Harvey: ‘He could hear the kids screaming’: 6 family members swept away trying to flee Harvey

Manuel and Belia Saldivar and their four great-grandchildren were last seen in a submerged van.

HOUSTON — Manuel and Belia Saldivar lived for many decades in a house off one of the bayous that threads through northeast Houston. It wasn’t a big house, and it wasn’t a wealthy neighborhood, and Manuel earned a diesel mechanic’s salary most of his life — but the Saldivars prospered nonetheless.

They raised five sons in that house on Lake Forest Boulevard. Some of those sons had children, and some of those children had children. And so in their ninth decade on earth, Belia and Manuel lived a few minutes walk from three separate generations of descendants, the youngest member being a 6-year-old great-granddaughter who loved to dance.

All are gone now, said Ric Saldivar, the 53-year-old son of Manuel and Belia. His mother and father and their four great-grandchildren had not been seen since they sank beneath the bayou’s swollen waters, trapped in a van as they tried to flee their home…

Source: Harvey deaths: ‘He could hear the kids screaming’: Six family members swept away trying to flee Harvey – The Washington Post

Australia Post scare: Discovery white powder addressed to Australian Christian Lobby

An Australia Post mail centre in Canberra was evacuated in the early hours of Friday morning after a package containing white powder, addressed to the Australian Christian Lobby, was discovered.

A spokesman for Australia Post confirmed to Fairfax Media that police HAZMAT units and the ACT Emergency Services Agency had conducted tests on an item received at the mail centre and that operations had now returned to normal.

“Australia Post takes the safety of all of our staff extremely seriously. Relevant authorities evacuated the Canberra Mail Centre early this morning following the detection of a suspicious mail item,” the spokesman said.

It’s understood the substance was found to be harmless. Australian Federal Police have been contacted for comment.

Source: Australia Post scare after discovery of white powder addressed to Australian Christian Lobby

Fleas are testing positive for the plague in parts of Arizona

Officials in two Arizona counties are warning the public after fleas in the region tested positive for the plague, the infamous infectious disease that killed millions during the Middle Ages.

Navajo County Public Health officials confirmed on Friday that fleas in the area have tested positive for the rare disease. The public health warning follows a similar notice from Coconino County Public Health Services District in Arizona warning of the presence of plague in fleas found there too.

Both counties are situated in the northern part of Arizona.

“Navajo County Health Department is urging the public to take precautions to reduce their risk of exposure to this serious disease, which can be present in fleas, rodents, rabbits and predators that feed upon these animals,” the public health warning states. “The disease can be transmitted to humans and other animals by the bite of an infected flea or by direct contact with an infected animal.”

Officials also urged persons living, working, camping or visiting in these areas to take precautions to reduce their risk of exposure, including avoiding sick or dead animals, keeping pets from roaming loose, and avoiding rodent burrows and fleas.

While the warning may ring alarm bells for people who only know of the plague from history books, the findings are not without precedent…

Source: Fleas are testing positive for the plague in parts of Arizona – ABC News

Justine Damond update: Death ruled a homicide

The US medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Australian bride-to-be Justine Damond has ruled her death a homicide, after a neighbour labelled the fatal police shooting an “execution”.

Her distraught partner Don Damond, 53, wants to know why a police officer felt so threatened by a pyjama clad Ms Damond he shot her dead behind their Minneapolis home.

Ms Damond was hit in the stomach when Minneapolis officer Mohamed Noor fired around across his partner from inside their police car about 11.30pm on Saturday.

“This individual died of a gunshot wound of the abdomen,” the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office said on Monday. “Manner of death is homicide.”

 

With AP

MORE: Justine’s death ruled a homicide | Perth Now

Minister Dutton is expected take control of the new ‘Home Office’ style portfolio; CLIP

.@David_Speers: There are concerns about the security agency shake up amongst some. #auspol MORE: https://t.co/ztjN2loEvr http://pic.twitter.com/wbrhIVUUQI

— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) July 17, 2017

Australia beat South Africa by 59 runs: Women’s World Cup – as it happened

Australia were just too strong for South Africa and set up a semi-final against India, who thrashed New Zealand, in Derby on Thursday.

This seems as good a time as any for me to bid you farewell. Australia were just two good there, too clinical for South Africa, who face England now. Can’t escape the sense that the final will be between England and Australia, which really would be great fun. There will be reports on the site shortly no doubt, and I will be back on Tuesday with Vish Ehantharajah for England’s semi-final with South Africa. Until then! Have a great weekend…

MORE: Australia beat South Africa by 59 runs: Women’s World Cup – as it happened | Sport | The Guardian

Julian Assange ghost-writer: He is greasy, greedy, childish, secretive and ‘probably a little mad’

A conversation with British journalist Andrew O’Hagan, former ghostwriter for Assange.

Andrew O’Hagan was an ardent supporter of WikiLeaks, or at least the romanticized idea of it, when he began ghostwriting Julian Assange’s autobiography in January 2011. O’Hagan, one of Britain’s finest contemporary essayists, is passionate about speaking truth to power. He believed the world needed a transparency organization exposing power’s lies and abuses, such as those committed by the American and British militaries during the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.

After years of in-depth conversations with Assange, O’Hagan came to believe that Assange had sabotaged the transparency agenda. The biography project collapsed before Assange moved into the Ecuadorian Embassy during August 2012, but O’Hagan tried to help Assange until late 2013.

As would Trump, by this point. They share this too. They’re both embarrassingly mono-mined leaders with such a gigantic chasm where their empathy should be. The idea that each of these men are not only leaders but see themselves as being sui generis, one-off leaders of mankind, is absolutely flabbergasting self-delusion. They can’t speak to people. The idea of weakness obsesses them. Again and again, they fail to lead.

I feel absolutely bamboozled that anyone would be as naive to imagine that promoting Donald Trump, seemingly in league with Russian forces, would be a freedom-fighting act. … This is the kind of person Julian decides to campaign for. And it is baffling and ruinous to the cause, his cause…

“He is thin-skinned, conspiratorial, untruthful, narcissistic, and he thinks he owns the material he conduits,” you describe Assange, “abusive and monstrous in his pursuit of the truth that interests him … he is probably a little mad, sad, and bad.” Any further thoughts since you wrote those words?

…It’s what somebody like Assange and somebody like Trump have in common: You get into a room, and they just run at the mouth. They’re so confident and self-involved they don’t understand that there are degrees of difference, of opinion, of experience. They’re mono-minded, and they don’t listen. Ultimately they’re careless. Trump doesn’t have the character to be president; carelessness will bring him down. Assange is similar, up to the present minute: His confidence, and his old fear of appearing weak, is fatal.

MORE: He was an ardent WikiLeaks supporter. Then he got to know Julian Assange. – Vox

Donald Trump: Jared Kushner ‘Has Become More Famous Than Me’

He said the same thing about former FBI Director James Comey before firing him.

President Trump joked that his son-in-law Jared Kushner has become “much more famous than me” while meeting with Congressional leaders on Tuesday.

“Jared’s actually become much more famous than me,” he said. “I’m a little bit upset about that.”

Kushner came under scrutiny in the probe into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia after it was reported in May that he told Russian ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak that he wanted to open a private communications channel with Moscow.

Source: Donald Trump: Jared Kushner ‘Has Become More Famous Than Me’ | Time.com

Scott Disick Hangs Out With Topless Aussie Woman in London

A source tells ET that Disick’s ex, Kourtney Kardashian, is worried about him ‘falling off the deep end.’

Scott Disick is working towards a new record!

The 34-year-old reality star was spotted with yet another woman on Thursday — and this time, she was topless!

RELATED: Kourtney Kardashian ‘Worried’ Scott Disick Has ‘Gone Off the Deep End Again’ With His Partying, Source Says

The father of three headed to Monaco, Ibiza and then London after his Cannes adventure last week, landing across the pond and onto a balcony with a topless woman.

The brunette is the ninth woman Disick has been seen with since arriving in Cannes with 19-year-old actress Bella Thorne last week.

MORE: Scott Disick Hangs Out With Topless Woman in London — See the Pic!

Twin Peaks 2017: What was the song in the final scene of the S3 premiere?

Twin Peaks has returned after 25 years with a two-hour premiere which saw David Lynch step behind the camera for the first time since 2006. Kyle MacLachlan and Sheryl Lee were just two of the several returning cast members (Dale Cooper and Laura Palmer) while new faces included Matthew Lillard, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Ashley Judd.

The final scene of the premiere returned fans to the Bang Bang Bar, featuring an ethereal performance from band Chromatics which perfectly captured what the series is all about.

Twin Peaks season 3: Who’s back?

If you’re wanting to listen to the track they played on Spotify, it’s called ‘Shadow.’

Following the episode, the band – who previously contributed music to Ryan Gosling’s Lynch-inspired directorial debut Lost River – released a brand new video for the track.Read our verdict of the Twin Peaks season three premiere here, and follow all of our coverage here.

Source: Twin Peaks 2017: What was the song that played in the final scene of the season 3 premiere? Who are the band? | The Independent

Trump push for border wall threatens to cause government shutdown

Officials uncertain whether president would sign bill without money for wall, with congressional deal to fund government expiring at midnight on Friday

Looming above Washington as Congress and the White House attempt to avert a funding shutdown in only five days’ time, Donald Trump’s central campaign promise to build a wall on the Mexican border threatens to bring the US government to a halt this week in a national display of dysfunction.

On Sunday, even White House officials expressed uncertainty about whether the president would sign a funding bill that did not include money for a wall, which Trump has promised since the first day of his presidential campaign.

“We don’t know yet,” said the White House budget director, Mick Mulvaney, on Fox News Sunday. “We are asking for our priorities.”

The president himself waded into the negotiations on Sunday, holding out two sticks and no carrot. “ObamaCare is in serious trouble,” he tweeted. “The Dems need big money to keep it going – otherwise it dies far sooner than anyone would have thought.”

“The Democrats don’t want money from budget going to border wall despite the fact that it will stop drugs and very bad MS 13 gang members,” he continued, suggesting he would accuse Democrats of being soft on international crime.

But Trump also retreated from a related pledge to the American people: that he would “make Mexico pay” for the wall, which is estimated to cost billions.

“Eventually, but at a later date so we can get started early, Mexico will be paying, in some form, for the badly needed border wall,” the president tweeted, without offering a plan or timeline…

Source: Trump push for border wall threatens to cause government shutdown | US news | The Guardian

Terror link to Queanbeyan near Canberra Caltex stabbing

#F1 Technical analysis – Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari

  

The nose of the Red Bull is open, but it’s what lies within that makes this detail legal: Keep it simple, stupid.

One of the more eye catching details of the RB13 is the nose treatment, much talked about on its launch. While this isn’t a race winning difference, the open nose hole is a sign that Red Bull are thinking about the whole package and getting these new larger bargeboards to work hard. Since 2015 the rules have mandated that the nose tip meets two minimum cross sectional areas. For most teams this has led to the so-called thumb-tip design, where the nose shape is wrapped tightly to these minimum areas. Being at a fixed height, the nose tip therefore blocks the airflow and this impacts on the effectiveness of the turning vane package.

On the RB13 we can see that the nose has gaping hole in the front…

MORE: Technical analysis – Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari

Trump tries to heal rifts in his turbulent presidency as he addresses congress for the first time

Donald Trump has used his first Presidential address to Congress to promise tougher immigration enforcement as he attempts to reconnect with the voters who elected him.

The US President set out his policy blueprint tonight in a speech which hit out at “the mistakes of recent decades”, which he said had resulted in “crumbling infrastructure” and “neglected inner cities” like Chicago, Baltimore and Detroit.

MORE HERE Donald Trump tries to heal rifts in his turbulent presidency as he addresses congress for the first time

Malcolm Turnbull slams Tony Abbott’s ‘Labor Lite’ comments

A frustrated Malcolm Turnbull has labelled Tony Abbott’s critique of his Government as a ‘sad outburst’ and claimed he was not going to be distracted by it.

‘I don’t think Australians are very impressed by that latest outburst and I’m not going to be distracted by it,’ he told reporters on Friday. ‘We all know what it’s about.’

Mr Abbott appeared on Sky News on Thursday night and told Andrew Bolt there was disappointment ‘perhaps even despair’ with Malcolm Turnbull’s government.

Scroll down for video LINK

 

VIDEO: Malcolm Turnbull slams Tony Abbott’s ‘Labor Lite’ comments | Daily Mail Online