Author: Admin

CBS News

LOS ANGELES —  Vandenberg Air Force Base in Central California is preparing to launch a missile designed to shoot down an incoming warhead.

CBS Los Angeles reports a Ground-based Interceptor, which is scheduled to be launched between noon and 4 p.m. Tuesday, is part of a missile defense test, according to the Air Force base.

The goal of the unprecedented launch is to simulate a North Korean ICBM aimed at the U.S. homeland, officials said last week.   Continue reading “U.S. Air Force base prepares unprecedented missile launch”

PerthNow – by Nick Evans

It is understood Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop and Justice Minister Michael Keenan will present plans to the coalition party room today to permanently bar Australia’s 20,000 registered child sex offenders from travelling overseas, with legislation likely to go before Parliament by June.   Continue reading “Australian paedophiles face international travel ban”

Texas Tribune – by Matthew Watkins, Alexa Ura, Julián Aguilar

The normally ceremonial last day of the legislative session briefly descended into chaos on Monday, as proceedings in the House were disrupted by large protests and at least one Republican lawmaker called immigration authorities on the protesters.

State Rep. Matt Rinaldi, R-Irving, said he called U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement while hundreds of people dressed in red T-shirts unfurled banners and chanted in opposition to the state’s new sanctuary cities law. His action enraged Hispanic legislators nearby, leading to a tussle in which each side accused the other of threats and violence.   Continue reading “Republican lawmaker: I called immigration authorities on Capitol protesters”

Washington Post – by Derek Hawkins

The mayor of Portland, Ore., is calling on federal authorities to cancel a pair of upcoming rallies organized by conservative groups, saying the city was still “in shock” after two men were fatally stabbed on a commuter train Friday while fending off a man shouting anti-Muslim slurs.

Mayor Ted Wheeler asked the federal government to revoke a permit authorizing a June 4 “Trump Free Speech Rally” in Portland’s downtown. He also called on the government to block a “March Against Sharia” that is scheduled for June 10 but has not received permits.  Continue reading “Portland mayor asks feds to bar free-speech and anti-sharia rallies after stabbings”

Reuters

Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, who spied for the United States before his drug trafficking and brutality triggered a U.S. invasion to oust him in 1989, has died aged 83.

President Juan Carlos Varela announced Noriega’s death on Twitter late on Monday, and said his passing marked the closing of a chapter in the Central American country’s history.  Continue reading “Panama dictator Noriega, ousted in U.S. invasion, dies at 83”

UPI – by Danielle Haynes

May 29 (UPI) — A volcano an Alaska’s Aleutian island chain erupted, sending a plume of ash at least 35,000 feet in the air and prompting a temporary aviation alert, state officials said.

The Alaska Volcano Observatory recorded a “significant explosive eruption” starting at 2:16 p.m. Sunday. Bogoslof Volcano, located on the island of the same name, may have sent ash up to 45,000 feet into the air.   Continue reading “Alaskan volcano erupts, sending ash 35,000 feet into air”

NOLA – by Chelsea Brasted

Baltimore could be the next city to remove Confederate monuments from public view, according to The Baltimore Sun.

Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh told the newspaper she’s looking into what it would take to remove the Confederate symbols, a move that was first considered by the city’s former mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who left office in 2016.    Continue reading “Baltimore considers Confederate monument removal ‘in the footsteps of New Orleans’: report”

Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden

Iran signed an agreement with Russia under which it has broken free from the petrodollar, and will “sell”, or rather barter crude oil to Russia in exchange for products. The announcement was made by Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh, as reported by Russia’s RIA and TASS news agencies.

“The deal has been concluded. We are just waiting for the implementation from the Russian side. We have no difficulties; we signed the contract, everything is coordinated between the parties. We are waiting for Russian oil companies to send tankers,” he said, as quoted by Russian news agencies. While sanctions against Iran have been lifted, restrictions on trade in US dollars for the country’s banks remain, making it difficult to sell oil on the open market.   Continue reading “Russia And Iran Sign Oil-For-Goods Barter Deal; Escape Petrodollar”

Washington Post – by Cleve R. Wootson Jr.

Cody Xiong cracked open his door, saw the investigator on his porch and ‘fessed up, authorities say.

“I guess,” Xiong said, “you are here for the opium.”

The investigator wasn’t. But suddenly, he was intrigued.

What followed was a massive opium bust, based entirely on a North Carolina poppy grower who thought prematurely that the jig was up.   Continue reading “‘I guess you are here for the opium’: Investigator stumbles across $500 million in poppy plants”

Star Tribune – by Andy Mannix

An inmate being transported from a Minnesota Correctional Facility-St. Cloud to the prison in Lino Lakes hijacked a white transport van full of other prisoners and escaped this morning, authorities said.

The escape occurred just before 11 a.m. Nine have now been taken into custody. One is still at large, James Douglas Mitchell, 26, who is serving prison for felony assault, said Sarah Fitzgerald, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections. Mitchell was last seen wearing standard prison garb: blue jeans, a white t-shirt and blue button-down shirt.   Continue reading “Inmate hijacks van full of Lino Lakes prisoners and escapes”

KTLA 5 News

Virginia Democrat Sen. Tim Kaine and Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake are trying once again to get Congress to debate and vote on authorizing military action against ISIS.

The senators on Thursday unveiled a new Authorization for Use of Military Force against ISIS, al Qaeda and the Taliban, their second attempt to prod their colleagues to formally vote on the military effort.   Continue reading “Senators to Introduce Bill Seeking Authorization of Military Force Against Terror Groups”

Reuters

Leaders from the world’s major industrialized nations began talks on Friday at a G7 summit in Sicily which is expected to expose deep divisions with U.S. President Donald Trump over trade and climate change.

The two-day summit, at a cliff-top hotel overlooking the Mediterranean, began a day after Trump blasted NATO allies for spending too little on defense and described Germany’s trade surplus as “very bad” in a meeting with EU officials in Brussels.   Continue reading “Trump and other leaders clash on trade, climate at G7”

Breitbart – by Ryan Saavedra

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said that a whistleblower turned over documents that showed more than a dozen apprehended illegal alien teenagers–who admitted to being MS-13 members–were released by the Obama Administration to homes throughout the United States.

According to the report from The Washington Times, the Obama Administration knowingly let in at least 16 admitted MS-13 gang members in 2014, all of whom entered the U.S. as teenagers.   Continue reading “Obama Let in Admitted MS-13 Members, Whistleblower Says”

BBC News

Gunmen have attacked a bus carrying Coptic Christians in central Egypt, killing at least 23 people and wounding 25 others, state media report.

The bus was heading towards the Monastery of St Samuel the Confessor in Minya province, about 220km (140 miles) south Cairo, when it came under fire.   Continue reading “Egypt Coptic Christians killed in bus attack”

NPR

Republican Greg Gianforte won the special election for Montana’s lone congressional seat on Thursday despite an election eve misdemeanor assault charge for allegedly body-slamming a reporter.

Gianforte had been silent in the wake of the allegations, with his campaign only releasing a statement claiming that The Guardian‘s Ben Jacobs had been the aggressor. But speaking at his victory party in Bozeman shortly after the race was called, Gianforte admitted he was in the wrong and offered an apology to Jacobs.   Continue reading “Republican Gianforte Wins Montana House Race Amid Assault Charge”

The Hill – by Ellen Mitchell

A U.S. destroyer used a “maneuvering drill” near Chinese-built islands in the South China Sea to send a message about territorial claims on the water around them, Reuters reported Thursday.

U.S. officials told Reuters that the USS Dewey “engaged in normal operations” by conducting a “man overboard” exercise within 12 nautical miles of Mischief Reef, which houses the Spratly Islands, an area that China and its neighbors have fought over.    Continue reading “US warship drill challenges China’s sea territory claims: report”

The Hill – by Max Greenwood

President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner has reportedly come under scrutiny in the FBI’s investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

The FBI’s focus on Kushner does not necessarily mean he is suspected of a crime, nor is he considered a subject of the bureau’s wider Russia probe, like former national security adviser Michael Flynn, NBC News reported.   Continue reading “Jared Kushner under FBI scrutiny in Russia probe: reports”