From the Trenches World Report
Enforce our Bill of Rights
The Bloomberg Barclays Global Aggregate Total Return Index slid four percent last month, losing $1.7 trillion, the biggest fall since its launch in 1990. Some investors are dumping low-yield bonds and turning to stocks.
The main reason for that was Donald Trump winning the US presidential election, as speculators expect him to cut taxes and invest $1 trillion in infrastructure projects. Continue reading “Trump presidency may mean 30-yr bond rally about to end”
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — A second fugitive inmate who escaped last week from a county jail in California by rappelling down with a bedsheet was re-arrested Wednesday night, after a seven-hour standoff with police.
Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith said Rogelio Chavez was taken into custody at the house of an associate in San Jose. Video of the scene showed a man in handcuffs being led out of the house by at least six officers. Continue reading “2nd California fugitive inmate arrested after standoff”
SEATTLE (AP) — The suspect in the fatal shooting of a Tacoma officer has been shot and killed by police after a lengthy barricade situation, authorities said early Thursday. Pierce County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Ed Troyer says the suspect was shot at approximately 3:30 a.m. Thursday, ending an 11-hour standoff. The suspect has not been identified.
Troyer said the suspect refused to surrender during negotiations with officials, and that the man was using two children as human shields. Troyer says a girl and a boy, found unharmed, were taken from the house. He said multiple weapons were found in the house. Continue reading “Police: Suspect in Tacoma officer’s death shot and killed”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has approved extending the Trans Mountain pipeline, which may help Canada become the largest oil producer in the Americas.
The pipeline aims to move crude from central Alberta to the Pacific coast. The expansion would triple its initial capacity up to 890,000 barrels per day (bpd) from the current 300,000 barrels.
The project will cost Can$6.8 billion ($5 billion) and is expected to open the Asian market to crude exports from Canadian oil sands. Continue reading “Canada expands controversial oil pipeline to Pacific”
Congress has managed to finalize a $618.7 billion defense bill for the 2017 fiscal year, boosting it with an extra $3.2 billion for manpower, while stripping extra ships and jets. Requirements for women to register for the draft are also gone from the bill.
After months of negotiations, both legislative chambers have reached an accord on the new National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which is set to come to a final floor vote in the House this week and in the Senate next week. Continue reading “Military draft for women among dropped ideas in compromise 2017 defense bill”
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — For a half-century after the deadliest submarine disaster in U.S. history, Navy Capt. Paul “Bud” Rogers struggled with feelings that it should have been him — and not his last-minute replacement — on the doomed voyage of the USS Thresher in which 129 men died.
This week, at his family’s request, a Navy submarine is bringing his cremated remains to be buried at sea near the Thresher’s wreckage some 200 miles off Cape Cod, Massachusetts. “I’m just so happy. I feel like my husband will be at peace,” said his widow, Barbara Rogers, 86, of Wernersville, Pennsylvania. “He felt he should have gone down with the Thresher.” Continue reading “Navy to scatter vet’s ashes near site of 1963 sub sinking”
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — The judge in the murder trial of a white former patrolman who fatally shot a black motorist decided Wednesday to let the jury consider a lesser charge of manslaughter, meaning prosecutors won’t have to prove the officer acted out of malice when he shot the fleeing man in the back.
Michael Slager is charged in the April 2015 shooting death of Walter Scott, who fled from a traffic stop and resisted arrest. The final moments of their encounter were captured on a bystander’s cellphone video that shocked the nation. Continue reading “Judge allows manslaughter in fired officer’s murder trial”
At least seven members of Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte’s security team were injured in a roadside bombing by suspected Muslim militants. The attack comes ahead of Duterte’s visit to an area of intense battles between Islamists and government troops.
An explosive device planted along the road detonated when the presidential convoy headed to Marawi, the capital of Lanao del Sur province on the island of Mindanao, the second-largest island of the Philippines. Continue reading “Philippines President Duterte’s advance security team bombed in volatile region”
A small Iranian vessel pointed a gun at a US Navy helicopter in the Straits of Hormuz, Pentagon officials said. The incident, which took place in international waters, is likely to exacerbate the mutual animosity between the two countries’ militaries.
The encounter took place in the Straits of Hormuz when a US Navy MH-60 helicopter flew within half a mile (0.8km) of two Iranian ships in international waters, two American defense officials told Reuters on Monday. Continue reading “Iranian ship aims gun at US Navy helicopter in Strait of Hormuz – Pentagon”
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Investigators are looking into whether a car-and-knife attack at Ohio State University that injured 11 people was an act of terror by a student who had once criticized the media for its portrayal of Muslims.
The attacker, identified as Abdul Razak Ali Artan, plowed his car into a group of pedestrians on campus shortly before 10 a.m. Monday and then got out and began stabbing people with a butcher knife before he was shot to death by a campus police officer, authorities said. Continue reading “Terrorism eyed in Ohio State attack as police seek more info”
BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi says Islamic State group fighters lack the courage to put up long-term resistance in Mosul, despite unleashing hundreds of car bombs that have killed and maimed Iraqi soldiers and civilians as the fight for Iraq’s second-largest city appears set to extend well into next year.
“We have seen the whole organization collapsing in terms of standing in the face of our own armed forces,” al-Abadi said. “The success of liberating a huge area indicates that Daesh does not have the gut now or the motivation to fight as they were doing before,” he added, using the Arabic acronym for the extremist group. Continue reading “AP Interview: Iraqi leader predicts IS collapse in Mosul”
Italy’s third-largest and the world’ oldest bank, Monte dei Paschi de Siena is facing potential legal claims for more than €8 billion ($8.5 billion) in a series of civil lawsuits, Reuters reported.
The ailing bank has already set aside €627 million to cover claims. Continue reading “Italy’s troubled Monte dei Paschi bank faces billions in legal claims”
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has introduced a national currency for the first time since 2009 in an attempt to tackle a sharp shortfall of the US dollar, the country’s primary medium of trade.
The new currency, called bond notes, is pegged at par with the US dollar and is backed by a $200 million bond facility with Afreximbank, according to the regulator. Continue reading “Zimbabwe launches new currency to ease cash crunch”
BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian government forces and their allies captured another major eastern Aleppo neighborhood and several smaller areas Monday, putting much of the northern part of the city’s besieged rebel-held areas under government control for the first time in four years, state media reported.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said the areas captured by Syrian government troops include 12 neighborhoods and over 3,000 buildings in the past few days. It added that Syrian government troops are now controlling 40 percent of the rebel-held parts of the Syrian city of Aleppo. Continue reading “Syrian troops capture additional areas of rebel-held Aleppo”
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has set an early December deadline for American Indians and others to leave an encampment in North Dakota where they’ve been entrenched for months protesting the Dakota Access pipeline. Tribes including the Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Sioux are fighting the Dakota Access project because they fear it will harm drinking water and cultural sites. Texas-based pipeline developer Energy Transfer Partners says the 1,200-mile pipeline through the Dakotas, Iowa and Illinois will be safe. Continue reading “Dakota Access pipeline protesters told to leave by Dec. 5”
The FBI hacked into more than 8,000 computers in 120 countries during an investigation into a child pornography website with just one warrant, a court hearing transcript has shown. It represents the largest known law enforcement hacking campaign to date.
The hacking centers around an FBI investigation in February 2015, in which the bureau seized the Playpen child pornography website and ran it from a government server for 13 days. It used a piece of malware known as a network investigative technique (NIT) to break into the computer of anyone who visited certain child pornography threads on the website. It then sent the suspects’ IP addresses back to the FBI. Continue reading “FBI hacked into 8k computers in 120 countries using single disputed warrant – report”
Built at a cost of more than $4 billion, the high-tech USS Zumwalt only made it to the Panama Canal while on its first journey to its homeport in San Diego. A malfunction left the warship in need of tugboats so that it could reach the closest port, where it remains under maintenance.
Passing southbound through the Panama Canal on Monday evening, the USS Zumwalt crew discovered water seeping into two of the four ship’s bearings connecting the port and starboard Advanced Induction Motors, or AIMs, to the drive shafts, according to US Naval Institute News citing a defense official. Continue reading “Not again! US Navy ‘stealth’ destroyer towed into port after another break down”
DETROIT (AP) — A Wayne State University police officer who was shot in the head while on patrol near campus has been released from surgery, and authorities said they were interrogating a man about the attack.
The officer was identified as 29-year-old Collin Rose, a five-year veteran of the department who works in the canine unit. Detroit Police Chief James Craig said Rose was on duty Tuesday evening when he radioed to say he was investigating possible thefts of navigation systems from cars and SUVs, and was about to speak to someone apparently on a bike. Continue reading “Wayne State University officer recovering from shooting”
MOSUL, Iraq (AP) — An airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition on Wednesday “disabled” the fourth bridge on the Tigris River in Mosul, leaving the northern Iraqi city with a single functioning bridge, according to the Iraqi military and the Islamic State’s media arm.
The Aamaq news agency gave no details on the airstrike, the second to target a Mosul bridge this week and the fourth since shortly before the Oct. 17 start of the Iraqi government’s campaign to retake the city from the extremist group. Continue reading “IS claims coalition airstrike disables fourth Mosul bridge”
NEW YORK (AP) — The blue and gray stripes struck Jillian Eisman like a lightning bolt. She was rummaging through a packed closet during a Long Island tag sale when she immediately recognized the symbol of horror and hate: A jacket worn by a prisoner at the Nazi Dachau concentration camp during World War II.
“I knew exactly what it was, even before I saw the numbers (84679 on the chest),” said Eisman, who purchased the jacket for $2 at the sale last year and donated it to the Kupferberg Holocaust Center in New York City. Continue reading “Holocaust jacket, and prisoner’s story, found at tag sale”