U.S. responded to Haiti quake more forcefully than to Puerto Rico disaster
After an earthquake shattered Haiti’s capital on Jan. 12, 2010, the U.S. military mobilized as if it were going to war.
Before dawn the next morning, an Army unit was airborne, on its way to seize control of the main airport in Port-au-Prince. Within two days, the Pentagon had 8,000 American troops en route. Within two weeks, 33 U.S. military ships and 22,000 troops had arrived. More than 300 military helicopters buzzed overhead, delivering millions of pounds of food and water.By contrast, eight days after Hurricane Maria ripped across neighboring Puerto Rico, just 4,400 service members were participating in federal operations to assist the devastated island, an Army general told reporters Thursday. In addition, about 1,000 Coast Guard members were aiding the efforts. About 50 U.S. military helicopters were helping to deliver food and water to the 3.4 million residents of the U.S. territory, along with 10 Coast Guard helicopters.
Twitter said Thursday that it had shut down 201 accounts that were tied to the same Russian operatives who posted thousands of political ads on Facebook, but the effort frustrated lawmakers who said the problem is far broader than the company appeared to know.
The company said it also found three accounts from the news site RT — which Twitter linked to the Kremlin — that spent $274,100 in ads on its platform in 2016.
Despite the disclosures, Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) questioned whether the company is doing enough to stop Russian operatives from using its platform to spread disinformation and division in U.S. society.
As North Korea threatens, U.S. to send ‘strategic assets’ to Seoul
The United States will send “strategic” military assets to South Korea on a more regular basis to better deter North Korea, the South’s national security adviser said Thursday.
The decision comes at a time of escalating tensions between the United States and North Korea, with many analysts concerned that incendiary rhetoric, combined with more frequent flyovers by U.S. bombers, could lead to a catastrophic miscalculation.
Chung Eui-yong, national security adviser to President Moon Jae-in, told lawmakers in Seoul that U.S. “strategic assets” could be deployed to South Korea on a “rotational” basis before the end of the year.
The Guardian
Alarm as study reveals world’s tropical forests are huge carbon emission source
The world’s tropical forests are so degraded they have become a source rather than a sink of carbon emissions, according to a new study that highlights the urgent need to protect and restore the Amazon and similar regions.
Researchers found that forest areas in South America, Africa and Asia – which have until recently played a key role in absorbing greenhouse gases – are now releasing 425 teragrams of carbon annually, which is more than all the traffic in the United States.
This is a far greater loss than previously thought and carries extra force because the data emerges from the most detailed examination of the topic ever undertaken. The authors say their findings – published in the journal Science on Thursday – should galvanise policymakers to take remedial action.
Dirty laundry a powerful magnet for bedbugs, study finds
After a long day of sightseeing in a foreign city, you might be tempted to kick off your socks, sling your sweaty T-shirt across your hotel room room and flop down on the bed. Think again.
Dirty laundry acts as a powerful magnet for bedbugs, a study published in the journal Scientific Reports has found. Its authors have warned that a failure to securely pack away clothes while travelling may explain why populations of biting parasites have soared during the past decade.
The investigation showed that in the absence of a human host bedbugs close in on the second best option: the smell of human left behind on worn clothing.
Monsanto banned from European parliament
Monsanto lobbyists have been banned from entering the European parliament after the multinational refused to attend a parliamentary hearing into allegations of regulatory interference.
It is the first time MEPs have used new rules to withdraw parliamentary access for firms that ignore a summons to attend parliamentary inquiries or hearings.
Monsanto officials will now be unable to meet MEPs, attend committee meetings or use digital resources on parliament premises in Brussels or Strasbourg.
Miami Herald
Trump races to catch up as Puerto Rico crisis escalates
The Trump administration is scrambling to get its arms around a rapidly escalating humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico after Republicans and Democrats charged the White House with moving too slowly and paying too little attention to the island and its 3 million American citizens.
Eight days after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico as a Category 4 storm, Trump’s team suspended for 10 days a U.S. shipping law to allow foreign vessels to assist in Puerto Rico’s relief effort. And the administration announced a three-star general overseeing the U.S. military’s efforts to move supplies into and throughout the island would go to Puerto Rico.
These efforts came only after significant pressure from local and federal officials of both parties, who spent the last three days warning the president that Washington’s response was not sufficient for the scale of the crisis.
On his way to beard-growing finals, he gets busted for drug dealing on the ‘dark web’
He's not Pablo Escobar, not by a long shot.
But authorities say Gal Vallerius is a modern version of a cartel kingpin, operating anonymously as a lord of the internet's “dark web” bazaar where buyers and sellers conduct cocaine, fentanyl, meth, LSD and oxycodone deals in the virtual currency bitcoin.
Vallerius, 38, recently made the mistake of traveling from his base in France to Texas to compete in a world beard-growing championship in Austin. After arriving on Aug. 31 in Atlanta, the brown-bearded Vallerius was arrested by U.S. authorities on a distribution complaint filed in Miami federal court.
Florida schools growing more segregated — and the problem is worst in Miami, study says
While Florida has become more diverse over the past two decades, its schools have grown increasingly segregated. And nowhere is the problem more acute than in Miami.
That’s according to a new study from Florida State University’s LeRoy Collins Institute, which found that one-fifth of the state’s schools are intensely segregated, with African-American and Hispanic students making up 90 percent or more of the student body, compared to just over a tenth of Florida schools in the mid-1990s.
The percent of schools where 99 to 100 percent of the student body is nonwhite, which the study’s authors referred to as “apartheid schools,” also doubled during that period, from 2 percent to 4 percent.
The Seattle Times
Washington state AG Bob Ferguson, Seattle sue OxyContin maker over opioid deaths
Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson and Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes on Thursday filed separate lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies, including OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, accusing them of fueling the state’s ongoing opioid epidemic.
The city of Seattle’s suit includes Purdue, Teva Pharmaceuticals and several other prescription drugmakers. The state’s suit involves only Purdue, accusing the company of using deceptive marketing to convince both patients and doctors that the drug is effective for treating chronic pain and carries low risk of addiction.
The company downplayed the risk of taking the drugs, according to the attorney general’s office.
Buy Nothing Project: free clothes, toys, food — even a wedding
When Erika Dudra moved to Beacon Hill two years ago, she didn’t know any of her neighbors… Dudra soon discovered a Facebook group called Buy Nothing Beacon Hill North. The premise of the group was simple: Offer up something that you don’t need, or ask for something you do need. […]
To participants, Buy Nothing is about more than just fighting consumer culture, though. Today, all of Dudra’s best friends are people she met on Buy Nothing. Every time she walks down to her local coffee shop, she sees someone she knows from the group.
She is one of almost 47,000 Seattleites who are part of a Buy Nothing group in their own neighborhoods. Since this network was started in 2013 by two Bainbridge Island women, members and volunteers have spread the Buy Nothing gospel to more than half a million people in 20 countries, from the Philippines to Luxembourg.
The Oregonian
Oregon Secretary of State's remarks on morality of being gay draw criticism from predecessor
Oregon Secretary of State Dennis Richardson answered "yes" when asked by an Oregon Public Broadcasting reporter Wednesday if being gay is immoral. Thursday, Jeanne Atkins, Richardson's predecessor, released a statement saying Richardson's stance on being gay "calls into question" his ability to perform his job. […]
Richardson, the first Republican to be elected Oregon's secretary of state in three decades, told OPB Wednesday that, in his view, the choice of the government or voters to allow same-sex marriage doesn't "change the definition with God." In his view and the view of his church, sexual relations outside of a marriage covenant between a man, a woman and God is a sin.
CNN
ISIS leader seemingly breaks 11-month silence in audio recording
The leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, seems to have broken his 11-month silence with a long audio message in which he mocks the United States, calls on jihadis to rally against the Syrian regime and insists that ISIS 'remains' despite its rapid loss of territory.
A spokesman with the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence told CNN: "We are aware of the audio tape purported to be of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and are taking steps to examine it. While we have no reason to doubt its authenticity, we do not have verification at this point." […]
The release appears to lay to rest claims by the Russian military that they had almost certainly killed Baghdadi in an airstrike near Raqqa on May 28. US officials say ISIS has largely been forced out of Raqqa as well as Mosul, and Baghdadi may be somewhere in the middle Euphrates River Valley.
Kushner didn't disclose personal email account to Senate intel committee
In his closed interview with the staff of the Senate intelligence committee, White House senior adviser and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner did not share the existence of his personal email account, which he has used for official business, CNN has learned…
The chair and vice chair of the committee were so unhappy that they learned about the existence of his personal email account via news reports that they wrote him a letter via his attorney Thursday instructing him to double-check that he has turned over every relevant document to the committee including those from his "'personal email account' described to the news media, as well as all other email accounts, messaging apps, or similar communications channels you may have used, or that may contain information relevant to our inquiry."
5 poll numbers that show Republicans are turning against the GOP, but not Trump
Republicans have had it.
After more than eight months of unified government -- control of the White House plus both chambers of Congress -- the Republican Party still hasn't kept many of its major promises to its base…
So perhaps it comes as no surprise that Republicans nationwide are not exactly thrilled with the Republican Party. That's not to say Republicans are souring on… Donald Trump. In fact, it's the opposite. The latest CNN poll showed his approval rating among Republicans at a robust 85% -- with six in 10 Republicans saying they "strongly" approve of his job performance so far.
The Sydney Morning Herald
Australia softens Rohingya UN resolution to accusations of 'whitewashing'
The Turnbull government has insisted on softening a United Nations resolution on atrocities against Rohingya Muslims despite mounting evidence that Human Rights Watch says amounts to crimes against humanity.
In closed-door negotiations at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Australia has insisted the words "such violations and abuses" be replaced with the non-accusative "violence" in a resolution dealing with Myanmar's refusal to allow UN investigators to visit the strife-torn Rakhine state.
Xinhua
Chinese scientists reveal why Zika virus causes microcephaly
Chinese researchers said Thursday they might have solved the mystery of why the Zika virus causes microcephaly, a birth defect marked by small head size that can lead to severe developmental problems in babies.
In a study published in the U.S. journal Science, a team led by Cheng-Feng Qin of the Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology reported that one single genetic change, likely acquired in 2013, gave the mosquito-borne virus the ability to cause severe fetal microcephaly.
"Our findings offer a reasonable explanation for the unexpected causal link of Zika to microcephaly, and will help understand how Zika evolved from an innocuous mosquito-borne virus into a congenital pathogen with global impact," Qin said.
Reuters
Turkey's Erdogan calls Iraqi Kurdish referendum illegitimate
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday called the Iraqi Kurdish independence referendum illegitimate and said Russia and Turkey agreed that the territorial integrity of Iraq and neighbouring Syria must be preserved.
Erdogan spoke after face-to-face talks in Ankara with President Vladimir Putin. The Russian leader gave no opinion of the vote, saying Moscow’s position had been set out by the foreign ministry which said it respected the Kurds’ “national striving” but supported the sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of Iraq…
“The Kurdish referendum has no legitimacy in terms of the Iraqi constitution and international laws,” Erdogan said in his comments at the presidential palace.
Illinois Republican governor signs controversial abortion bill
Illinois Republican Governor Bruce Rauner signed a controversial bill into law on Thursday to expand state-funded coverage of abortions for low-income residents on Medicaid and state employees.
The bill, approved by the state legislature in May, would also keep abortions legal in Illinois if the U.S. Supreme Court follows President Donald Trump’s call to overturn its landmark Roe v. Wade ruling that made abortions legal 44 years ago.
Illinois’ Medicaid program has previously covered abortions in cases of rape, incest and when a mother’s life or health is threatened. The expansion would enable poor women to obtain elective abortions. The bill would allow state employees to have the procedures covered under state health insurance.