Defense secretary nominee James Mattis on Thursday ranked Russia and the national debt as top threats to U.S. national security and said that President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran was “imperfect” but must be enforced. “It’s not a deal I would have signed,” the retired Marine general said in a wide-ranging Senate Armed Services Committee hearing focused on his virtually certain confirmation. During a three-hour appearance before lawmakers who rarely challenged him, Mattis repeatedly criticized Russia, promised that President-elect Donald Trump would enforce NATO’s automatic mutual-defense agreement, and said he had no plans to roll back the role of women or LGBTQ Americans in the military.
A GoFundMe campaign has raised more than $160,000 in just one week for an 18-year-old who was recently held captive and assaulted by four people in Chicago. A widely circulated Facebook Live video — which has since been removed — appeared to show the young man being tied up, beaten, cut, and verbally assaulted with anti-white slurs by a group of young African-American men and women. Last week, police arrested and charged four suspects with hate crimes, as well as counts of aggravated kidnapping, aggravated unlawful restraint, and aggravated battery.
The bizarre story unfolded Thursday after Trooper Edward Andersson was dispatched to the scene of a 911 call in which a driver said he'd been shot at from the median of Interstate 10. While en route to the area where the call was placed near Tonopah, the 27-year veteran of the Department of Public Safety came upon a car that had overturned, causing a woman to be ejected from the vehicle and killed. While he placed road flares around the scene, Andersson was shot by a suspect who then physically attacked him.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will agree to be extradited to the United States if President Barack Obama grants clemency to the former US soldier Chelsea Manning, jailed for leaking documents, the company said on Thursday. "If Obama grants Manning clemency Assange will agree to US extradition despite clear unconstitutionality of DoJ (US Department of Justice) case," WikiLeaks wrote on Twitter. Assange has been living in the Ecuadoran embassy in London since June 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden to face sexual assault allegations.
The stars fill the night sky over the eerily quiet streets of rebel-held Idlib, Syria, but the calm might not last much longer — now that Syrian government forces have recaptured Aleppo in a crushing offensive, they are likely to turn their attentions
Officials say they have recovered more human remains in their search for wreckage of a corporate jet carrying six people that crashed in Lake Erie two weeks ago. Searchers on Thursday found more debris believed to be from the plane. The search for the wreckage from a corporate jet that crashed into Erie while carrying six people is turning up more debris.
Refugees and migrants in Europe are dying this winter and governments must do more to help, the U.N. warned on Friday. Cecile Poutilly, a spokesperson for the U.N. refugee agency UNCHR, said five had died so far in a unusual cold front settling in on southeastern Europe. The EU spent 198 million euro in 2016 on emergency support for Greece to help tens of thousands of refugees and migrants, according to the EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Department.
By Keith Coffman DENVER (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Friday denied $1.2 billion in claims for economic losses stemming from a 2015 toxic wastewater spill accidentally triggered by the agency at a defunct Colorado mine, that fouled waterways in three states. The EPA said in a statement that it was "not legally able to pay" damage claims over the discharge from the century-old Gold King Mine, located near the town of Silverton in southwestern Colorado. Farmers, ranchers and river-running raft companies, among others, filed the claims seeking compensation for lost business or wages from the spill.
Researchers in Australia finally caught on camera what they were looking for: a new species of seadragon in its natural habitat. Footage released this week in Marine Biodiversity Records shows the elusive "Ruby Seadragon" in the waters off Australia'
A Washington Post editor was bombarded with attacks, many of them racist, after conservatives online falsely accused her of photographing the notes of Rex Tillerson, Donald Trump’s secretary of state nominee. On Tuesday evening, video from Tillerson’s Senate Foreign Relations confirmation hearing began to circulate on Twitter and conservative corners of the Internet.
The Golden State Warriors are renowned for their ability to identify personnel who will help their organization. This goes from the front office to coaches to players, as Golden State’s ability to bring talent on board is second to none (save for the Spurs) in the NBA. It is a strange scenario, one that could have been avoided if the Warriors read up on Suhr’s unsavory tenure as the city’s police chief.
As Orlando police remain embroiled in a manhunt for a suspect wanted for the murder of his pregnant ex-girlfriend and an officer in Orlando, a man took to the streets to show support for that alleged cop killer, donning a sign celebrating the death of police outside a Florida sheriff’s office. The man, identified in reports as Ian McGuire, 26, was seen outside the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office, located about three hours southwest of Orlando, wearing a sign that read: "2 cops dead in Orlando.
US auto giant Ford Motor Company said Thursday it was expanding its safety recall of some defective airbag inflators from Japanese parts maker Takata. The action extends the recall to about 816,000 Ford, Lincoln and Mercury brand vehicles built in North America and sold in the United States and Canada for various model years between 2005 and 2012. "This action represents primarily a planned expansion of previously recalled vehicles to new geographic regions," the company said in a statement.
Chris Smith works as a firefighter and as a paramedic in two different towns to support his wife and their children. A year and a half ago, we posted some questions, starting with this one. What is the American dream? So many of you remembered it as
In a story Jan. 11 about a tornado in Northern California, The Associated Press reported erroneously that the tornado was south of Sacramento. It was actually north of Sacramento. LOS ANGELES (AP) — The latest storm to wallop Northern California whipped up a small tornado that downed trees and fences near Sacramento.
The Google Pixel and Google Pixel XL are two of the hottest smartphones on the planet right now. Protecting your Pixel or Pixel XL doesn’t have to mean ruining the look or hiding the phones under a bunch of ugly plastic, however.
The Obama administration has agreed to provide disability benefits to military veterans exposed to contaminated drinking water while at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, according to an official notice published on Thursday. Veterans, former reservists and former National Guard members who served for at least 30 days at the U.S. Marine Corps Base from 1953 to 1987 and have been diagnosed with one of eight diseases are eligible, according to the document published in the Federal Register, the government's official journal. The additional payments from the Department of Veterans Affairs would start in March and go to veterans who developed adult leukemia, aplastic anemia, bladder cancer, kidney cancer, liver cancer, multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and Parkinson's disease, the notice said.
A GOP congressman reported Friday that a painting stirring controversy on Capitol Hill will be taken down Tuesday after the agency responsible for maintaining the Capitol complex determined it violated rules for a student arts competition. The painting depicts Ferguson, Missouri, with a pig in a police uniform aiming a gun at a protester. The painting was among hundreds completed by high school students that are featured in a tunnel leading to the Capitol.
The first real test of President-elect Donald Trump’s NATO and Russia policy could take place in Poland, where American tanks are rumbling into position as part of a new Pentagon strategy of reassuring nervous Eastern European allies in the face of an increasingly aggressive Russia. Heavy equipment and the first of what will be about 4,000 U.S. troops arrived on Thursday, where they’ll set down in western Poland, while another deployment, set for April, will settle in eastern Poland near the “Suwalki Gap,” a pocket that sits between Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. FP has lots more on this critical patch of land here.
Cubans in Miami and Havana react after a US decision to end a decades-old policy allowing Cuban migrants who arrived illegally on US soil to stay.
A Louisiana mother was shot dead after answering the door to her home this week. Baton Rouge police say Robyn Hale, 27, was shot multiple times after opening her trailer's door at about midnight on Wednesday. Read: Teen Girl Shot Dead in Her Own Bedroom
Nigeria should consider giving asylum to The Gambia's President Yahya Jammeh as a way of ending the political crisis in his country, lawmakers said on Thursday. A motion passed in the lower chamber House of Representatives gave members' backing to regional efforts to resolve the dispute, sparked by Jammeh's refusal to accept election results. The MPs said "the clock is ticking fast" for The Gambia and there was a need to step up diplomacy, as the possibility of violence and mass displacement threatened West African stability.
The Force is strong with this adorable newly-discovered gibbon species. Thanks to some Star Wars-loving scientists, the new species in southwest China has been named in honor of our favorite hero from a galaxy far far away, Luke Skywalker. Following the announcement, the Skywalker hoolock gibbon — aka "Simian Skywalker," "Jungle Jedi" and of course, the scientific name, Hoolock tianxing — was warmly and appropriately welcomed by proud actor Mark Hamill, who portrayed Skywalker in the classic films.
Guy Philippe entered the plea Friday morning at a brief hearing to a three-count cocaine smuggling and money-laundering conspiracy indictment dating to 2005 that carries a maximum life prison sentence if he is convicted. A leader of the 2004 coup that toppled then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Philippe had recently been elected to the Haitian Senate and was days away from being sworn in when he was arrested. Supporters who came to the courthouse Friday said Philippe is innocent and blamed his arrest on political foes.
Escorted by police motorcycles and amid the wail of bagpipes, the hearse carrying the body of Detective Steven McDonald arrived Friday at St. Patrick’s Cathedral for the funeral of the officer known for forgiving a teenage gunman who left him paralyzed. Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner James O’Neill joined scores of police officers watched as the hearse pulled up in front of the Manhattan church. McDonald, 59, who suffered a heart attack last week, died at a Long Island hospital on Tuesday.