From the Trenches World Report
Enforce our Bill of Rights
The Israeli parliament has approved a law empowering the country’s prime minister and defense minister to declare war without full Cabinet approval in “extreme circumstances.”
While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a presentation showcasing intelligence on Iran’s nuclear program on live television, his coalition quietly pushed through a bill on Monday expanding his authority to order military operations. Continue reading “Israel’s parliament approves bill allowing PM to declare war”
NORTH HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — A barn behind a house in Connecticut exploded Wednesday night while police and a SWAT team were negotiating with a man who had taken his wife hostage, leaving seven people including at least six officers injured, officials said.
The officers were taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries after the explosion around 8:30 p.m., North Haven First Selectman Michael Freda said. Continue reading “Officers injured after explosion at barricade scene”
A C-130 military cargo plane crashed Wednesday in Port Wentworth, Georgia, killing all five passengers on board.
A spokeswoman for the Port Wentworth Fire Department said a call came out and “everyone scrambled” to the scene. She could see black smoke “pouring” into the sky from her location, she said.
Continue reading “5 Dead After C-130 Military Cargo Plane Crashes In Georgia”
NEW YORK (AP) — The first death has been reported in a national food poisoning outbreak linked to romaine lettuce.
The death was reported in California, but state and federal health officials did not immediately provide any other details. Continue reading “1st death reported in romaine lettuce E. coli outbreak”
Residents in a central Florida neighborhood have been forced to evacuate due to massive sinkholes that have formed over the last week.
At least a dozen sinkholes have been reported in the Wynchase neighborhood of Ocala, Florida, about 80 miles northwest of Orlando, according to local media reports. The holes have been forming around a retention pond. Continue reading “Residents in Florida neighborhood evacuated due to massive sinkholes”
Las Vegas police have finally released partial footage from police body cameras that showed officers nearing the hotel room where gunman Stephen Paddock unleashed a hail of gunfire on concert-goers last October.
The video released on Wednesday comes from officers Sgt. Joshua Bitsko and David Newton, the Las Vegas Journal-Review reported. The first officer to enter the room, Levi Hancock, did not activate his body camera, for reasons that remain unknown to investigators. Continue reading “Police release body cam footage from Las Vegas Massacre”
North Korea has released three U.S. citizens from years-long detentions in a suspected labor camp, giving them medical treatment and “ideological education” at a hotel near Pyongyang, says human rights advocate Choi Sung-ryong, as reported by the Financial Times. Continue reading “North Korea Releases US Prisoners Ahead Of Historic Trump Summit”
Garden City, Georgia, law enforcement officials are sharing reports of a plane crash at Georgia Highway 21 before noon on Wednesday.
Chatham County EMS confirmed that the plane crashed at the intersection of the highway and Crossgate Road and that roads will be shut down.
Garden City Police Department said sections of Highway 21, Highway 25 and side roads in the area will be shut down. Drivers are asked to avoid the area. Continue reading “Military plane crashes in Savannah area”
Texas Tribune – by Emma Platoff
Following through on a months-old promise, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit Tuesday to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, leading a seven-state coalition against an Obama-era immigration measure that protects hundreds of thousands of immigrants nationwide from deportation, including more than 120,000 in Texas.
Paxton first threatened in June 2017 to sue over the program if President Donald Trump’s administration had not ended it by September. After federal court rulings blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to end the program, Paxton wrote in January that he would consider filing suit if DACA still stood in June. Continue reading “Texas and 6 other states sue to end DACA”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday revealed a cache of files he claims were obtained from Iran and prove Tehran ran a secret program to build nuclear weapons.
Iranian leaders have long said their nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes. But Netanyahu on Monday revealed tens of thousands of pages of documents, which he said were copied from a “highly secret location” in Iran. Continue reading “Netanyahu: Iran had secret ‘Project Amad’ to design, produce and test warheads”
U.S. immigration officials said Sunday that the San Diego border crossing where hundreds of Central American immigrants intended to apply for asylum was closed due to high capacity — but many of the asylum-seekers were preparing to wait overnight.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said earlier Sunday that the agency “reached capacity at the San Ysidro port of entry for CBP officers to be able to bring additional persons traveling without appropriate entry documentation into the port of entry for processing.” Continue reading “Caravan asylum-seekers heading toward showdown as US officials say border crossing is full”
WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (NBC) — President Donald Trump said Saturday that he would let more guest workers into the U.S. to help farmers whom he said may suffer “a little pain for a little while” because of his own efforts to renegotiate trade deals with several foreign partners.
“For the farmers, OK, it’s going to get good,” he said during a political rally about a 45-minute drive north of Detroit. “We’re going to let your guest workers come in.” Continue reading “Trump: ‘We’re going to let your guest workers come in’ in appeal to farmers”
On Saturday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan sharply criticized the United States Armed Forces and its N.A.T.O. (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) allies for supplying weapons to Kurdish militias in Syria for free, while refusing to sell defense hardware to Turkey.
“We cannot buy weapons from the US with our money, but unfortunately, the US and coalition forces give these weapons, this ammunition, to terrorist organizations for free,” Erdoğan stated in an interview on Turkish NTV news channel.
Metro police announced Monday afternoon that Travis Reinking, the suspect in a deadly shooting at an Antioch Waffle House, had been arrested.
Police announced Reinking had been arrested in a “wooded area” near Old Hickory Boulevard and Hobson Pike. Police photos from the scene showed Reinking being loaded into a car wearing a torn maroon T shirt with scratches on his exposed shoulders. Continue reading “Travis Reinking manhunt: Police say Waffle House shooting suspect is in custody”
Authorities launched a manhunt for a gunman after at least four people were killed and several others were injured early Sunday in a shooting at a Tennessee Waffle House, police said.
The alleged gunman, Travis Reinking, 29, began shooting at patrons around 3:25 a.m. Sunday at the Waffle House, located about 16 miles southeast of downtown Nashville, before fleeing the scene, Metro Nashville police said. Authorities had initially identified Reinking as a person of interest, but later said the 29-year-old was a suspect. Continue reading “Waffle House shooting leaves 4 dead, several injured; gunman sought”
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is levying a $1 billion fine against Wells Fargo — a record for the agency — as punishment for the banking giant’s actions in its mortgage and auto loan businesses.
Wells Fargo’s “conduct caused and was likely to cause substantial injury to consumers,” the agency said in its filings about the bank. Continue reading “Wells Fargo Hit With $1 Billion In Fines Over Home And Auto Loan Abuses”
A new study from the National Foundation for American Policy, shows that U.S. tech companies are relying more on skilled foreign workers using H-1B visas, while Indian outsourcing firms are losing their previous stronghold in the area.
According to the study, four U.S. tech companies – Amazon, Microsoft, Intel, and Google – were among the top 10 employers for approved H-1B applications in FY 2017 (which ended September 30), and they all saw increases of more than 10 percent from the previous year.
Continue reading “Big American tech companies are snapping up foreign-worker visas, replacing Indian outsourcing firms”
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — President Donald Trump has given his “blessing” for North and South Korea to discuss the end of the Korean War amid a diplomatic push to end the North Korean nuclear standoff. One problem: There can be no real talks without the involvement of the other countries that fought the 1950-53 war, and especially the United States.
The reason is that South Korea wasn’t a direct signatory to the armistice that stopped the fighting but left the Korean Peninsula still technically in a state of war. Continue reading “South and North Korea are talking about peace — But to end the war they need the US and China”
Times have been hard for Wall Street banks lately, what with record amounts of cash pouring in and causing all kinds of bookkeeping headaches. So — big-hearted people that we are — Americans stepped up and helped by lowering the banks’ taxes. From Today’s Wall Street Journal: Continue reading “No (Wall Street) Bank Left Behind!”
A Georgia deputy was injured Tuesday night after being stabbed in a sheriff’s office restroom by a man who authorities say became hostile before eventually being fatally shot by another deputy.
The unidentified man came to the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office around 10:30 p.m. looking for some help, and deputies let him inside the building and gave him water, investigators told FOX5 Atlanta. Continue reading “Georgia deputy stabbed in sheriff’s office restroom, suspect shot dead, officials say”