Top Stories Today – August 15, 2019
Top Stories Today – August 15, 2019
Fox News: NRA and Trump approval rate drop
President Trump is approaching record disapproval and the National Rifle Associate has a net negative favorability rating for the first time in a Fox News poll released Wednesday night. The poll conducted a week after back-to-back mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, shows the NRA with a favorability rating of 42 percent among registered voters, down from 49 percent in 2018; 47 percent hold unfavorable views of the organization.
Trump’s approval rating is 43 percent, down from 46 percent in a Fox News poll last month, and 56 percent of voters now disapprove of his job performance, just shy of his record disapproval rating of 57 percent recorded in October 2017. “Record numbers of men (53 percent), white men (46 percent), and independents (64 percent) disapprove,” Fox News notes. Fox News
Chinese forces exercise near Hong Kong
Chinese paramilitary forces conducted exercises across the border from Hong Kong on Thursday, raising fears that Beijing may be preparing to act against mass demonstrations in the Asian financial hub it has described as “near terrorism”.
Hundreds of members of the People’s Armed Police could be seen at a Shenzhen sports stadium where parking lots were filled by more than 100 dark-painted paramilitary vehicles, prompting US concerns they could be used to break up protests across the border in Hong Kong. Reuters
China’s trade threats blow to world stocks
China’s threat to impose counter-measures in retaliation for the latest US tariffs knocked stocks sprawling on Thursday, checking earlier attempt to recover from a rout sparked by fears of a world recession.
Wall Street futures signaled another weak open for US stocks, which fell 3% on Wednesday after long-dated bond yields dropped, raising fears the US economy was hurtling toward recession and dragging world stocks with it. Expectations the US Federal Reserve and other central banks would respond robustly to the recession warning helped world stocks to steady earlier. But that recovery was cut short by the latest rhetoric from Beijing. Reuters
US move halts release of Iranian tanker held in Gibraltar
The United States moved on Thursday to halt the release of an Iranian supertanker detained in Gibraltar for breaching international sanctions on oil shipments, thwarting efforts by authorities in London and the British overseas territory to defuse tensions with Tehran.
The Gibraltar government confirmed earlier media reports that the US Justice Department seeks to extend the detention of the oil tanker Grace 1, prompting the Supreme Court in the territory to adjourn a scheduled decision on whether to release the ship until later in the day. “The US Department of Justice has applied to seize the Grace 1 on a number of allegations, which are now being considered,” the Gibraltar government said in a statement, adding the matter would be reviewed by the court at 4 pm. The Associated Press
Trump offers personal meeting over Hong Kong crisis
With Chinese security forces spotted conducting exercises across the border with Hong Kong, US President Donald Trump says a trade agreement with China could be delayed until it reaches a humane resolution with Hong Kong’s pro-democracy demonstrators, even suggesting he could personally broker an agreement between Beijing and the dissidents.
Trump went on Twitter late Wednesday night to boast about his administration’s upper hand against Beijing in the ongoing negotiations to end the two countries’ trade war. After writing that “thousands of companies” are leaving China, the president said “Of course China wants to make a deal. Let them deal humanely with Hong Kong first!” The Voice of America
Gunman captured after wounding 6 Philadelphia officers
Police in the US city of Philadelphia arrested a suspect early Thursday after an hours long standoff that left six officers with gunshot injuries that were not life threatening. A spokesman said after police took the suspect into custody, officers worked to clear the house in the city’s Nicetown neighborhood where the gunman had barricaded himself. The situation began Wednesday when an officer went to the address to serve a warrant.
Two police officers were trapped inside the house with the gunman for more than four hours before being safely evacuated. Authorities attempted to communicate with the gunman, including making multiple phone calls, but said that while he did answer the calls, he did not say anything. The police spokesman said all six officers who sustained gunshot wounds had been released from local hospitals by late Wednesday. One other officer was admitted for treatment of injuries that came in a vehicle crash related to the barricade around the scene. The Voice of America
Epstein’s autopsy finds he had broken neck bones
Jeffrey Epstein’s autopsy found that he had several broken bones in his neck, two people familiar with the matter told The Washington Post on Wednesday. The autopsy was conducted Sunday, one day after the financier and accused sex trafficker was found dead inside his cell at Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Center.
Epstein’s hyoid bone was broken, and experts told the Post this can happen in a hanging but is more common in victims of strangulation. There are already several conspiracy theories surrounding Epstein’s death, which the Department of Justice describes as an apparent suicide. Multiple women accused Epstein of coercing them into having sex with his rich and powerful friends, and some people believe he was killed before he could reveal any secrets. The Washington Post via The Week
Many in India approve Modi’s move
The prime minister of the world’s largest democracy had clamped down on Kashmir to near-totalitarian levels. And Narendra Modi’s country reacted with roaring approval: As he had Kashmir stripped of statehood and its special constitutional status, even some of his political opponents were calling out support.
Modi, a Hindu nationalist by the time he was 10 years old, had upended life in India’s only Muslim-majority state, flexing those nationalist muscles for his millions of followers. They loved him for it. Indian prime ministers have long been expected to be unapproachable and intellectual. They were people like Indira Gandhi, scion of India’s most powerful family, and Manmohan Singh, with his expressionless face, blue turban and Ph.D. in economics. Modi is the proud son of a tea-stall owner who became a canny politician and skilled orator and who now, Putin-like, does adventure TV shows like “Man vs. Wild.” He doesn’t lack for confidence. The Associated Press