An Iranian tanker caught in a standoff between Tehran and the West was sailing to Greece on Monday after leaving Gibraltar, and Iran warned against any U.S. move to seize the vessel after the British territory rejected a U.S. request to detain it. Iran's foreign ministry said a U.S. attempt to seize the oil tanker would have "heavy consequences" and a senior Iranian lawmaker said the crisis with Britain would only end after the vessel reached its destination.
As Afghanistan mourned the 63 people killed in a suicide bombing at a Kabul wedding , a brother of the groom spoke through tears of his weariness at the bloodshed in the country and the crushing guilt he felt at having to face his neighbors, many of whom lost relatives in the weekend blast. "Around 20 victims' families live in our very neighborhood," said 22-year-old Ramin, whose brother, Mirwais Alami, survived along with his bride, Raihana. "We don't know how we should look at them," said Ramin, who like many Afghans uses only one name.
Senator Bernie Sanders hit back at Senator Kamala Harris Monday evening after Harris said at a fundraiser in the Hamptons that she has "not been comfortable" with the Medicare for All plan she cosponsored with Sanders.> I don't go to the Hamptons to raise money from billionaires. If I ever visited there, I would tell them the same thing I have said for the last 30 years: We must pass a Medicare for All system to guarantee affordable health care for all, not just for those who can afford it.> > -- Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) August 19, 2019Harris courted wealthy donors in the Hamptons and at Martha’s Vineyard over the weekend, assuring them that, “I believe in capitalism, but capitalism is not working for most people.”"I think almost every member of the United States Senate who's running for president, and many others, have signed on to a variety of plans in the Senate. And I have done the same," the California Democrat said. "I support Medicare for All. But as you may have noticed, over the course of the many months, I've not been comfortable with Bernie's plan, the Medicare-for-All plan."Harris floundered slightly earlier in her campaign on the question of whether private insurance plans would still be available under her health-care proposal. She originally said private health insurance would be eliminated but has since backtracked, saying that while she is “committed to reining in the private insurance companies,” phasing out private insurance “has to happen over a period of time.”Sanders is currently polling ahead of Harris but behind the front-runner, former vice president Joe Biden, and Senator Elizabeth Warren, who is in second place.
Police officers who led a handcuffed African American man down a street with a rope on horseback will not be subjected to a criminal probe in the state, despite widespread outrage after images of the incident were shared online.The decision was announced on Friday by the Texas Rangers, who said in a statement that an initial investigation found “nothing that warranted a criminal investigation”.
Ali Mohammad Rah sat on the pavement outside a police station in Kashmir's main city of Srinagar on Tuesday, waiting to see his teenage sons, who were swept up in government raids overnight. Government sources say at least 4,000 people have been detained in Kashmir since India revoked the restive Himalayan region's autonomy on August 5 and imposed a massive security lockdown on the restive region. To try and stop the raids, residents in Srinagar's Soura area have erected barricades and dug trenches in roads that lead to their cluster of homes.
ABC7 News has confirmed that the man accused of attacking a woman outside her San Francisco apartment building has been fitted with an electronic monitor.
(Bloomberg) -- North Korea’s continued missile tests are of concern to the U.S. government, and negotiations to halt Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions have lagged, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said Tuesday."We haven’t gotten back to the table as quickly as we would have liked,” Pompeo said in an interview with “CBS This Morning.” “But we’ve been pretty clear all along that we know there would be bumps along the way.”Asked whether he was concerned about North Korea’s sixth round of missile tests since July, Pompeo responded “Yes, I wish that they would not. In the end, Chairman Kim made a commitment to President Trump in Singapore in June of last year where he said that he was preparing to denuclearize. Our team’s effort at the State Department is to deliver that on behalf of the American people."North Korea said Saturday that leader Kim Jong Un oversaw tests of an unspecified new weapon, in a move seen as an effort to pressure Washington and Seoul over joint military exercises and the status of nuclear talks, the Associated Press reported.To contact the reporter on this story: Jordan Fabian in Washington at jfabian6@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Kevin Whitelaw at kwhitelaw@bloomberg.net, Elizabeth Wasserman, Kathleen HunterFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
A British Consulate official has been detained in mainland China after urging his girlfriend to “pray for me” as he attempted to cross the border into Hong Kong. Simon Cheng Man-kit, a trade and investment officer at the Hong Kong consulate’s Scottish Development International section, had travelled on August 8 to a business event in Shenzhen and was due to return the same day. The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office said the official had gone missing while returning from the city of 12.5 million that links Hong Kong to Southeast China. “We are extremely concerned by reports that a member of our team has been detained while returning to Hong Kong from Shenzhen. We are providing support to their family and seeking further information from authorities in Guangdong Province and Hong Kong,” said an FCO spokesperson on Tuesday. The British embassy in Beijing confirmed to The Telegraph that the official had been detained in mainland China. His disappearance 10 days ago comes at a time of heightened tension between China and Western nations, including the UK, for their support of pro-democracy demonstrations which have now entered their eleventh week. According to Hong Kong media outlet HK01, Mr Cheng had crossed into the city via the heavily trafficked Lo Wu border crossing and planned to return the same day using the Express Rail link. The site published screenshots that evening from a telephone conversation between Mr Cheng, a Hong Kong permanent resident and his Taiwanese girlfriend, identified only as Ms Lee, in which she asks: “Where are you? Just let me know that you are safe.” Hong Kong protests | Read more Mr Cheng responded: “Passing through. Pray for me,” but did not answer two subsequent calls from his girlfriend. He has not been heard from since. The official, 28, grew up in Hong Kong and studied in Taiwan, Tokyo, Beijing and at the London School of Economics before returning to his home city where he took up a position at the consulate in 2017. It is unclear if he entered China on a diplomatic passport. According to his girlfriend, the British Consulate-General told Mr Cheng’s family to report the case to the police. An officer at the mainland Chinese police station in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Terminus told HK01 that there were no arrests made on August 8 or 9. Ms Lee said that immigration authorities had told her on August 10 that Mr Cheng was under administrative detention in mainland China, but the reason and location of his detention were unknown. Administrative detention in the mainland can last for up to 15 days Protesters gather for a rally in Victoria Park in Hong Kong on Sunday Credit: AFP The immigration department told The Telegraph that it had promptly contacted the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Guangdong for clarification after being alerted by Mr Cheng’s family. The department said it had “provided the family with proper advice and practical assistance” and would “maintain close contact” and follow up with them. His worried girlfriend, described as a financial entrepreneur, told HK01 he had “just started to give back to the community. He grew up in public housing and he used his abilities to get to where he is today.” Mr Cheng’s Facebook page displays multiple posts about work events relating to trade and investment and also a trip last year to Glasgow and Edinburgh. In a statement, Ms Lee urged the Chinese authorities to release her partner as soon as possible and to ensure his safety: “Simon’s disappearance confirms a lot of the fears held by the global investment community about arbitrary detention in mainland China,” she said. Screenshots of earlier messages between the couple revealed that Mr Cheng planned to delete call records and other apps from his phone before passing into Shenzhen. Fears are rising that authorities are checking phones of passengers to the mainland for any links to Hong Kong’s ongoing protests. However, Ms Lee has denied any suggestion of a link to the ongoing anti-government protests in Hong Kong, which she said he did not attend or express a view on. hongkers Mr Cheng’s sudden disappearance while on official duties comes after two Canadians - Michael Kovrig, a former diplomat, and Michael Spavor, an entrepreneur - were detained in China last year during Beijing’s diplomatic dispute with Ottawa over its arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou. It is widely viewed that both men - who have been charged with spying – are being used as political pawns. It also comes as China steps up its use of exit bans against US citizens amid a bitter trade dispute with Washington. Meanwhile on Tuesday, Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s embattled Chief Executive, said she hoped the weekend’s rallies, which passed without any violence, were the start of an effort to restore peace to the financial hub. Ms Lam pledged to talk to peaceful protesters and also to launch a fact-finding study to tackle complaints against the police. She revealed that Anthony Neoh, the Independent Police Complaints Council chief, had met with British officials who had “personally handled the Tottenham riots in England in 2011” and that the Hong Kong authorities planned to hire overseas experts to provide assistance.
Multiple attorneys representing Epstein’s alleged victims had previously vowed to go after the millionaire’s estate after news of his death.