Author: Sunfire

Mail.com

KIRKLAND, Wash. (AP) — Bill and Melinda Gates, as the world’s top philanthropists, are rethinking their work in America as they confront what they consider their unsatisfactory track record on schools, the country’s growing inequity and a president they disagree with more than any other.

In an interview with The Associated Press, the couple said they’re concerned about President Donald Trump’s “America first” worldview. They’ve made known their differences with the president and his party on issues including foreign aid, taxes and protections for immigrant youth in the country illegally.   Continue reading “Bill, Melinda Gates turn attention toward poverty in America”

RT – by Neil Clark

You’d have to have a real sense of humor failure not to laugh. The news that US billionaire Soros donated £400k to an anti-Brexit group came on the day that YouTube said they found no evidence of Russian interference in Brexit

Repeat After Me (with robotic arm movements): “Unproven Russian involvement in Brexit – terrible! Impose more sanctions on Moscow! A £400k check from an American billionaire for an anti-Brexit campaigning group – that’s no problem; it’s helping our democracy!”   Continue reading “Soros & the £400k Question: What constitutes ‘foreign interference’ in democracy?”

RT

American sailors serving in Yokosuka are being investigated over allegations of selling, buying and using hard drugs while stationed in Japan. The scandal is the latest in a series of incidents involving the US Navy’s 7th Fleet.

“Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) is investigating Yokosuka-based sailors for alleged drug use and distribution,” 7th Fleet spokesman Cmdr. Clay Doss told The Japan Times in an email on Saturday. “The Navy has zero tolerance for drug abuse and takes all allegations involving misconduct of our sailors, Navy civilians and family members very seriously.”   Continue reading “Japan-based US sailors suspected of drug dealing”

Mail.com

CINCINNATI (AP) — An attorney for Richard Spencer said Monday the white nationalist’s plan to speak on the University of Cincinnati campus during spring break has been scuttled by a legal standoff over the Ohio school’s demand for a security fee of nearly $11,000.

Attorney Kyle Bristow told The Associated Press that Spencer’s tour organizer, Cameron Padgett, is now hoping that the appearance can be rescheduled for summer or fall. A message was left Monday for a UC spokesman.   Continue reading “White nationalist’s planned campus visit off”

Mail.com

The ease with which American foreign policy “experts” can suddenly reinvent themselves, switching focus as the DC mood changes, exposes the Washington think tank racket as a giant sham designed to manipulate opinion.

When protests broke out in Iran at the end of 2017, Washington think tanks were ecstatic. They saw an opportunity to push for regime change and they went for it. Almost overnight, all of the self-proclaimed “Syria experts” who spent the last several years arguing for the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Assad shifted their focus to Tehran.   Continue reading “In America, the ‘Syria experts’ have turned into ‘Iran experts’ overnight”

Mail.com

BALTIMORE (AP) — Federal prosecutors and lawyers for one of two Baltimore detectives fighting racketeering and robbery charges have made their closing arguments as a trial winds down in one of the worst U.S. police corruption scandals in recent memory.

The high-profile case is not in the hands of a jury quite yet. Defense attorneys for a second detective who has pleaded not guilty will deliver their final arguments later Thursday, and government prosecutors are set for a rebuttal.   Continue reading “Baltimore police corruption trial: More closing arguments”

Mail.com

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — A wooden box carried an eagle feather and bone whistle, a gourd rattle and a feather fan — items that carry spiritual energy and are used in Native American religious ceremonies.

The man holding the box asked security agents at the San Antonio International Airport to allow him to display the items so their energy wouldn’t be polluted. The agents declined, roughly handling the items and shoving them back in the box, former Native American Church of North America President Sandor Iron Rope alleged.   Continue reading “Airport agents to get training after Native church’s lawsuit”

RT

Billions of viruses fall from the sky every day, according to new research which could explain why genetically identical viruses are often found in very different environments around the world.

In a scientific first, a team of international researchers recorded the number of viruses being swept up daily from the Earth’s surface into the free troposphere – the lowest layer of the atmosphere, in which nearly all weather occurs.  Continue reading “Viruses ‘falling from sky in their billions every day’”

Mail.com

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Investigators believe a homeless man killed his wife in an abandoned restaurant, chopped up her body, stuffed it into a suitcase and then calmly rode with it aboard a train before he burned her remains in a parking lot, Los Angeles police said Tuesday.

After Valentino Gutierrez killed his wife last week in a shuttered restaurant in Pasadena, he dismembered her body, stuffed her remains into a large suitcase and boarded a light-rail train at a nearby station, Deputy Chief Justin Eisenberg said.   Continue reading “Police: Man put dismembered wife in suitcase, set it ablaze”

Mail.com

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Pennsylvania already figured prominently in Democrats’ attempt to win back control of the U.S. House. A decision this week in a long-running redistricting case is set to give those efforts a boost.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene after the state’s high court declared unconstitutional Pennsylvania’s existing House map, which had been heavily gerrymandered by Republicans. A reshuffled map is expected to make several districts friendlier for Democratic candidates in November.  Continue reading “Pennsylvania redistricting decision gives Democrats a boost”

Mail.com

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A Vermont man accused by family members of killing his millionaire grandfather and possibly his mother said several of his relatives are “being driven by malice and greed” and are spreading lies about him.

Nathan Carman has been called a suspect in the 2013 shooting death of 87-year-old real estate developer John Chakalos in Windsor, Connecticut. No one has been arrested. He also has been questioned about the day his boat sank with his mother, Linda Carman, aboard near Rhode Island in 2016. She is presumed dead. He was rescued a week later, after being found floating on a life raft in the Atlantic Ocean.  Continue reading “Vermont man insists he didn’t kill mother, grandfather”

RT

A 38-year-old man from Texas has been sentenced to four consecutive life sentences for repeatedly raping a 3-month-old relative and filming it, after the jury heard horrific accounts of his numerous child abuse cases.

David Vincent Akins Jr. was arrested in 2016 and charged with sexually abusing the 3-month-old girl after videos found on his personal computer revealed persistent abuses of the child who happens to be a family member. The child was repeatedly abused, starting from 2013 until the pornographic videos were unearthed three years later, investigators said.  Continue reading “US man who filmed himself raping 3-month-old baby sentenced to life without parole”

RT

Japan and China have agreed to resume bilateral military education exchanges after a six-year hiatus, Japanese media report. The move comes amid a territorial row in the East China Sea between the two nations.

On Monday, senior Chinese Army officers met with the chairman of Japan’s Sasakawa Peace Foundation in charge of the program, Yohei Sasakawa, in Beijing, according to Japanese media citing an official. The sides also stressed that the move would promote bilateral defense cooperation, Sasakawa said.  Continue reading “Japan & China agree to resume military exchange program after 6yr break – media”

Mail.com

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South African President Jacob Zuma will not give the state of the nation address in parliament this week because of concerns that lawmakers would disrupt the speech, officials said Tuesday, reflecting the weakened state of a leader under intense pressure to resign because of scandals.

The embarrassing decision to postpone Thursday’s speech, a major event in which the president lays out a national agenda, added to the momentum against Zuma, an astute political operator who appeared to be running out of options after years of fending off allegations of wrongdoing.  Continue reading “South Africa’s embattled president won’t give key speech”

RT

A majority of Democrats now have a favorable view of former President George W. Bush — and three times as many Democrats have “a great deal” of trust in the FBI as Republicans do.

Oh, how easily people forget. It would be difficult to find a greater indicator of the fickle nature of politics or the hypocrisy of the party faithful than these two polls.  Continue reading “Democrats love George Bush & the FBI now. What happened?”

RT

A new study from advocacy group Tax Justice Network reveals that Switzerland is the world’s most-corrupt country, with a “high secrecy score of 76.” It’s followed by the US and the Cayman Islands.

“Switzerland is the grandfather of the world’s tax havens, one of the world’s largest offshore financial centers, and one of the world’s biggest secrecy jurisdictions or tax havens,” said the group’s report ‘Financial Secrecy Index — 2018 Results’.  Continue reading “Switzerland & United States are the world’s most corrupt nations – report”

Mail.com

CHICAGO (AP) — Five years after the largest mass closure of public schools in an American city, Chicago is forging ahead with a plan to shutter four more in one of the city’s highest-crime and impoverished areas.

School officials are pitching the new closures around Englewood, a neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side, to make way for a new $85 million school they insist will better serve students and reverse low enrollment. But some parents, students and activists are skeptical, saying they’re still reeling from the 2013 closures and the latest plan will make things worse, including the displacement of hundreds of mostly black and poor teenagers.  Continue reading “After closing record schools, Chicago’s new plan draws fury”

Mail.com

BEIRUT (AP) — The Latest on developments in Syria (all times local): 5:40 p.m. Rebels under siege on the outskirts of Damascus are pounding the Syrian capital with rockets and mortar shells, a barrage that state media says has killed one person and wounded 13.

The SANA news agency said Monday that “armed groups” were firing into Damascus from the eastern Ghouta suburbs, one of the last remaining opposition-held pockets in the capital region. Government forces pounded the suburbs with airstrikes on Monday. Syrian activists say at least 28 people have been killed.   Continue reading “The Latest: Syria rebels shell capital, 1 killed”