Fifth N.Y.P.D. Officer Since June Dies by Suicide, Police Say

By MIHIR ZAVERI from NYT New York https://ift.tt/2K08BBb

Migration deal with US meets mixed reactions in Guatemala

US President Donald Trump, who has pushed hard to slow the flow of migrants, said Friday that the "safe third country asylum" agreement would require would-be asylum seekers traveling through Guatemala to seek refuge there, not in the United States. Anyone failing to do so would be sent back to Guatemala.

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Two dogs escape animal shelter and kill 29 cats in Alabama

Two pitbull dogs broke free from their cages at an Alabama animal shelter and mauled 29 cats to death. Workers at the Dothan Animal Shelter found the dead cats on Thursday morning, local media reported.Shelter director Bill Banks told television outlet WTVY that it appeared the two dogs had forced their way out of their cages and pushed against the fence of the cat area to get inside. City mayor Mark Saliba told CNN the incident would be investigated."Unfortunately, tragic events sometimes fuel us to push things forward a little bit faster,” he said. “I’m thinking this will do just that.""We are all saddened and surprised by the event that took place," Mr Saliba said. "The safety of our animals is the top priority at the shelter."Officials told local media the dogs were subsequently captured, but did not say whether the dogs would be killed.Members of the public have taken to social media to express their anger at what happened, with many calling for an investigation into the shelter.

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Tennessee inmate declines to choose execution method

A Tennessee death row inmate has declined to choose the method of his execution scheduled for mid-August, a non-decision that would result in his death by lethal injection. Tennessee Department of Correction spokeswoman Neysa Taylor confirmed in an email Friday that Stephen West declined to pick his method of execution when given the opportunity. Four inmates have been executed in Tennessee since August 2018.

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Trump Supports Labeling Antifa A ‘Major Organization Of Terror’

President Donald Trump lent support to labeling Antifa a terrorist organization Saturday, calling the group a collection of “gutless Radical Left Wack Jobs.”“Consideration is being given to declaring ANTIFA, the gutless Radical Left Wack Jobs who go around hitting (only non-fighters) people over the heads with baseball bats, a major Organization of Terror (along with MS-13 & others),” Trump wrote. “Would make it easier for police to do their job!”It is unclear what prompted Trump’s remarks, but he appeared to refer to a resolution proposed earlier this month by Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy to label Antifa a terrorist group.“Antifa is a terrorist organization composed of hateful, intolerant radicals who pursue their extreme agenda through aggressive violence,” Cruz said when announcing the resolution July 19.Cruz and Cassidy were responding to the Antifa attack on journalist Andy Ngo at a protest in Portland June 29. Ngo, an editor for Quillette who has tracked the Antifa movement, had his camera equipment stolen and was bloodied and bruised in the attack, which was caught on film. Ngo also said he suffered a head injury.Cruz was assailed by members of the Washington, D.C., chapter of Antifa at a restaurant last September. After chasing him and his wife out of the restaurant, the group’s Twitter account sent the Republican a message warning that he was “not safe.”

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US Navy Seals platoon sent home from Iraq for drinking alcohol as sexual assault allegations investigated

The commander of a US Special Operations task force in Iraq has sent home a platoon of Navy SEALs for drinking while deployed after an alleged sexual assault by one of them, US defence officials said, the latest discipline incident that has emerged for an elite force relied upon heavily by the Pentagon.US Special Operations Command said in a statement on Wednesday night that the platoon was forced out early to San Diego by the commander of the task force, Major General Eric Hill, “due to a perceived deterioration of good order and discipline within the team during non-operational periods” of their deployment.“The Commander lost confidence in the team’s ability to accomplish the mission,” the statement said. “Commanders have worked to mitigate the operational impact as this SEAL platoon follows a deliberate redeployment.”The statement did not say what led to the decision, but a defence official with knowledge of the situation said that a female service member working with their platoon reported being sexually assaulted by one of the SEALs during the Fourth of July holiday weekend.The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation, said the report triggered scrutiny of the platoon, including drinking while deployed.The SEALs declined to cooperate with investigators, prompting Maj Gen Hill to send them home for both that and the alcohol use, the official said. The reported assault was first reported on Thursday by the New York Times.A second person, a senior US Navy official, said on Thursday that he was aware of alleged sexual misconduct being a part of the case, but was not sure if an assault had been reported.The officials said that the SEALs involved violated General Order No. 1, which bans alcohol use while deployed.The SEALs were members of SEAL Team 7, which has headquarters in San Diego when not deployed, one of the defence officials said.The defence official familiar with the sexual assault report said that the Naval Criminal Investigative Service is overseeing the sexual assault case, while other military officials investigate administratively the culture and actions in the unit.Commander Tamara Lawrence, a spokeswoman for Naval Special Warfare Command, said in a statement on Wednesday night that her unit is “actively reinforcing” with the entire force “basic leadership, readiness, responsibility and ethical principles that must form the foundation of special operations”.“Leaders at all levels must lead in a way that sustains and sharpens that foundation,” she said. “Discipline is a competitive advantage, and enforcing those standards is critical to our success on the battlefield.”The disclosure by the military comes two days after the independent Navy Times reported that six members of SEAL Team 10 in Virginia Beach tested positive last year for cocaine use.Some of them had masked their use of it in previous tests, some of the SEALs told investigators, Navy Times reported.The Iraq incident also comes after Navy SEALs were implicated in the death of Army Staff Sergeant Logan Melgar, a Special Forces soldier who was strangled in Mali in June 2017.Two members of SEAL Team 6 – Chief Special Warfare Operator Adam Matthews and Chief Special Warfare Operator Anthony DeDolph – and two Marine Raiders were charged with murder.Mr Matthews and one of the Marines, Staff Sergeant Kevin Maxwell, have pleaded guilty to lesser charges, and testified that Mr Melgar was accidentally killed in what the military has called a hazing incident involving alcohol.Another SEAL, Chief Special Warfare Operator Edward Gallagher, recently faced court-martial on war-crimes charges that included murder.He was acquitted of the most serious charges but was convicted of posing for an unlawful photo with the remains of an Isis fighter.The government’s case against him fell apart after another SEAL who was offered immunity from prosecution to testify said under oath that he, not Mr Gallagher, had been the one who killed a wounded Isis fighter.Washington Post

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Ex-UK finance minister, Labour plot ways to block no-deal Brexit: paper

Former British finance minister Philip Hammond, who quit the government last week before Boris Johnson took over as prime minister, has held secret talks with the opposition Labour Party about how to stop a no-deal Brexit, a newspaper said. Hammond, who has long opposed leaving the European Union without a transition deal to soften the economic shock, met Labour's top Brexit official, Kier Starmer, shortly after he quit the government, the Observer said. The newspaper said Hammond and Starmer agreed to work with other senior lawmakers including former Conservative minister Oliver Letwin to thrash out how best to use parliamentary votes to torpedo a no-deal outcome.

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Gunmen dressed as police steal £24 million of gold destined for New York and Zurich from Sao Paulo airport

Eight armed men carried out a sophisticated heist at Sao Paulo's main international airport and managed to escape with some 750 kilos of precious metals, airport authorities said Thursday. GRU Airport, which holds the Guarulhos operation concession, said the thieves hauled away gold destined for Zurich and New York by using two cars that looked like police patrol vehicles. They also dressed as officers, covered their faces and carried long weapons before making their getaway, according to security camera footage shown on Globo TV. The television outlet said the vehicles were later abandoned in Jardim Pantanal, a neighborhood located 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the airport. The operator said there were no shootings or injuries during the assault. But a police officer said an airport official and eight members of his extended family, including four minors, had been kidnapped for 12 hours. They were expected to give testimony in the next few hours, he added. The officer requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press. Sao Paulo police said they had reinforced surveillance around the area and were searching for the stolen cargo. GRU Airport said flights continue to operate normally.

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Iran ships stranded in Brazil are set to depart: officials

Two Iranian ships stranded off the coast of Brazil for weeks were setting sail Saturday, officials said, after a court ordered state oil giant Petrobras to fuel up the vessels. The bulk carriers had been stuck at Paranagua port in the southern state of Parana since early last month after Petrobras refused to provide fuel for fear of breaching US sanctions on Iran. The ships dragged Brazil into a global standoff which has seen rising tensions and fears of a military clash involving Tehran and Washington, which imposed a raft of punitive measures on Iran and companies with ties to the Islamic republic.

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You Might Not Get $125 From Equifax After All

You may receive a much smaller chunk of change

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Trump says he does not blame Turkey for buying Russian air defense system

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he does not blame Turkey for buying a Russian missile defense system, which prompted his administration to remove the NATO ally from the F-35 fighter jet program. Trump, who was speaking to reporters at the White House, did not say when he would decide on imposing sanctions on Turkey for doing business with the Russian military, as required by a 2017 U.S. sanctions law. "We're looking at the whole Turkey situation," Trump said.

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2020 presidential candidate Kamala Harris introduces a plan to invest $60 billion in historically black colleges

Democratic presidential hopeful Kamala Harris will unveil a plan on Friday to invest $60 billion in historically black colleges and universities if elected, the latest effort by the U.S. senator from California to reach out to black voters.

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9 campus officers fired for sexist, racist posts, historically black university says

Hampton University said in a statement that it fired the officers over “egregious violations" of the university's code of conduct.

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Son of Iraq's late Yazidi prince takes over as leader

Baghdad (AFP) - Hazem Tahsin Bek on Saturday succeeded his late father as prince of the Yazidi religious minority that was brutalised by the Islamic State group in northern Iraq.

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Sweden rebuffs Trump over US rapper charges, saying courts independent

Sweden on Friday dismissed an angry outburst from U.S. President Donald Trump after prosecutors charged U.S. rapper A$AP Rocky with assault, saying the country's judicial system was independent of political interference. Best known for his song "Praise the Lord", the 30-year-old performer, producer and model, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, was detained about three weeks ago following a street altercation with two men in Stockholm on June 30. Trump added: "We do so much for Sweden but it doesn't seem to work the other way around.

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Why Democrats Are Further Away From Impeachment Than Ever

On Friday afternoon House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) filed a petition to obtain secret grand jury information currently redacted from the Mueller Report. With articles of impeachment under consideration, this informational probe is “in effect” the same as an impeachment inquiry, according to Nadler, who also called the information “critically important.” Next week Nadler is also expected to file a lawsuit to attempt to enforce a subpoena against former White House counsel Donald McGahn. But how significant are Nadler’s moves now that special counsel Robert Mueller’s testimony on Capitol Hill is widely acknowledged to have fizzled, left-wing activists such as billionaire and Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer are turning their attention back to climate change—and Congress is heading toward a six-week-long recess?Fred Wertheimer, a veteran ethics activist and president of Democracy 21, believes Nadler’s move is only a cosmetic change to reflect changing party sentiments. “That’s what they’ve been doing since March. When they announced they would investigate three areas regarding the president: obstruction of justice, public corruption, and abuses of power. They have had articles of impeachment pending referred to the committee months and months ago . . . the investigation they have been conducting since March is the equivalent of an inquiry into whether they should consider impeachment,” he told the National Interest.

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UPDATE 1-Eight killed in quake, aftershocks in Philippines, 60 injured - agency

An earthquake and aftershocks struck islands off the north of the Philippines on Saturday killing eight people and injuring 60, disaster officials said. An initial quake of magnitude 5.4 that struck the Batanes islands was followed shortly by an aftershock of magnitude 5.9, according to Philippine government data. Another big aftershock struck a little later.

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Moscow police arrest hundreds at rally for fair elections

Russian police arrested more than 300 people as they gathered in Moscow on Saturday to demand free and fair elections, a monitor said, following a crackdown on the opposition. The rally comes a week after the capital's biggest demonstration in years, when some 22,000 people protested the authorities' decision to block opposition candidates from standing for the city council in September. Investigators raided the homes and headquarters of several disqualified candidates in the run-up to the fresh rally on Saturday.

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Mueller’s Testimony: A Complete Disaster for Liberals

If Democrats believed that Robert Mueller would provide them with additional ammunition for an impeachment inquiry, they made an extraordinary miscalculation.Not only was Mueller often flustered and unprepared to talk about his own report—we now have to wonder to what extent he was even involved in the day-to-day work of the investigation—but he was needlessly evasive. In the end, he seriously undermined the central case for impeachment of President Donald Trump.The very first Republican to question him, House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Rep. Doug Collins, forced Mueller to correct his own opening statement. In it, the former FBI director had asserted that the independent counsel “did not address collusion, which is not a legal term.”Stressing the difference between the criminal conspiracy and the colloquial “collusion” is a popular way of obscuring the fact that the central conspiracy pushed by Democrats, one that plunged the nation into two years of hysterics and fantasy, had been debunked by Mueller.Moreover, as Collins pointed out, Mueller’s own report stated that “collusion” and criminal conspiracy were basically “largely synonymous.”When asked to explain this contradiction, Mueller stammered for a few minutes before saying he would “leave it with the report.” Collins pointed out that, yes, the report stated that the terms “collusion” and “conspiracy” were synonymous, Mueller was forced to admit, “Yes.”It didn’t get better from there. Mueller didn’t know where some of the most infamous quotes in his own report had emanated. He claimed to be unfamiliar with Fusion GPS and Christopher Steele, the Clinton—and DNC—funded contractors who originated and then propelled the Trump-Russian collusion theory.

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Massive manhunt in Canadian wilderness for teen murder suspects

Two teen triple murder suspects on the run in the central Canadian wilderness -- perhaps holed up in thick, insect-infested forest inhabited by wolves and bears,-- were staying one step ahead of a massive police manhunt Friday. Since Tuesday, the village of Gillam near Hudson Bay has been on the alert for Kam McLeod, 19, and Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, who are wanted for three murders. The fugitives wound up near the Manitoba province village located 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) north of Winnipeg after an epic 2,000-mile chase across three provinces that began in British Columbia, on the Pacific coast, where their three victims were discovered earlier this month.

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The Secret History of Washing Machines

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Student group says Harvard failed to address racist messages

An association of black students at Harvard Law School says the university "woefully failed to act" after four students received offensive emails and text messages from an anonymous sender. The Harvard Black Law Students Association issued a statement on Friday criticizing the school after it was unable to determine who sent the "hateful, racist and sexist" messages, and after officials refused to share details of an investigation with students who received the messages. Harvard officials say the case was investigated by university police, information technology officials and an outside law firm hired by the school, but they have been unable to determine who was behind the messages.

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CORRECTED-WIDER IMAGE-Reuters photo captures Guatemalan mother begging soldier to let her enter U.S.

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