ABC News

A Georgia police officer is “fighting for his life” after he was shot while responding to a shoplifting report at a Walmart Monday afternoon, according to local police.

When a suspect exited the Walmart in Covington — about 35 miles east of Atlanta — and started to flee, officer Matt Cooper ran after him, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) and the Covington Police Department.   Continue reading “Officer ‘fighting for his life’ after he’s shot responding to shoplifting report at Georgia Walmart”

Tech Crunch – by Zack Whittaker

A pact of five nation states dedicated to a global “collect it all” surveillance mission has issued a memo calling on their governments to demand tech companies build backdoor access to their users’ encrypted data — or face measures to force companies to comply.

The international pact — the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, known as the so-called “Five Eyes” group of nations — quietly issued the memo last week demanding that providers “create customized solutions, tailored to their individual system architectures that are capable of meeting lawful access requirements.”   Continue reading “‘Five Eyes’ governments call on tech giants to build encryption backdoors — or else”

Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden

With a net worth of over $7 billion, Liu ‘Richard’ Qiangdong, founder and CEO of Chinese e-commerce company JD.com, is China’s 20th richest man.   Continue reading “One Of China’s Richest Men Arrested In Minneapolis For “Criminal Sexual Misconduct””

Fox News

A team of scientists has singled out what it claims left U.S. diplomats in Cuba sickened by mysterious ailments and symptoms in recent months, according to a new report.

Douglas H. Smith, director of the Center for Brain Injury and Repair at the University of Pennsylvania, told The New York Times that microwaves, which can trick the brain into perceiving what seem to be ordinary sounds — known as the Frey effect, named after American scientist Allan H. Frey — most likely caused the trauma.   Continue reading “‘Microwave weapons’ eyed as likely source of mystery ailments for US diplomats in Cuba, scientists say”

Fox News

At least 10 people have been shot in an apartment complex in San Bernardino, Calif., with at least three of the victims in “extremely critical” condition, according to reports.

Police have set up a large perimeter around the crime scene, according to KTVN-TV in Los Angeles.   Continue reading “At least 10 shot at San Bernardino, Calif., apartment complex; 3 victims reported ‘critical’”

Yahoo News

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — More than two dozen MS-13 gang members and affiliates were arrested and charged following a monthslong murder and drug trafficking investigation centered on a rural California farm city that the gang turned into a base for its operations, U.S. and state prosecutors said Friday.

MS-13 took advantage of limited resources in the city of Mendota and used it and other areas of Fresno County to “conduct their crimes, to hide out from crimes that they committed in other jurisdictions and to prepare to commit crimes in states as far away as New York,” Fresno County District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp said at a news conference in Fresno with state and federal officials.   Continue reading “MS-13 gang used California farm town as a base for crime”

Yahoo News

TAOS, N.M. (Reuters) – Five residents of a New Mexico compound were arrested on Friday by the FBI for violating firearms and conspiracy laws in what one of their lawyers described as a “bad development” for the group, who are accused of planning anti-government attacks.

Jany Leveille, 35; Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, 40; Hujrah Wahhaj, 37; Subhanah Wahhaj, 35; and Lucas Morton, 40, were charged in criminal complaints filed in U.S. District Court in New Mexico, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a statement.   Continue reading “FBI arrests New Mexico compound members on new charges”

Yahoo News

MOUNT HOLLY, N.J. (AP) — A couple who raised more than $400,000 for a homeless man after he used his last $20 to fill up the gas tank of a stranded motorist in Philadelphia must now turn over what’s left of the cash.

A New Jersey judge issued the order Thursday during a hearing on the lawsuit brought by Johnny Bobbitt , who worries Mark D’Amico and Katie McClure have mismanaged a large part of the donations raised for him on GoFundMe.   Continue reading “Couple ordered to turn over funds raised for homeless man”

Strategic Culture – by Arkady Savitsky

Around 200,000 US troops are stationed in 177 countries throughout the world. Those forces utilize several hundred military installations. Africa is no exemption. On August 2, Maj. Gen. Roger L. Cloutier took command of US Army Africa, promising to “hit the ground running.”

The US is not waging any wars in Africa but it has a significant presence on the continent. Navy SEALs, Green Berets, and other special ops are currently conducting nearly 100 missions across 20 African countries at any given time, waging secret, limited-scale operations. According to the magazine Vice, US troops are now conducting 3,500 exercises and military engagements throughout Africa per year, an average of 10 per day — an astounding 1,900% increase since the command rolled out 10 years ago. Many activities described as “advise and assist” are actually indistinguishable from combat by any basic definition.   Continue reading “US Military Presence in Africa: All Over Continent and Still Expanding”

The Hill

President Trump on Thursday announced that he would cancel a scheduled 2.1 percent across-the-board pay increase for federal workers, as well as locality pay increases.

“In light of our Nation’s fiscal situation, Federal employee pay must be performance-based, and aligned strategically toward recruiting, retaining, and rewarding high-performing Federal employees and those with critical skill sets,” Trump wrote in a letter to the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate.   Continue reading “Trump nixes federal pay raise”

Yahoo News

Seventeen people have been sickened in four states — with one fatal case in New York — from a salmonella outbreak tied to raw chicken, according to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In a news release posted Wednesday, CDC officials said that eight people had been hospitalized. The states identified in addition to New York were Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia.   Continue reading “17 people sickened in 4 states because of a salmonella outbreak tied to raw chicken: CDC”

Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden

In what may be the most innocent violation to emerge out of Wells Fargo in years, the WSJ reports that Wells has fired or suspended more than a dozen employees in its investment bank and is investigating dozens of others over violations of the company’s expense policy regarding after-hours meals.

According to the report, Wells Fargo employees ranging from analysts to managing directors in New York, San Francisco and Charlotte, doctored receipts on dinners that they charged to the bank.   Continue reading “Wells Fargo Fires Over A Dozen Bankers For Doctoring Expense Receipts”

Yahoo News

The boyfriend of a woman captured on night-vision video ringing a doorbell in the middle of the night while partially-clothed and wearing broken wrist restrains has been found dead, according to police.

The woman herself, 32, has been found safe, according to Texas authorities, after footage surfaced of the “suspicious” incident in Sunrise Ranch, Montgomery.   Continue reading “Boyfriend of woman seen ringing Texas doorbell while wearing wrist restraints found dead”

Engadget – by Rachel England

What’s the definition of “meat”? Once upon a time that would have been an easy enough question to answer, but the advent of meat-substitute products such as the Impossible Burger and the arrival of cultured meat — aka lab-grown meat — has given regulators in Missouri pause for thought. On Tuesday, it became the first state in the US to enact a law stating that the word “meat” cannot be used to sell anything that “is not derived from harvested production livestock or poultry.”

Continue reading “Lab-grown meat is not meat, Missouri state rules”

Nikkei Asian Review

HONG KONG — As Washington and Beijing’s tit-for-tat measures in their ongoing trade war continue to escalate, a major Chinese state-owned energy conglomerate has said it will honor the $83.7 billion shale gas deal agreed with the U.S. state of West Virginia last fall.

Ling Wen, president of China Energy Investment, told reporters on Monday that the contract he signed during U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to China last November was moving ahead as planned. The project was a central part of the $250 billion-worth of deals agreed between the two countries. The size of the West Virginia project, which will last for the next two decades, was more than the state’s gross domestic product last year.   Continue reading “Chinese company recommits to $83.7B West Virginia shale gas deal”

Yahoo News

Cindy Liddick had worked at the AT&T call center in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, for 12 years before it closed earlier this month.

The former customer support specialist is among the more than 16,000 people in the United States who have lost their jobs at the communications giant since 2011, as it continues to shut down call centers to consolidate facilities within the US, or in favor of offshore alternatives in countries such as India, the Philippines and Mexico.   Continue reading “‘They’re liquidating us’: AT&T continues layoffs and outsourcing despite profits”

Yahoo News

KAUBER, West Bank (Reuters) – The Israeli military on Tuesday demolished the family home of a Palestinian teenager in the occupied West Bank who killed an Israeli in a Jewish settlement a month ago and was shot dead in the attack.

Footage distributed by the military showed an armoured bulldozer tearing into the one-storey structure in the village of Kauber, north of the Palestinian city of Ramallah.   Continue reading “Israel demolishes family home of Palestinian attacker”

Yahoo News

NEW YORK (AP) — The Kushner family real estate company was fined $210,000 by New York City regulators on Monday following an Associated Press investigation earlier this year that showed it routinely filed false documents with the city claiming it had no rent-regulated tenants in its buildings when, in fact, it had hundreds.

Separately, a watchdog group said Monday that former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen has engaged in the same practice, perhaps in a more brazen way, by telling the city that buildings he owned were empty, though tax records showed they were filled with tenants, many rent-regulated.   Continue reading “Kushner Cos. fined $210K by New York for false documents”

Yahoo News

WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) — Gun control advocates, including one of the survivors of the Parkland, Florida, school shooting and the parents of one of the victims, are marching 50 miles (80 kilometers) across Massachusetts this week to the headquarters of gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson as part of a youth-led push for stricter gun laws.

About 40 students and supporters set off from downtown Worcester in central Massachusetts on Thursday morning holding signs denouncing gun violence and chanting slogans criticizing gun makers and the National Rifle Association. They’re destined for Smith & Wesson’s headquarters in Springfield, where they’ll hold a large demonstration Sunday.   Continue reading “Gun control activists marching 50 miles to Smith & Wesson HQ”

Truth About Guns – by Dean Weingarten

In 2016, anti-Second Amendment zealot Michael Bloomberg was able to place Question 1 on the ballot in Nevada. The ballot initiative passed and mandated universal background checks in the state, covering even private party firearms sales.

Supporters of the Bloomberg initiative laid out over $18 million in support of the measure, outspending the opposition three to one. And that total doesn’t include money spent to put the initiative on the ballot. Despite the huge cash outlay, the measure only narrowly passed 558,631 for to 548,732 against.    Continue reading “Nevada Universal Background Check Proponents Lose Case in Court”