Twitter, ‘lies’ and videotape: Trump shames beauty queen
Twitter, ‘lies’ and videotape: Trump shames beauty queen
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — Plunging deeper into campaign controversy, Donald Trump publicly shamed a former beauty queen on Friday for her “disgusting” sexual past and then — in one of presidential history’s more bizarre moments — encouraged Americans to watch a “sex tape” he said would support his case.
Even many of Trump’s supporters shook their heads at his latest outburst, which could further hurt him among the nation’s women, many of them already skeptical, whose votes he’ll badly need to win election.
“Did Crooked Hillary help disgusting (check out sex tape and past) Alicia M become a U.S. citizen so she could use her in the debate?” read a missive from Trump posted on Twitter at 5:30 a.m. That referred to 1996 Miss Universe winner Alicia Machado, a Venezuela-born woman whose weight gain he has said created terrible problems for the pageant he formerly owned.
Unsurprisingly, Trump’s pre-dawn tweet-storm ricocheted across the campaign trail.
Trump’s campaign accused the media and Hillary Clinton of colluding to set him up for fresh condemnation, to which Clinton retorted, “His latest twitter meltdown is unhinged, even for him.”
Investigators question engineer in deadly train crash
HOBOKEN, N.J. (AP) — Federal investigators trying to figure out the cause of the deadly rail crash at the Hoboken station questioned the engineer Friday and hoped to lift clues from the train’s black box recorders, though one of the devices was proving difficult to extract from the twisted wreckage.
Thomas Gallagher answered investigators’ questions and was cooperative, according to a government official who was not authorized to discuss the case and spoke on condition of anonymity. The official would not disclose what Gallagher said.
The official also said Gallagher’s blood and urine were sent for testing — standard procedure after an accident — but the results were not yet available.
Gallagher’s NJ Transit commuter train crashed through a steel-and-concrete bumper and hurtled into the waiting area at the Hoboken terminal Thursday morning, killing a woman on the platform and injuring more than 100 other people.
Gallagher, 48, a NJ Transit engineer for about 18 years, was pulled from the wreckage, treated at a hospital and released.
Peres, remembered for tireless peace efforts, laid to rest
JERUSALEM (AP) — Shimon Peres was laid to rest Friday by dozens of world leaders who praised Israel’s former president and prime minister for pursuing peace with an indefatigable spirit and optimism, even though his vision of a “new Middle East” was never fulfilled.
At a high-powered funeral befitting the globe-trotting Peres, speakers including President Barack Obama recalled a seven-decade political career that personified the history of Israel by building its military while also pushing it toward peace.
“He knew better than the cynic that if you look out over the arc of history, human beings should be filled not with fear but with hope,” Obama told the mourners, made up of delegations from 70 countries — an assembly of dignitaries unlikely to be seen in Israel again.
“We gather here today with the knowledge that Shimon never saw his dream of peace fulfilled,” he added. “The region is going through a chaotic time. Threats are forever present. And yet, he did not stop dreaming and he did not stop working.”
Peres, who shared a Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 with former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, died Wednesday at age 93.
US official: Hackers targeted election systems of 20 states
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hackers have targeted the voter registration systems of more than 20 states in recent months, a Homeland Security Department official said Friday.
The disclosure comes amid heightened concerns that foreign hackers might undermine voter confidence in the integrity of U.S. elections. Federal officials and many cybersecurity experts have said it would be nearly impossible for hackers to alter an election’s outcome because election systems are very decentralized and generally not connected to the internet.
The official who described detecting the hacker activity was not authorized to speak publicly on the subject and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. It was unclear, the official said, whether the hackers were foreign or domestic, or what their motives might be. ABC News earlier reported that more than 20 states were targeted.
The FBI last month warned state officials of the need to improve their election security after hackers targeted systems in Illinois and Arizona. FBI Director James Comey told lawmakers this week that the agency is looking “very, very hard” at Russian hackers who may try to disrupt the U.S. election.
Last month, Donald Trump, the GOP nominee for president, suggested that he feared the general election “is going to be rigged.”
Syrian monitor: Russian airstrikes killed 9,300 in past year
BEIRUT (AP) — A year of Russian airstrikes on areas outside government control in Syria have killed more than 9,000 people, displaced tens of thousands and caused widespread destruction, an opposition monitoring group said Friday.
On Sept. 30 last year, Russia began an air campaign backing the ground forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad, turning the balance of power in his favor in many areas — including the northern province of Aleppo and the suburbs of the capital Damascus.
Opposition activists have blamed Russia for most of the recent airstrikes against rebel-held neighborhoods of east Aleppo city that have killed more than 320 civilians in the past two weeks and demolished many buildings.
The anniversary came as violence in different parts of Syria claimed more lives Friday, mainly in Aleppo city where at least 12 people were killed and dozens more wounded.
A Syrian opposition monitoring group that tracks Syria’s civil war said a year of Russian airstrikes have killed 9,364 people in the war-torn country.
14-year-old boy charged in father’s killing, school shooting
ANDERSON, S.C. (AP) — A 14-year-old South Carolina boy was charged as a juvenile Friday with murder and three counts of attempted murder after authorities say he killed his father and opened fire on students at a school playground, wounding three people.
The boy did not show any emotion as he walked into the courtroom wearing a yellow jumpsuit. He was unrestrained, not wearing handcuffs or leg shackles, as required by state law in most juvenile cases.
As the hearing unfolded, one of the wounded students, 6-year-old Jacob Hall, was on life support and fighting for his life at a hospital about 30 miles away. His family said they were praying for a miracle.
Inside the courtroom, the boy’s lawyer, Frank Epps, noted that the teen has given a statement to law enforcement and asked that investigators not question him again without his lawyer present. The judge agreed to that, and ordered the teen to be held in jail.
The boy’s mother sat on the front row during the brief hearing and left the courtroom sobbing and leaning on another woman.
Duterte ‘happy to slaughter’ drug suspects; mentions Hitler
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte raised the rhetoric over his bloody anti-crime war to a new level Friday, comparing it to Hitler and the Holocaust and saying he would be “happy to slaughter” 3 million addicts.
Duterte issued his latest threat against drug dealers and users early Friday on returning to his hometown in southern Davao city after visiting Vietnam, where he discussed his anti-drug campaign with Vietnamese leaders and ways for their governments to fight transnational crimes, including illegal drugs.
Duterte has said his public death threats against drug suspects are designed to scare them to stop selling drugs and to discourage would-be users. But his latest remarks took that crime-busting approach to a different level.
He said he had been “portrayed or pictured to be a cousin of Hitler,” without elaborating.
Moments later he said, “Hitler massacred 3 million Jews … there’s 3 million drug addicts. There are. I’d be happy to slaughter them.”