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Post by mhbruin on Mar 10, 2023 8:44:14 GMT -8
When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion.
The Cartel Throws Some Guys Under the Bus
Reports from the Mexican border city of Matamoros say a splinter group of the Gulf Cartel, called the Scorpions Group, has apologised for kidnapping four US citizens last week, killing two of them, and has turned over the men it says are responsible.
On their front pages, many of Mexico's newspapers published a photograph that appears to show five men lying face down on the ground, their hands tied, and their T-shirts pulled up above their heads. It was apparently taken as police arrived on the scene.
A letter from the Scorpions Group was allegedly left with the men which apologised to the people of Matamoros, to the US victims and their families, and to a Mexican woman killed last week when the gang fired on a white minivan the Americans were travelling in.
The Associated Press says it has obtained a copy of the letter from a law enforcement official in the state of Tamaulipas.
"We have decided to turn over those who were directly involved and responsible for the events", the letter reads, saying the five had "acted under their own decision-making and lack of discipline". The letter also accuses the men of breaking the cartel's rules over "protecting the lives of the innocent".
For All We Know, They Picked Up Five Random Guys Off the Street
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 10, 2023 8:45:37 GMT -8
Iran, China, and Saudi Arabia, Oh My!
Iran and Saudi Arabia have agreed to re-establish diplomatic relations and reopen their embassies within two months, according to Iranian and Saudi state media.
The agreement was reached on Friday during talks in Beijing.
Iranian state media posted images and video of Ali Shamkhani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, with Saudi national security adviser Musaad bin Mohammed al-Aiban and Wang Yi, China’s most senior diplomat.
“After implementing the decision, the foreign ministers of both nations will meet to prepare for an exchange of ambassadors,” Iranian state television said.
In the footage aired by Iranian media, Wang offered “whole-hearted congratulations” on the two countries’ “wisdom”.
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 10, 2023 8:47:55 GMT -8
Down Goes a Bank!
Tech sector fallout is spilling into the banking industry, as investors gauge the odds of survival for Silicon Valley Bank, a major startup lender.
Trading of the bank’s shares was halted Friday before markets opened, after the stock fell by double-digits in pre-market trading on the heels of a more than 60% decline Thursday. Other bank stocks slipped in Thursday trading as well, underscoring investor worries over broader risks to the financial industry.
Concerns over a run at the Santa Clara, California-based bank, the 16th largest bank in the country, have led stock market investors to dump shares of other bank stocks as well. Jitters at SVB follow the news this week that Silvergate, a much smaller bank largely focused on the cryptocurrency industry, announced plans to shut down.
Silicon Valley Bank didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The drama started earlier this week, when SVB announced that it sold about $21 billion of securities and proposed to offer over $1 billion in shares, all to fundraise for “general corporate purposes.”
The move raised eyebrows among investors, who pondered why the bank would need to raise so much money abruptly. It also raised concerns among depositors, many of whom suddenly wondered whether their money was safe at Silicon Valley Bank — a lender known for helping to finance the explosion of tech companies in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Who's Heard of the 16th Largest Bank in the Country?
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 10, 2023 8:51:37 GMT -8
I Don't Think Many People Were High Ducing the Middle AgesA Dutch historian found a unique 1,000-year-old medieval golden treasure, consisting of four golden ear pendants, two strips of gold leaf and 39 silver coins, the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities announced Thursday. Lorenzo Ruijter, 27, who told Reuters he has been treasure hunting since he was 10, discovered the treasure in 2021 in the small northern city of Hoogwoud, using a metal detector. “It was very special discovering something this valuable, I can’t really describe it. I never expected to discover anything like this”, Ruijter said, adding that it was hard to keep it a secret for two years. But experts of the National Museum of Antiquities needed the time to clean, investigate and date the treasure’s objects and have now found that the youngest coin can be dated back to around 1250, which made them assume the treasure was buried then. By that time the jewelry was already two centuries old, the museum said, adding it must already have been “an expensive and cherished possession”. “Golden jewelry from the High Middle Ages is extremely rare in the Netherlands,” the museum also said. 
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 10, 2023 8:53:33 GMT -8
You Don't Really Love Previous Guy. I Really Love Him.
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 10, 2023 8:56:16 GMT -8
At My Age, It's a Good Night When I can Say I Woke
A GOP war on 'woke'? Most Americans view the term as a positive, USA TODAY/Ipsos Poll finds
By 56%-39%, Americans say 'woke' means being aware of social injustice, not being overly politically correct.
The findings raise questions about whether Republican campaign promises to ban policies at schools and workplaces they denounce as "woke" could boost a contender in the party's primaries but put them at odds with broader public opinion in the general election.
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 10, 2023 8:59:55 GMT -8
Bakhmut Updeate
On Thursday, it appears that Ukraine has shelved any plans it may have had for withdrawing forces from Bakhmut. Not only have Ukrainian forces regained control over the “road of life,” they’ve repaired the bridge at Khromove, making it much easier to move in and out of the city. There are also reports that Ukraine has regained the use of the T0504 highway, which runs southwest from Bakhmut to the city of Kostyantynivka. A previously downed bridge along that highway may also have been repaired.
On Thursday morning, commander of Ukrainian ground forces Oleksandr Syrskyi insisted that Ukraine intends to hold Bakhmut as preparation for future counteroffensives and to exhaust the resources of the Russian army. According to Syrskyi, holding Bakhmut is now “more important than ever.”
Syrskyi was in the city again on Wednesday, working with local commanders. Bakhmut may not have held any strategic importance outside of being the place where logistics drove the fight to be hottest … but it’s hard to say it doesn’t hold strategic significance when the Ukrainian leadership is placing it at the center of their strategy.
The Ukrainian general wasn’t the only commander in the city on Wednesday. The owner of the Wagner Group mercenaries, Yevgeny Prigozhin, stepped into eastern Bakhmut long enough to have his picture taken by a monument to the old T-34 tank. Notably, while Prigozhin was flying the flag of Wagner Group, the Russian flag was completely missing from any of the pictures.
As far as the fighting goes, Russia appears to have advanced a couple of blocks in the south. At this point, Russia occupies roughly 50% of the city. Most of that is the area east of the river from which Ukrainian forces withdrew last week.
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 10, 2023 9:02:23 GMT -8
It Seems Like Investigators Have Been Close to an Indictment for Years, Now.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has indicated to Donald Trump’s legal team that he could face criminal charges over hush money paid to an adult film star during the 2016 election, four people familiar with the matter told The New York Times on Thursday.
According to the sources, prosecutors have offered Trump the opportunity to testify before a grand jury case next week, which would be an unusual step if they weren’t planning to proceed with charges. It’s also a sign that a decision on an indictment is close, the Times noted. Sources later confirmed the offer to testify with The Washington Post.
Trump, who’s announced his plans to run for president again in 2024, is unlikely to testify.
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 10, 2023 9:04:44 GMT -8
Who Would Have Ever Thought a Liar Would be a Crook?
A former roommate of Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) accused the Republican on Wednesday of being a ringleader in a credit card fraud scheme in 2017.
The accusation, part of a sworn declaration by Gustavo Ribeiro Trelha sent to federal officials and first reported by Politico, names the lawmaker as the one “in charge of the crime” in Seattle that Trelha was ultimately convicted for.
Santos denied the claim. (How do you know George Santos is Lying?)
In the declaration, Trelha said he knew Santos as Anthony Devolder ― the name Santos used before he ran for Congress ― and that they lived together in Florida. He said Santos taught him how to skim card information and how to clone cards.
“He gave me all the materials and taught me how to put skimming devices and cameras on ATM machines,” Trelha said.
He said in his declaration that Santos had a warehouse in Orlando, Florida, that stored “a lot of material,” including “parts, printers, blank ATM and credit cards.”
Trelha was arrested after being caught on camera taking a skimming device off an ATM in Seattle, according to police. He said in his declaration that Santos stole money that he collected for his bail.
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 10, 2023 9:06:25 GMT -8
Did I Miss the Answer to the Kid's Question?
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 10, 2023 9:09:20 GMT -8
Why Does the Fed Hate Jobs?
America’s employers added a substantial 311,000 jobs in February, fewer than January’s huge gain but enough to keep pressure on the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates aggressively to fight inflation.
The unemployment rate rose to 3.6%, from a 53-year low of 3.4%, as more Americans began searching for work but not all of them found jobs.
Friday’s report from the government made clear that the nation’s job market remains fundamentally healthy, with many employers still eager to hire. Fed Chair Jerome Powell told Congress this week that the Fed would likely ratchet up its rate hikes if signs continued to point to a robust economy and persistently high inflation. A strong job market typically leads businesses to raise pay and then pass their higher labor costs on to customers through higher prices.
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 10, 2023 9:11:10 GMT -8
I Like This Idea. Today I Can Say, "Ich Bin Ein Berliner."
Women in Berlin will soon be allowed to go topless at the city's public swimming pools, like men, the Berlin state government said Thursday.
The new bathing rules allowing everyone to go swimming without covering their torsos followed a discrimination complaint by a woman who was not allowed to go topless in a swimming pool in the capital.
The woman, whose identity was not revealed, had turned to the senate's ombudsperson's office for equal treatment to demand that women, like men, can swim topless, the Berlin senate for justice, diversity and anti-discrimination said in a written statement.
In reaction to the complaint and the ombudsman's involvement in the case, the Berliner Baederbetriebe, which runs the city's public pools, decided to change its clothing rules, the statement said.
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 10, 2023 9:13:19 GMT -8
You Dirty Rat!
Rats, whose populations in cities exploded during the pandemic, have now joined the list of wildlife believed to be capable of catching and transmitting the virus that causes COVID-19, new research finds.
In a study published Thursday in the journal mBio, researchers showed that rats — like dogs, cats, hamsters, ferrets and humans' other close cohabitants — can pick up the pandemic virus from their environment.
They don't appear to get very sick; none of the wild rats deliberately infected in a lab lost weight or died as a result. But when the rats were exposed to the Alpha, Delta and Omicron variants of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, researchers found evidence of robust viral replication in the animals' noses, mouths, throats and lungs.
In addition, a detailed examination of 79 so-called brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) collected in and around the sewers of New York City turned up telltale signs that 13 had been exposed to the coronavirus and developed an immune response. Indeed, PCR testing of the rats' respiratory tissue suggested that four of the 79 rats had active infections when they were euthanized.
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 10, 2023 9:14:57 GMT -8
It Used to Be Worse??
Since a fiery Ohio derailment on Feb. 3, trains have derailed in Florida, West Virginia, Michigan, Oklahoma and Nebraska. On Thursday a Norfolk Southern train derailed in Alabama, and another one hit a dump truck on Tuesday in Cleveland, killing a contractor.
Data shows these derailments are not unusual.
Every day, the nation's railroads move millions of tons of raw materials and finished goods around the country on about 140,000 miles of rails, but their safety record is getting new attention amid the ongoing scrutiny of the East Palestine derailment disaster.
Federal data from 2021 and 2022 says an average of about three trains derail in the U.S. a day. While not all derailments are equally as dramatic or dangerous, railroads are required to report any derailment that causes more than $10,700 in damage.
Although that number isn't as bad as it used to be, there's now a growing push for tougher safety regulations, including a new bi-partisan proposal in Congress aimed at improving rail safety. Railroad workers say large freight railroads have been skimping on maintenance, repairs and staffing in order to squeeze out higher profits.
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