Animals news

• Trump presents highest military honor to Green Beret

  30-10-2019 23:40 via news.yahoo.com
  President Donald Trump presented the nation's highest military honor on Wednesday to a Green Beret who helped save four critically wounded comrades and prevented the lead element of a special operations force from being overrun in Afghanistan.The Medal of Honor was presented to Master Sgt. Matthew O. Williams of Texas, who still serves in the Army.The events leading to the honor occurred in April 2008 during a mountainside firefight that lasted several hours as Williams' team and about 100 Afgha
  
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• California businessman gets prison for U.S. college admissions scam

  30-10-2019 23:25 via news.yahoo.com
  A former California business executive was sentenced on Wednesday to two months in prison for taking part in a vast U.S. college admissions fraud scheme by paying $250,000 to secure his son's admission to the University of Southern California.Federal prosecutors in Boston had sought nine months in prison for Jeffrey Bizzack, who they said sought to secure his son's admission through a "side door" by agreeing to bribe a USC official to designate him as a fake athletic recruit.U.S. District Judge
  
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• Actor Cuba Gooding Jr charged with unlawfully touching third woman: lawyer

  30-10-2019 23:24 via news.yahoo.com
  Actor Cuba Gooding Jr, already facing a criminal case over accusations he touched a woman's breasts in a bar and pinched another's buttocks in a nightclub, has been charged in connection with a third woman, his lawyer said on Wednesday.Gooding is expected to appear in court Thursday and plead not guilty to the charges, according to his lawyer, Mark Heller.The charges are not yet public, and a spokeswoman for Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance declined to provide details.
  
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• Former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu says impeachment inquiry 'has now risen to a level of a substantial case that can be made'

  30-10-2019 23:23 via news.yahoo.com
  Former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu joins Yahoo News Editor in Chief Daniel Klaidman and Chief Investigative Correspondent Michael Isikoff to talk about the impeachment inquiry into President Trump. Landrieu says that at first he didn’t think it was warranted after the Mueller report came out, but “when the Ukraine matter raised up its head, I changed.”
  
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• Pentagon releases footage of al-Baghdadi raid

  30-10-2019 22:59 via news.yahoo.com
  At a press briefing Wednesday, the Pentagon released footage of the raid on ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
  
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• Why are California's wildfires different this year?

  30-10-2019 22:40 via news.yahoo.com
  Destructive wildfires have ripped through California, threatening homes and famous landmarks, and forcing power outages that have plunged millions into darkness.Everything from climate change to corporate negligence has been blamed for the chaos, which has seen hundreds of thousands evacuated, and hundreds of structures destroyed.The 20 worst California wildfires on record all destroyed over 500 structures, or burned 140,000 acres, according to state agency Cal Fire.
  
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• Sen. Kamala Harris to slash staff, restructure campaign as she hemorrhages cash

  30-10-2019 22:39 via news.yahoo.com
  Kamala Harris is dramatically restructuring her campaign by redeploying staffers to Iowa and laying off dozens of aides at her Baltimore headquarters, according to campaign sources and a memo obtained by Politico Wednesday, as she struggles to resuscitate her beleaguered presidential bid.
  
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• Tulsi Gabbard says she wants to defeat the 'Bush-Clinton doctrine' on foreign policy

  30-10-2019 22:38 via news.yahoo.com
  "Those who follow the Bush-Clinton doctrine believe the only way to interact with other nations is by bombing them or starving them with draconian sanctions," Gabbard wrote.
  
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• Ilhan Omar responds to criticism for her 'present' vote on Armenian genocide resolution

  30-10-2019 22:28 via news.yahoo.com
  Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., said she doesn't disagree with the resolution's contents, to recognize the Armenian genocide, but does disagree with its timing.
  
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• The Latest: Islamic State leader buried at sea, US says

  30-10-2019 22:19 via news.yahoo.com
  The head of United States Central Command says Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was buried at sea after a weekend raid on his compound. Gen. Frank McKenzie told reporters Wednesday that al-Baghdadi died after he exploded a suicide vest just before U.S. troops were going to capture him. McKenzie says two children were killed in the explosion set off by the Islamic State leader.
  
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• Goats help save Reagan library from destruction as California wildfire threatens

  30-10-2019 22:15 via news.yahoo.com
  Flames from the Easy Fire were within a few feet of the Reagan library. Goats, which graze on grass around the property, helped prevent their spread.
  
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• Former </>Time Editor Wants Hate-Speech Laws, Thinks Trump ‘Might’ Violate Them, and Misses the Irony

  30-10-2019 22:11 via news.yahoo.com
  A former Time editor claimed that the United States needs a law banning hate speech, and that President Donald Trump “might be in violation of it” if there were one -- because, apparently, he doesn’t notice the irony of holding both of these views at once.In a Tuesday tweet promoting his Washington Post piece, titled “Why America needs a hate speech law,” Richard Stengel stated:> My @WashingtonPost piece on why the very broadness of the First Amendment suggests w
  
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• The Latest: 26,000 under evacuation orders near Los Angeles

  30-10-2019 22:10 via news.yahoo.com
  Authorities are gaining more control over a wildfire that prompted evacuations in Southern California.State fire Capt. Richard Cordova says firefighters are making progress against the 200-acre blaze burning 45 miles (72 kilometers) east of Los Angeles in Jurupa Valley.Strong winds have whipped up blazes at both ends of the state and led utilities to cut off power to prevent such fires for a week.
  
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• Researchers: Chicago must overhaul homicide investigations

  30-10-2019 21:58 via news.yahoo.com
  The Chicago Police Department must make significant changes in the way it investigates homicides in a city where more than half of killings go unsolved, a police research group said in a report released Wednesday.The Police Executive Research Forum found problems in the department that included inadequate training; a lack of a detective unit devoted solely to homicide investigations; and a failure to adequately help witnesses or even have a witness protection unit that is critical in persuading
  
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• House Democrats are just trying to invalidate the 2016 election of President Donald Trump

  30-10-2019 21:48 via news.yahoo.com
  Speaker Nancy Pelosi is subverting rule of law, write former acting U.S. Attorney General Matt Whitaker and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry.
  
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• Auburn tree poisoner fails to appear in court for hearing

  30-10-2019 21:48 via news.yahoo.com
  The University of Alabama fan convicted of poisoning Auburn University's oak trees failed to attend a hearing Wednesday on why he hasn't paid court-ordered restitution.The Opelika-Auburn news reports Harvey Updyke, a retired Texas state trooper who lives in Louisiana, didn't show up for a hearing before Lee County Circuit Judge Jacob Walker.The judge also gave prosecutors a month to review a letter from Updyke's doctor saying the 71-year-old man wasn't well enough to travel to Opelika for court.
  
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• Georgia Supreme Court temporarily halts man's execution

  30-10-2019 21:29 via news.yahoo.com
  With about eight hours to spare before a man convicted of killing a convenience store clerk was to be put to death Wednesday, Georgia's highest court stepped in and temporarily halted the execution.Ray Jefferson Cromartie, 52, was to receive a lethal injection at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the state prison in Jackson.Cromartie was convicted of malice murder and sentenced to death for the April 1994 killing of 50-year-old Richard Slysz in Thomasville, just inside Georgia's southern border.
  
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• California fires: new blaze near LA, progress up north

  30-10-2019 21:28 via news.yahoo.com
  Firefighters in California battled a new fast-moving blaze on Wednesday that threatened thousands of homes and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, as rare "extreme" red flag warnings were issued for much of the Los Angeles region.The so-called Easy Fire in the Simi Valley northwest of Los Angeles erupted around 6:00 am, forcing the evacuation of the Reagan library and nearby homes as it spread to more than 1,300 acres (526 hectares), officials said."The fire outflanked us very rapidly, pushe
  
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• NATO demands Russia 'withdraw all troops' from Ukraine

  30-10-2019 21:23 via news.yahoo.com
  NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday welcomed a pullback by the Ukrainian army and Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, but reiterated calls for Russia to "withdraw all their troops".The move was a precondition for the first face-to-face talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky."We welcome all efforts to reduce tensions, to withdraw forces and to make sure that we have a peaceful solution to the conflict," Stoltenberg said in th
  
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• More than 1,000 homeless people died in Los Angeles county last year

  30-10-2019 21:20 via news.yahoo.com
  The county’s public health department has reported 1,047 deaths for last year, a number that has increased steadily since 2013A woman pushes a cart full of her belongings past tents near Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles. Photograph: Frederic J Brown/AFP/Getty ImagesMore than 1,000 homeless people died in Los Angeles county in 2018, double the number of deaths from six years ago. The increase is a stark illustration of the region’s severe housing crisis, advocates said.The LA county p
  
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• John Bolton: Former national security adviser 'summoned to testify in Trump impeachment probe'

  30-10-2019 21:11 via news.yahoo.com
  House impeachment investigators have invited John Bolton, a former national security adviser to Donald Trump, to testify before Congress next week, according to reports.Mr Bolton was reportedly called on by House investigators to give evidence for their impeachment inquiry into Mr Trump surrounding the president’s dealings with Ukraine.
  
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• The Latest: Impeachment committees ask Bolton to testify

  30-10-2019 21:08 via news.yahoo.com
  Three House committees leading Democrats' impeachment inquiry have asked former National Security Adviser John Bolton to appear behind closed doors next week, according to a person familiar with the request.The committees have asked Bolton to appear Nov. 7, according to the person, who requested anonymity to discuss the confidential invitation.Lawmakers have said they are interested in hearing from Bolton after other witnesses testified of his concerns about President Donald Trump's dealings in
  
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• Mexican soldiers told Chapo's son to call to stop attacks

  30-10-2019 21:00 via news.yahoo.com
  Mexican security forces had a son of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán outside a house on his knees against a wall before they were forced to back off and let him go as his cartel's gunmen shot up the western city of Culiacan.Defense Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval on Wednesday showed video and presented a timeline of the failed operation to arrest Ovidio Guzmán López on Oct. 17 — an incident that embarrassed the administration of President Andrés Manuel López
  
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• How the USS Scorpion Died (No One Really Knows What Killed This Submarine)

  30-10-2019 21:00 via news.yahoo.com
  And it changed the U.S. Navy forever.
  
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• Congress Considers Delaying Spending Talks Until After Impeachment

  30-10-2019 20:47 via news.yahoo.com
  (Bloomberg) -- Democrats and Republicans in Congress are deliberating whether to push the deadline to fund the government into early February to avoid having a budget fight amid an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump that’s set to stretch at least into December.That would mean enacting another stopgap spending bill to avert a government shutdown when the current short-term funding runs out Nov. 21, assuming the two sides don’t be able to agree on a budget plan by then.Sen
  
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• 2 women have been criminally charged over their partners' suicides. Why do men escape the same blame?

  30-10-2019 20:46 via news.yahoo.com
  Experts told Insider they could not recall a similar instance of a man being charged with manslaughter in connection with his partner's suicide.
  
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• Exclusive: How Lebanon's Hariri defied Hezbollah

  30-10-2019 20:34 via news.yahoo.com
  After hitting a dead end in efforts to defuse the crisis sweeping Lebanon, Saad al-Hariri informed a top Hezbollah official on Monday he had no choice but to quit as prime minister in defiance of the powerful Shi'ite group.The decision by the Sunni leader shocked Hussein al-Khalil, political advisor to Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who advised him against giving in to protesters who wanted to see his coalition government toppled.The meeting described to Reuters by four senior sources
  
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• NYC Medical Examiner Dismisses Epstein ‘Homicide’ Claim by Dr. Michael Baden

  30-10-2019 20:28 via news.yahoo.com
  Robyn Beck/ReutersNew York City’s chief medical examiner pushed back hard Wednesday against a celebrity pathologist-for-hire’s conspiracy-stirring claim that Jeffrey Epstein’s autopsy was more consistent with homicide than suicide.“The original medical investigation was thorough and complete. There is no reason for a second medical investigation by our office,” said Dr. Barbara Sampson.Sampson determined Epstein died by suicide from hanging in his jail cell in Augus
  
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• Dozens of dinosaur footprints reveal ancient ecosystem of Alaskan Peninsula

  30-10-2019 20:14
  Abundant dinosaur footprints in Alaska reveal that high-latitude hadrosaurs preferred tidally influenced habitats.
  
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• Argentine markets in limbo as investors seek clarity from president-elect

  30-10-2019 19:57 via news.yahoo.com
  Argentina's markets were in limbo on Wednesday, as traders and investors awaited signals from President-elect Alberto Fernandez about the future direction in which he will take Latin America's no. 3 economy.The country's peso dipped slightly to 59.6 per dollar amid muted trading and as the central bank effectively set a floor to stop the currency weakening past 60 pesos, with a dollar auction.The bank has intervened in the foreign exchange market and applied stricter currency controls since Sund
  
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• Reading Scores on National Exam Decline in Half the States

  30-10-2019 19:56 via news.yahoo.com
  WASHINGTON -- The average eighth grade reading score on a nationally representative test declined among public school students in more than half of the states, according to data released Wednesday by the National Center for Education Statistics, the research arm of the Education Department.The dismal results were part of the release of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the "nation's report card." The test assesses a sample of fourth and eighth grade students -- more than
  
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• Dem Rep Claims Trump’s Immigration Policy Reflects a ‘White Supremacist Ideology’ While Grilling USCIS Chief

  30-10-2019 19:33 via news.yahoo.com
  Florida Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz accused President Trump and acting U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Ken Cuccinelli on Wednesday of implementing immigration policy in service of a "white supremacist ideology."The accusations came during a hearing of the House Oversight Committee on immigration policy."You and Mr. Trump don't want anyone who looks or talks or differently than Caucasian Americans to be allowed into this country," Wasserman Schultz began. A staffer
  
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• ‘Putin’s Chef' Takes Russian Disinformation Tools to Africa, Report Says

  30-10-2019 19:28 via news.yahoo.com
  (Bloomberg) -- Sign up to our Next Africa newsletter and follow Bloomberg Africa on TwitterRussia’s cybermeddlers have found elections in parts of Africa to be fertile venues for their maturing disinformation tactics on social media, according to a report published Wednesday by the Stanford Internet Observatory in conjunction with Facebook Inc.The tactics include subcontracting the spread of disinformation to local sources, better masking the origin of fake news and propaganda. The groups
  
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• Putin faces Syria money crunch after U.S. keeps control of oil fields

  30-10-2019 19:16 via news.yahoo.com
  Russian President Vladimir Putin is facing an unwelcome new financial challenge in Syria after the U.S. pullback enabled his ally Bashar Assad to reclaim the biggest chunk of territory in the country still outside his control.
  
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• Denmark Snubs Trump With Approval of Russian Gas Pipe to Europe

  30-10-2019 19:14 via news.yahoo.com
  (Bloomberg) -- In a major boost for Russia’s effort to tighten its grip over natural gas supplies to western Europe, Denmark said it will allow the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline to pass through its territory.The decision removes the last important hurdle for the $11 billion project, which is slated for commissioning by the end of this year and bolster gas flows from Siberia into Germany. The link has drawn the threat of sanctions from the U.S., which wants Europe to buy its liquefie
  
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• PHOTOS: New wildfire threatens Reagan Presidential Library and surrounding communities

  30-10-2019 19:08 via news.yahoo.com
  A fresh wildfire is burning on a ridge near the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Southern California's Simi Valley city, forcing officials to order evacuations of the library and nearby homes and close schools.
  
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• Pelosi and McConnell make push on spending deal — but Trump's wall looms

  30-10-2019 19:03 via politico.com
  Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell want to get all 12 spending bills passed by the end of this year, but a standoff over President Donald Trump’s border wall remains the biggest obstacle in bipartisan talks to avoid another government shutdown.Pelosi and McConnell spoke on the phone Monday and agreed that “the goal” was to finish all appropriations bills by Dec. 31, according to multiple people familiar with the conversation.House Majority Leader St
  
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• How Chief Justice John Roberts would lead the Senate impeachment trial

  30-10-2019 18:56 via news.yahoo.com
  As American politics has grown more polarized, Roberts has tried to recede from view rather than become more prominent. But many expect President Trump would try to turn impeachment proceedings into a circus. And it may be then that Roberts would be forced to have a stronger hand, if only to maintain order.
  
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• Severe Fire Conditions Lead to 'Extreme' Red Flag Warning in Los Angeles Area

  30-10-2019 18:54 via news.yahoo.com
  An “extreme” red flag warning has been declared in the Los Angeles area ahead of some of the worst conditions for a fire in the last 12 years.
  
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• Belgium bars Chinese professor suspected of spying for Beijing

  30-10-2019 18:53 via news.yahoo.com
  The head of a Chinese language and cultural institute at a Brussels university has been banned from Belgium after security services accused him of being a spy.  Xinning Song, 65, was also barred from the EU’s passport-free Schengen zone for eight years, Belgian media reported. Professor Song has lived in Belgium for ten years. His work visa expired while he was on a trip to China. When he applied for its renewal, however, he was rejected by Belgian authorities. Their decision to impos
  
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• Trump impeachment: Official says she was repeatedly urged to oust Ukraine ambassador by Republican lobbyist

  30-10-2019 18:42 via news.yahoo.com
  A US government official has reportedly told politicians leading the impeachment hearings against Donald Trump that she was urged by a Republican-linked lobbyist to remove the US ambassador to Ukraine from her post, as the president's allies launched a smear campaign against her.Catherine Croft, a Ukraine expert who worked at the US State Department, said she was repeatedly contacted by lobbyist Robert Livingston about ousting Marie Yovanovitch, according to prepared remarks obtained by NPR.
  
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• At-large python found in West Virginia by letter carrier

  30-10-2019 18:29 via news.yahoo.com
  An 11-foot python that was on the loose in West Virginia was found Tuesday, about a month after it got out of its tank, broke through a window screen and slithered outside.Richwood Police Chief Charles Burkhamer says a letter carrier saw the snake laying out in the sun next to a roadway Tuesday, about a block away from where it escaped a month ago.
  
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• Using probiotics to protect honey bees against fatal disease

  30-10-2019 18:27
  A group of researchers combined their expertise in probiotics and bee biology to supplement honey bee food with probiotics, in the form a BioPatty, in their experimental apiaries. The aim was to see what effect probiotics would have on honey bee health.
  
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• A Record Wave of Lone Child Migrants, Born of Desperation

  30-10-2019 18:17 via news.yahoo.com
  TENOSIQUE, Mexico -- The United States has detained more children trying to cross the nation's southwest border on their own over the last year than during any other period on record, surpassing the surge of unaccompanied minors that set off a crisis during the Obama administration, according to new figures released Tuesday.U.S. immigration authorities apprehended 76,020 minors, most of them from Central America, traveling without their parents in the fiscal year that ended in September -- 52% m
  
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• Russian submarines power into north Atlantic in biggest manoeuvre since Cold War

  30-10-2019 18:11 via news.yahoo.com
  Norway said it has discovered 10 submarines of the Russian northern fleet heading toward the Atlantic Ocean in the biggest such operation since the Cold War.  The deployment began just before Russia's foreign minister and the commander of the northern fleet visited Norway to commemorate 75th anniversary of the Soviet liberation of Kirkenes from the Nazis.  Meanwhile, the recently floated Prince Vladimir submarine test-fired a Bulava ballistic missile from the White Sea near Arkhangelsk
  
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• AOC faces challengers on the right and the further right who cite her 'socialism'

  30-10-2019 18:09 via news.yahoo.com
  A Jamaican immigrant businesswoman from Queens and a Latino councilman from the Bronx are among 10 candidates who have filed to unseat freshman Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.
  
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• Here's the story of Pirate the cockatoo, the hissing white ghost who became boss of my heart | Alexis Wright

  30-10-2019 18:00 via theguardian.com
  I ended up incorporating him into my novel Carpentaria, where he now looms larger than life• Vote for your favourite in the 2019 bird of the year pollThis is a story of Pirate, Australia’s proper number one rex regum et volucres, king of birds. As a fledging, so I was told, he was rescued in a relocation of sulphur-crested cockatoos from the vicinity of Tullamarine airport, so that he would not end up being a bird-strike victim caught up in a jet turbine of one of those long-haul inte
  
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• The Kincade Fire in California has burned an area more than twice the size of San Francisco. Here are the latest updates.

  30-10-2019 17:59 via news.yahoo.com
  The Kincade Fire in California's Sonoma County has burned 76,825 acres. PG&E; told regulators that a broken jumper cable may have started the blaze.
  
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• NRA Accuses Its Long-time Ad Agency of Multimillion-Dollar Fraud

  30-10-2019 17:54 via news.yahoo.com
  The National Rifle Association claimed in a court filing last Friday that its longtime advertising partner, Ackerman McQueen, used a recent foray into digital-content production to defraud it of millions of dollars while simultaneously diluting its storied brand by advancing "racist' and "dystopian" cultural commentary.The complaint, first reported by the Daily Beast, was filed as part of the NRA's ongoing lawsuit against Ackerman McQueen (AMc), an Oklahoma City–based ad agency that has co
  
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• Pathologist says Epstein's injuries point to murder, not suicide

  30-10-2019 17:43 via news.yahoo.com
  A forensic pathologist hired by Jeffrey Epstein's brother said Wednesday that evidence suggested the disgraced financier had not died by suicide in his jail cell but had been murdered. "I think that the evidence points toward homicide rather than suicide," Baden, a former New York City medical examiner who was present at the autopsy, told Fox News.
  
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