In a new interview, President Obama has denounced what he called the “despicable” video on Facebook Live of what appears to be an assault on a mentally challenged white teenager by four young black people in Chicago. Speaking with Chicago’s local CBS affiliate Thursday, the president pointed to the gruesome incident as an example of how technology is helping to draw attention to racial issues that have long existed below the surface. “In part because we see visuals of racial tensions, violence and so forth because of smartphones and the Internet,” Obama told CBS 2’s Jay Levine, in one of five televised interviews he conducted with Chicago news stations.
Former Central Intelligence Agency Director James Woolsey distanced himself from President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team on Thursday evening, a source close to Woolsey told Yahoo News. The move was partially a response to the president-elect’s “attacks” on the intelligence community’s assertion that Russia was behind cyberattacks on Democrats during the election campaign. Woolsey served as a senior adviser to Trump’s presidential campaign, and he continued to make public appearances as a top consultant following the election.
On Friday afternoon a gunman opened fire at the Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport in Florida, killing five and injuring at least eight. We have ended our coverage here but for the latest on the shooting please visit Yahoo News.
The wife of Kim Jong Un may have reappeared in public last month, but she is losing a battle of power to the North Korean leader’s sister, a former diplomat for the regime said this week. Instead of Ri Sol Ju, whose life has been shrouded in mystery since she emerged as Kim’s wife in 2012, it is Kim’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, who wields significance over the young leader. It is Ri’s status as a “commoner” in North Korea’s class system that means she has little influence over her husband, while Ri directs all major public events, Thae told South Korea’s Maeli Broadcasting Network, UPI reported Tuesday, in one of his many media appearances.
Two sisters said they were kicked off an Allegiant Air flight after authorities deemed them a threat, and it cost them the chance to see their dying father. Debbie Hartman and Trisha Baker of DeLand, Florida, said they were on the plane Monday in Orlando, waiting to take off for Asheville, North Carolina, to see their father, who was in hospice care. Hartman had a panic attack and Baker accused the flight attendant of not being compassionate, telling her "You're being very rude," Hartman recalled.
Nigerian soldiers have found a schoolgirl who was one of more than 200 pupils kidnapped by Islamist militant group Boko Haram from their school in the northeastern town of Chibok in April 2014, an army spokesman said on Thursday. The troops had found Rakiya Abubkar wandering around near Algarno, a former Boko Haram stronghold, the spokesman said. A total of 276 schoolgirls were abducted by Boko Haram from Chibok in 2014 in one of the most infamous actions of their insurgency.
A Texas cop says he was refused service at a Wendy's restaurant because he was in uniform. The Fort Worth Police Department patrol supervisor said he entered the location at Trail Lake Drive at about 6 p.m., at which point he said the employees turned their backs and walked away, according to police spokesman Sgt. Marc Povero. @Wendys at Trail Lake and I20 would not serve one of our uniformed officers tonight?
Russian Marines shattered glass bottles with their heads and smashed burning wooden planks against each other Thursday as part of an eye-catching charm offensive in the Philippines, a traditional US ally. The camouflage-clad Marines showed off their pistol-shooting, knife-fighting and martial arts skills to the Filipino public in Manila's central park as part of a "goodwill visit" spearheaded by two warships following Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's announced pivot away from the United States. Filipinos were also allowed to attend an open house on the submarine-hunter Admiral Tributs, one of the two ships making what was only the Russian Navy's third-ever port call in the Philippines.
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper says the Russian government’s interference with the United States election went far beyond the now highly publicized hacks of Democratic email accounts, which were merely one part of a multilayered campaign of propaganda and deception. The intelligence leader outlined various methods wielded by Moscow to interfere with U.S. institutions during Thursday morning testimony on cyberattacks before the Senate Armed Services Committee. The testimony comes at a point of tension between the U.S. intelligence community and Donald Trump.
The two Pulis, Quastie and Gin-Gin, run in the snow in their garden in Lautertal, Germany; refugee Moustafa Abdulrahman from Kobani, Syria, peeks out while standing outside his family’s shelter at the Ritsona refugee camp in Greece; and Kuwaitis walk
President-elect Donald Trump continued his Twitter assault on Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who are trying to block Republicans and the incoming administration from repealing the Affordable Care Act. “The Democrats, lead [sic] by head clown Chuck Schumer, know how bad ObamaCare is and what a mess they are in,” Trump wrote Thursday on Twitter.
An Iraq war veteran opened fire at Fort Lauderdale's main airport, a major tourist hub in Florida, killing five people and injuring eight, as panicked travelers fled for safety. The suspect, identified by police as 26-year-old Esteban Santiago, was in custody and being questioned by the FBI over the shooting that shut down the international airport that is a gateway to the Caribbean. Witness John Schlicher told Fox News that he was picking up his first bag as he "heard the first shot.
You don’t have to follow CES 2017 too closely to realize that one of the main battles being fought out there concerns virtual assistants. Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Assistant, which you’d usually find inside the Amazon Echo or Google Home, will come preloaded in a variety of products this year. Lenovo is one company whose Echo rival might be better than Amazon’s, while Nvidia has figured out a way to make a better Google Home than Google.
Family members and friends said Jose and Kitty Menendez's marriage was on the rocks and that Jose saw his sons as disappointments. By early 1989, the Menendez family was living in a mansion in Beverly hills. Which, according to some of the witnesses, was kitty Menendez's dream.
A student who was slammed to the floor by a police officer in a North Carolina high school has suffered a concussion and may have other related health issues, her attorney said Thursday. Jasmine Darwin is having headaches, vision problems and other issues associated with a concussion, attorney Freddy Rabner of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, said. Darwin, who was a student at Rolesville High School, sought treatment at a hospital twice and has follow-up appointments with several specialists, he said.
The year 2016 was a big one for marijuana in the United States. Several states passed new legislation allowing legal use of cannabis in some capacity and states that were already approved for legal pot use saw huge dividends from marijuana sales. In fact, the industry as a whole generated more than $6.7 billion in marijuana sales, according to a Tuesday Forbes report.
Sears announced today that it has agreed to sell the Craftsman brand to Stanley Black & Decker after controlling the iconic name in tools for 90 years. Stanley Black & Decker, which produces DeWalt tools as well, plans to expand the number of stores selling Craftsman, as only 10 percent of Craftsman products are currently sold in stores other than Sears, according to the Associated Press. Sears will continue to sell Craftsman tools as well.
By Lesley Wroughton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is encouraging Syria peace talks being prepared by Russia later this month in the Kazakh capital Astana and hopes they will produce a step toward peace, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Dec. 26 that Russia, Iran, Turkey and Syrian President Bashar al Assad had all agreed to hold the talks in Astana although no date has been set.
Last night, ambitious automotive startup Faraday Future finally debuted its first production-ready, semi-autonomous car. In a 90-minute presentation marred by multiple technical hiccups, Faraday Future presented its vision of a revolutionary new world of transportation-one where your car parks and sometimes drives itself, freeing you to be the pampered passenger in your own self-chauffeured luxury electric crossover.
Speculation is running rampant following a report in The New York Times. Clinton was a New York State Senator from 2001 to 2009 and then went on to become Secretary of State under President Obama. The Clintons are no strangers to the city that never sleeps.
Port-au-Prince (AFP) - Onetime Haiti coup leader Guy Philippe, who has long been wanted by US authorities on drug trafficking charges but was recently elected to the country's senate, was arrested, police said. Philippe, 48, was participating in a live radio talk show in a Port-au-Prince suburb when heavily armed antinarcotics police took position outside the studio, shooting into the air and sparking a panic in the neighborhood, according to journalists at the scene. Philippe emerged from the building in handcuffs and was loaded into a police vehicle.
T-Mobile said unlimited plans will be the only option for new customers even though they are more expensive than some of its old, limited plans. On Thursday, T-Mobile said those limited plans, which executives called a "relic," won't be sold anymore starting Jan. 22. Existing customers can keep their current plans.
A video showing a chaotic scene moments after a gunman opened fire at a baggage claim inside Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport in Florida Friday has emerged. The video, obtained by ViralHog, shows distraught travelers consoling one another as many of the victims lay on the ground near a baggage carousel. “The casings were flying all around us,” a woman running to the camera can be heard saying in the video.
At Deer Valley in Utah, Emily Summers said her boss kicked her and her co-workers out of the office Thursday and told them to hit the slopes and take advantage of a winter that only comes once a decade. The storms pounded parts of California, Utah, Colorado and other states as they made their way east, creating difficult driving conditions and closing roads.
The move could be finalized as early as next month, just after Donald Trump takes office.