From the Trenches World Report

Mail.com

MARIPOSA, Calif. (AP) — A blaze burning in foothills west of Yosemite National Park destroyed dozens of structures and forced thousands to flee Gold Rush-era towns but fire crews have been able to stop it from reaching a threatened community on the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.

The fire was threatening about 1,500 homes and other buildings, after already destroying 29 structures. It’s not clear what type of buildings burned. The flames are near Highway 49, a historical route winding its way up California foothills of the western Sierra Nevada dotted with little towns that sprouted along the gold Mother Lode that drew miners to California in the 1800s.   Continue reading “Thousands flee raging wildfire near Yosemite National Park”

Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden

In an apparent nationwide system outage, Bank of America customers have been shut out from accessing their accounts and online banking on Wednesday afternoon. As of 4pm ET the outage was continuing with most online systems still frozen.  Continue reading “Nationwide Outage Hits Bank of America: Customers Unable To Access Accounts”

Yahoo News – by John Walcott

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Trump administration has decided to halt the CIA’s covert program to equip and train certain rebel groups fighting the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, two U.S. officials said, a move sought by Assad ally Russia.

The U.S. decision, said one of the officials, is part of an effort by the administration to improve relations with Russia, which along with Iranian-supported groups has largely succeeded in preserving Assad’s government in the six-year-civil war.   Continue reading “BS Alert: Trump ends CIA arms support for anti-Assad Syria rebels: U.S. officials”

The Hill – by Max Greenwood

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has been diagnosed with brain cancer, the Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix said Wednesday.

The tumor was discovered after the senior Arizona senator underwent a minor procedure last week to remove a blood clot from above his left eye.    Continue reading “John McCain diagnosed with brain cancer”

The Daily Caller – by Ryan Pickrell

The second highest-ranking U.S. military official said Tuesday that the U.S. should consider the use of military force against North Korea.

North Korea successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile that can range certain parts of the U.S. earlier this month, although it could not do so with “any degree of accuracy,” Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Paul Selva told the Senate Arms Services Committee Tuesday, adding that the missile — the Hwasong-14 — appears to lack the necessary guidance capabilities.   Continue reading “Top US General: ‘We Have To Entertain’ The Possibility Of Military Action In North Korea”

Fox News – by Travis Fedschun

The four young men who were hacked to death in a New York park in April were lured there by two women associated with the vicious MS-13 street gang, and ambushed by more than a dozen gang members armed with wooden clubs and machetes who engaged in “a horrific frenzy of violence,” according to court documents obtained Wednesday by Fox News.

The new details were released Monday as part of an indictment charging three of the street gang’s alleged members — Alexis Hernandez, Santis Leonel Ortiz-Flores and Omar Antonio Villata — with the April 11 deaths of the four men.   Continue reading “MS-13 ‘initiation killings’: Lured to a park by girls and hacked to death with machetes”

NPR

There’s a good chance you’re hungry for information you didn’t even know you wanted, but Google knows — and the tech giant is going to spoon-feed it to you.

Google is following in Facebook’s footsteps, with plans to redesign its popular search page on mobile phones so that you’ll get something similar to the social media site’s News Feed. Only Google’s will just be called “feed.”   Continue reading “With Entry Into Interest Curation, Google Goes Head-To-Head With Facebook”

NPR

The Hamptons condo and apartment complex in Tampa is quintessential Florida. Lush and modern, the stucco homes are painted in a soft rainbow of pastels. All around are palm trees, Spanish moss and lily pads.

“It is a very quiet place. You have a lot of children that live here. A lot of professionals live here, retirees,” said resident Michael Colon, 66.

But on May 19, that tranquility was shattered in an improbable case that involves four young roommates at the complex.   Continue reading “Florida Killings: Radical Islam And The Far Right, Under One Roof”

NPR – by Tori Whitley

We’ve all heard of ways to reduce our carbon footprint: biking to work, eating less meat, recycling.

But there’s another way to help the climate. A recent study from Lund University in Sweden shows that the biggest way to reduce climate change is by having fewer children.

“I knew this was a sensitive topic to bring up,” says study co-author Kimberly Nicholas on NPR’s Morning Edition. “Certainly it’s not my place as a scientist to dictate choices for other people. But I do think it is my place to do the analysis and report it fairly.”   Continue reading “Want To Slow Global Warming? Researchers Look To Family Planning”

The American Conservative – by Sydney Schanberg

John McCain, who has risen to political prominence on his image as a Vietnam POW war hero, has, inexplicably, worked very hard to hide from the public stunning information about American prisoners in Vietnam who, unlike him, didn’t return home. Throughout his Senate career, McCain has quietly sponsored and pushed into federal law a set of prohibitions that keep the most revealing information about these men buried as classified documents. Thus the war hero who people would logically imagine as a determined crusader for the interests of POWs and their families became instead the strange champion of hiding the evidence and closing the books.   Continue reading “McCain and the POW Cover-Up”