus of the group's drug research by ditching more than 30 drug projects to improve returns in its core pharmaceuticals business. Walmsley, who took over in April, said GSK would in future allocate 80 percent of its R&D budget to respiratory and HIV/infectious diseases, along with two other potential areas of oncology and immuno-inflammation.
NewsAssociated PressUS Navy fires warning shots near Iran ship in Persian Gulf
A U.S. Navy patrol boat fired warning shots Tuesday near an Iranian vessel that American sailors said came dangerously close to them during a tense encounter in the Persian Gulf, the first such incident to happen under President Donald Trump. Iran's hard-line Revolutionary Guard later blamed the American ship for provoking the situation. The encounter involving the USS Thunderbolt, a Cyclone-class patrol ship based in Bahrain as part of the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, is the latest confrontation between Iranian vessels and American warships.
- PoliticsThe Independent
Lebanese prime minister stays silent as Donald Trump mistakenly says he is fighting Hezbollah
Questions have once again been raised over US President Donald Trump’s grasp on foreign policy after he appeared to misunderstand the role played by Lebanese militant organisation Hezbollah in the Middle East’s complex geopolitics. During a news conference with Lebanese President Saad al-Hariri in the White House’s Rose Garden on Tuesday, Mr Trump was asked about his position on the Shia group. “The prime minister and I have just concluded an extensive conversation about the challenges and opportunities facing Lebanon and its neighbours,” Trump said.
- NewsTime
Truck Driver Accused of Smuggling Immigrants Could Face the Death Penalty
In outlining their immigrant-smuggling case against James Matthew Bradley Jr., 60, federal prosecutors depicted the trailer as pitch-black, crammed with somewhere around 90 people or more by some estimates, and so suffocatingly hot that one passenger said they took turns breathing through a hole and pounding on the walls to get the driver’s attention. Bradley appeared in federal court on charges of illegally transporting immigrants for financial gain, resulting in death. Bradley told investigators that the trailer had been sold and he was transporting it for his boss from Iowa to Brownsville, Texas, and that he was unaware people were inside until he parked and got out to urinate.
- NewsU.S.News & World Report
Try a Checklist to Avoid FAFSA Mistakes
When Evelyn Lee was applying to colleges as a high school senior, she knew that she would need financial aid to be able to afford to go. At 108 questions, the FAFSA is longer than a 1040 tax form, with questions about student and parent income, savings, family make up, number of students in college and more. "It can seem terribly intrusive , and it can be confusing," says Peter Van Buskirk, former dean of admission at Franklin & Marshall College and founder and president of Best College Fit.
TechnologyInternational Business TimesSamsung Galaxy S8 Active Specs Leaked Live; Release Date Not Yet Announced
The Galaxy Note 8 will be revealed in one month but the Galaxy S8 Active smartphone has not yet released. YouTuber TechDroider recently shared a video of a device be claims the Galaxy S8 Active. The handset does bear a striking resemblance to Samsung’s Active handsets from the past.
- ScienceMashable
New species of sunfish discovered by scientist in New Zealand
Of all things, Marianne Nyegaard didn't expect to find a new species of sunfish — the heaviest of all bony fishes. The PhD student from Murdoch University in Western Australia made the discovery while researching the population genetics of ocean sunfish off the coast of Bali in Indonesia. "A Japanese research group first found genetic evidence of an unknown sunfish species in Australian waters 10 years ago, but the fish kept eluding the scientific community because we didn't know what it looked like," Ms Nyegaard said in a statement.
WorldAFPRussia deploys forces to police Syria safe zones
Russia has deployed military police to monitor two safe zones being established in Syria, it was announced on Monday, with officials touting it as a new era of US cooperation. Senior commander Sergei Rudskoi said Russian forces had set up checkpoints and observation posts around a zone in the south-west and in another covering Eastern Ghouta, near Damascus. The two areas are part of a broader Moscow-backed plan to create four "de-escalation zones" in rebel-held parts of Syria.
