Spring

The former editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair is said to have found a dead cat's head outside his home after the magazine began pursuing a story about Jeffrey Epstein

NPR has dug into allegations that Jeffrey Epstein used intimidation tactics to stop stories that covered allegations of sexual misconduct against him.

Family of first enslaved Africans in America marks 400 years

A family that traces its bloodline to America's first enslaved Africans said Friday that their ancestors endured unimaginable toil and hardship — but they also helped forge the nation. "Four hundred years ago, our family started building America, can I get an Amen?" Wanda Tucker said before a crowd in the Tucker Family Cemetery in Hampton, Virginia. Tucker, a college professor in Arizona, spoke at one of several events in Virginia this weekend that will mark the arrival of more than 30 enslaved Africans at a spot on the Chesapeake Bay in August 1619.

Illinois reports death from lung illness linked to vaping

The individual's gender and age and when he or she died were not immediately disclosed by the Illinois Department of Public Health. The number of reported cases of people who used e-cigarettes or vaped and have been hospitalized with respiratory problems has doubled in the past week to 22, the department said. "The severity of illness people are experiencing is alarming and we must get the word out that using e-cigarettes and vaping can be dangerous," Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said in a statement.

2020 Vision: Democratic field continues to shrink as Inslee and Moulton drop out

The presidential primary field further winnowed this week, with Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton announcing their withdrawals.

Boris Johnson prepares to take his place on world stage

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has endeavored to lead his country since he was a boy, will get his first moment on the world stage in his new role at the Group of Seven summit in France this weekend. The man who has said his life's ambition as a child was to be "world king" could be the shortest-serving prime minister in British history if he fails in his high-stakes gambit to force the European Union to reopen Brexit talks. As Johnson prepares to meet with world leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump, at the seaside resort of Biarritz, opponents at home are plotting to bring him down with a no-confidence vote after Parliament returns from its summer recess next month.

Authorities probe Sacramento light rail crash, 27 injured

An investigation was underway Friday to determine why a Sacramento light rail commuter train struck a maintenance train, injuring 27 people. The accident occurred around 9:40 p.m. Thursday and was initially believed to be a derailment, but Sacramento Regional Transit spokeswoman Devra Selenis confirmed Friday that it was a crash. The maintenance train was not moving at the time, Selenis said in an email to The Associated Press.

Prosecutor: Parking lot shooter was a 'vigilante'

A prosecutor told jurors the white man who fatally shot an unarmed black man after being shoved to the ground is a "vigilante" who carried a handgun because he liked provoking confrontations. Prosecutor Scott Rosenwasser told jurors during closing arguments Friday in Clearwater, Florida, that Michael Drejka provoked Markeis McGlockton to shove him by yelling at McGlockton's girlfriend because she was parked in a handicapped-assessable space and then fired as the 28-year-old McGlockton started to flee. Rosenwasser said the 49-year-old Drejka is guilty of manslaughter because he had no reasonable belief that he was about to be seriously injured or killed during the July 2018 altercation.

DOJ: Immigration facility shouldn't have to pay minimum wage

The Trump administration is opposing Washington state's effort to make a privately run, for-profit immigration detention center pay detainees minimum wage for the work they do. Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson sued The GEO Group in 2017, saying its Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma must pay the state minimum wage to detainees who perform kitchen, laundry, janitorial, maintenance and barbershop tasks. U.S. District Judge Robert Bryan has already issued some key rulings in the state's favor.

Who's running for president in 2020?

Following Democrats' sweeping victories in the House of Representatives during the 2018 midterm elections, many in the party were eagerly anticipating the 2020 presidential election and the opportunity to unseat President Donald Trump. The field of candidates is large and following the first Democratic debates in Miami, the field lost its first candidate. The senior senator from Colorado announced his presidential bid during a May 2 appearance on CBS This Morning, just weeks after a successful prostate cancer operation.

Zimbabwe comedian is latest in torture of government critics

A wave of abductions, torture and arrests in Zimbabwe are targeting opposition activists and other government critics, the latest being a popular comedian dragged from her home by armed and masked men. Barely two years after euphoric scenes engulfed Zimbabwe following the forced resignation of former repressive ruler Robert Mugabe, frustration and fear have returned. Comedian Samantha Kureya was this week dragged from her bed, stripped naked and tortured by masked men with assault rifles for skits perceived as anti-government.

France opens rape investigation into Epstein abuse

French prosecutors said on Friday they had opened an inquiry into the suspected rape and sexual abuse of minors linked to the scandal surrounding disgraced US multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein. The move came after growing calls for French investigators to look into allegations of abuse at Epstein's sumptuous apartment near the Champs-Elysees in Paris. “The investigations... will focus on potential crimes against French victims committed on national territory as well as abroad, and on perpetrators who are French citizens,” Paris Prosecutor Remy Heitz said in a statement. The potential charges could include the rape and sexual assault of minors aged 15 and over, the prosecutors said. It will also investigate claims Epstein and others participated for years in a vast child sex trafficking ring. The move came after US investigators turned up links in France in their probe into the disgraced financier, who was found hanged at his New York jail cell on August 10 while awaiting trial on new sex trafficking charges. He had been arrested five weeks earlier after flying back to the United States after a trip to Paris. Earlier this week Innocence in Danger, a French charity working to protect children against sexual violence, said it had collected 10 witness statements involving alleged sexual crimes involving minors that took place in France. The testimonies were from both victims and those who had witnessed alleged abuse, “probably at the hands of French people,” the NGO's head Homayra Sellier told AFP. Some but not all of the victims were French. Investigators are likely to be asking questions about a formerly powerful French modelling tycoon in his 70s named Jean-Luc Brunel, a close friend of Epstein. Four years ago, Brunel was named in a civil lawsuit in which he was accused of rape and procuring young girls for the US financier. Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who filed the suit, accused Epstein of using her as a “sex slave” and said she had been forced to have sex with well-known politicians and businessmen, including Brunel. She also alleged that Brunel would bring girls as young as 12 to the United States and pass them on to his friends, including Epstein. Shortly afterwards, Brunel issued a rare statement that itself broke years of silence in which he vehemently denied involvement, “directly or indirectly”, in Epstein's crimes. Like various other former allies of the late billionaire, Brunel has not been heard of since Epstein was charged in early July. Earlier this month, Innocence in Danger urged French investigators to “shed light on” what went on behind the walls of Epstein's Paris apartment, where Brunel was a regular visitor. Two French government ministers have also demanded action, saying the US inquiry had exposed links with France that needed investigating. “The verifications and cross-checking undertaken on the basis of elements submitted to prosecutors and exchanges with the American authorities in the context of the Epstein affair have prompted the Paris prosecutor's office to open a preliminary inquiry,” Friday's statement said. Epstein, who at one time counted Bill Clinton, Donald Trump and Britain's Prince Andrew among his friends, has been linked to a string of sordid abuses involving underage girls at his Palm Beach home and on his private Caribbean island. He has been accused of recruiting young girls to administer massages which frequently led to abuse and even rape. His address book, which was made public in 2015 through the Gawker website, included dozens of names listed under “massages”, some 30 of which were in France.

Ebola appears contained in Goma, but flares in other parts of Congo: WHO

Ebola appears to be under control in the city of Goma in Congo but it has flared in other parts of the country, where aid workers are combating insecurity and disinformation on social media, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday. The latest infections include the mysterious case of a woman in her 70s with no known history of travel or visitors, said Dr. Michael Ryan, head of WHO's health emergencies department. The woman, in the remote village of Pinga in the northeast of Democratic Republic of Congo, may have caught the deadly hemorrhagic fever by eating bushmeat or from another animal source, he said.

Putin orders Russia to respond after US missile test

President Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian military on Friday to work out a quid pro quo response after the test of a new U.S. missile banned under a now-defunct arms treaty. In Sunday's test, a modified ground-launched version of a U.S. Navy Tomahawk cruise missile accurately struck its target more than 500 kilometers (310 miles) away. The test came after Moscow and Washington withdrew from the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.

APNewsBreak: US government unveils final Utah monument plan

The U.S. government's final management plan for land in and around a Utah national monument that President Donald Trump downsized doesn't include many new protections for the cliffs, canyons, waterfalls and arches found there, but it does include a few more safeguards than were in a proposal issued last year. The Bureau of Land Management's plan for the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southwestern Utah codifies that the lands cut out of the monument will be open to mineral extraction such as oil, gas and coal as expected, according to a plan the agency provided to The Associated Press. The agency chose an option that doesn't add any areas of critical environmental concern, increases lands open to cattle grazing and could raise the potential for "adverse effects" on lands and resources in the monument, the document shows.

Man arrested for terrorism after sending threatening email to ABC Nashville affiliate

ABC Nashville affiliate WKRN-TV received a threatening email on Wednesday, authorities said, allegedly from Nathan Semans, who also expressed his displeasure toward President Donald Trump. The news station flagged the email to the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security, and state troopers subsequently secured an arrest warrant to charge Semans with commission of act of terrorism, a felony.

Enraged Trump likens Fed chief to 'enemy' China

President Donald Trump reacted furiously on Friday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell linked the trade war with China to risks to the U.S. economy, asking whether the man he handpicked to run the U.S. central bank was a greater "enemy" than Chinese leader Xi Jinping. "As usual, the Fed did NOTHING! It is incredible that they can 'speak' without knowing or asking what I am doing, which will be announced shortly," Trump wrote on Twitter. It was unclear what Trump meant when he said he would work "brilliantly" with both, and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

As Malta disembarks migrants more charity-govt clashes loom

Pledges by six European countries to accept over 350 migrants from a rescue ship in the central Mediterranean on Friday capped weeks of standoffs between charities and governments that have dramatically exposed Europe's inability to deal with sea migration from Africa. The increasingly fewer charity groups running rescue missions are vowing to return to maritime routes from Libya. Meanwhile, Italy's hard-line interior minister, Matteo Salvini, blames the charities for aiding human trafficking mafias, part of a tough approach that has pushed up his popularity — and emboldened him to provoke a government crisis that could result in early elections.

New York Uber driver arraigned for allegedly kidnapping teen girl during ride home from Sweet 16: DA

A New York Uber driver has been arraigned for allegedly kidnapping a 15-year-old girl during her ride home from a Sweet 16 party, prosecutors said. Sean Williams, 32, was arraigned this week on, among other charges, kidnapping. The victim managed to escape during the July incident, the Nassau County District Attorney's Office said in a statement on Thursday.

British man choked to death in 'row over noise' while holidaying with wife and child in Thailand

A British tourist holidaying with his wife and baby son was choked to death in a fight at a hotel on the Thai island of Phuket on Wednesday. According to local police, Amitpal Sing Bajaj, 34, died in the early hours of Wednesday after an altercation with a man staying in the hotel room next to his family's. Roger Bullman, a 54-year-old Norwegian reported to be a martial arts expert, was charged with manslaughter and trespass by act of violence. Colonel Prawit Sutthirueangarun, the police chief, told The Phuket News that the two men clashed in the five-star Centara Grand Resort on Phuket’s west coast after Mr Bajaj complained that Mr Bullman was making too much noise. Officers called to the hotel at around 4am found Mr Bajaj face down in front of his room, while Mr Bullman had a wound on his left shoulder and bruises on his face. Police alleged Mr Bajaj had taken a steak knife to confront the Norwegian and had stabbed him in the shoulder, while at least one bottle was used in the fight. Speaking of Mr Bajaj, Colonel Prawit said: “His nose and mouth were bleeding. His breathing was weak.” Mr Bajaj was taken to Phuket’s Patong Hospital, where he died. His wife, a Singaporean who has not been named, said that Mr Bullman was singing on his balcony before her husband confronted him. She claimed that Mr Bullman later kicked down a door to get to the family’s room. Roger Bullman, a 53-year-old man from Oslo, Norway, has been detained by Thai police Credit: Viral Press Maj Techin, another police officer responding to the incident, told The Phuket News: “The suspect did admit he had the victim in a choke hold. The Norwegian man told me that he just wanted to stop the victim, but he used too much strength.” Colonel Prawit added: “Mr Bullman was bigger and stronger, and had Mr Bajaj in a hold with his arm across his neck… a security guard arrived at the scene and saw Mr Bullman on top of Mr Bajaj while choking him with his arm. The security guard shouted at Mr Bullman to stop, which he did immediately.” Mr Bullman was reportedly staying in the resort with his wife, and was released by officers after posting bail at Phuket Provincial Court. Norwegian media reported that bail was posted at around 200,000 baht (£5,300). If convicted of manslaughter Mr Bullman faces up to 15 years in jail. His charge of trespass by act of violence carries a fine of up to 10,000 baht (£266) and a potential jail sentence of up to five years. Phuket is one of Thailand’s most popular holiday destinations, with over five million tourists heading there each year. At 210 square miles it is the southeast Asian country’s largest island, with crowds drawn to its beaches, national parks and luxury resorts. In 2017 around one million British nationals visited Thailand.

Ryanair to shut four Spanish base next year: union

Ryanair has decided to close its Spanish bases in Las Palmas, Tenerife South, Lanzarote and Girona from January, putting the jobs of more than 500 pilots and cabin crew at risk, the local USO union said on Friday. Ryanair told staff last month it planned to cut its presence on the ground at airports due to delays in the delivery of the grounded Boeing 737 MAX, that has left it with 900 more pilots and crew than it needs. The airline's chief people officer told Reuters last week that it would likely close its base in the Portuguese city of Faro and two on the Canary Islands but that a final decision had yet to be made on how many bases, jobs and routes would go.

For some, currency wars may not be fun or easy to win

It's a maxim for private investors: Don't fight the Fed. The lesson may apply to central banks in developing nations as well, according to new research presented on Friday that concluded using monetary policy to fight a currency war may ultimately lead to self-inflicted wounds. For developing nations at least, when a central bank like the Fed acts and global capital flows shift, the interest rates needed to keep the local currency from changing value are likely to throw monetary policy out of line with what the local economy needs.

Man faces life for murder after initial confessions doubted

A man whose confessions in the 1998 murder of a Montana teenager were initially met with skepticism from authorities faces life in prison during a sentencing scheduled for Friday. Zachary David O'Neill is due to appear in state district court in Billings for the murder of 18-year-old video store clerk Miranda Fenner and the rape and attempted murder of a second woman during the same time period. O'Neill confessed to Fenner's slaying as early as 2016 while at a psychiatric hospital in Spokane, Washington.