If you write something silly or foolish on Twitter, you're gonna get dragged.
CNN is getting a firsthand lesson in that universal truth after a Saturday tweet went decidedly off the rails. It was supposed to set the scene, pulling a particularly descriptive line from a story about Donald Trump's first evening in a post-Mueller Report world.
Instead, it set off a minor uproar as Twitter's forever-savage peanut gallery responded with a swarm of one-liners. To its credit, CNN chose to let the wave of snark break over the tweet rather than just deleting it (which would have surely made things worse, let's be real). Good sports over there at CNN. Read more...
Dora and the Lost City of Gold takes Nickelodeon's titular explorer and treasure hunter into her high school years... and the real world.
The upcoming Dora movie casts off the series' animated roots in favor of a live-action adventure starring Isabela Moner. This debut trailer offers an extended look at what's to come, from Dora's awkward first steps into her high school years to her next, great treasure hunt.
Dora and the Lost City of Gold hits theaters on Aug. 2. Read more...
One of the most common causes of neck pain is spending an extended period at a desk without taking stretch breaks, and this can impact your physical, social and mental well-being. Interesting fact, neck pain ranks in the top 5 disorders in the United States.
Lucky for you Amazon is offering 30% off InvoSpa shiatsu back shoulder and neck massagers, so whenever you have to do overtime at the office, bring this with you so you can work and relax at the same time.
Every seltzer-chugging person has fantasized about their dream flavor.
Kate Rath brings those bubbly fantasies to life. The 31-year-old artist has been posting whimsical seltzer-inspired art on Instagram for the past several months. Using markers, watercolors, and a little bit of inspiration from Twitter, Rath makes all of her cans pop.
"I stopped drinking about a year ago and was pretty bored because I'd cut out my favorite hobby so I just started messing around with my new art supplies in my free time," Rath tells Mashable via email.
She was originally inspired by another Instagram page, the now-defunct @chobani_flavors, an "unofficial parody" account showcasing Photoshopped Chobani yogurt cups with weird, non-yogurt flavors like "Broken Glass." But since Rath didn't know anything about Photoshop, she went the traditional route. "I just decided to start drawing fake seltzer flavors with my new supplies." Read more...
As adults, it's automatically expected that we have the capacity to sit still and stay calm, cool, and collected at all times. But if our addiction to social media is any indication, idle moments must be filled with some sort of distraction.
We're not asking for much, just something to focus all that excess energy that doesn't include a screen.
If there's one skill that can add an extra kick to your résumé, it's Salesforce — the top Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform now ubiquitous at all sorts of enterprise companies. Its cloud-based apps power work productivity at every stage of the sales funnel, from lead generation to executing upon final sales. In fact, Salesforce claims that its Salesforce Economy is expected to create 3.3 million new jobs by 2022.
Tempted? If you’re looking to jumpstart a career that requires knowledge of Salesforce, you have options. On the non-technical side, look to be certified as a Salesforce Administrator — in which case you’ll want to take a certification exam like the Certified Administrator Exam, which tests your knowledge of Salesforce admin tasks such as building reports, maintaining clean data, and adding new fields to forms. On the flip side, technical-minded folks can look to nab certification as a Salesforce Developer, in which case you should aim to ace an exam such as the Platform App Builder. Salesforce Developers handle all the backend stuff involving building testing, implementing, and maintaining Salesforce apps to keep the platform running like a well-oiled machine. Read more...
As fun as traveling the world is in theory, it can also be incredibly exhausting. New places are unfamiliar and hard to get around. There are flight and train delays. There's jet lag, and new time zones. And of course, all these problems are only exacerbated when you're also dragging around a big, bulky bag overflowing with all your stuff. It’s with that last problem, at least, that we can offer you some help.
The Dr. Save Vacuum Travel Kit is the kind of too-simple-to-believe gadget that you’ll actually be excited to show off to your friends. After filling the airtight plastic bag full of your shirts, pants, jackets, or any other soft, malleable objects you want to travel with, you activate the vacuum pump and suck them into a compact shape. The result is your clothes will take up to 70% less space than they would’ve been without the Dr. Save. The best part? There will be way more room for snacks, books to read on the plane, or souvenirs to bring home. Read more...
Editor's note: Mashable and PCMag are both owned by Ziff Davis.
When was the last time you bought new luggage? We bet it's been a while. That old duffle bag from the back of your closet has seen some wear-and-tear over the years and just isn’t going to work. Looks like it’s time to upgrade to something better.
It's time for some new luggage, friend.
As it turns out, the PCMag Shop is having an epic sale on suitcases and other luggage — all of which include a 10-year manufacturer's warrantySave up to $280 and grab yourself one of these great options from Samsonite and American Tourister. Peep the highlights below and shop the full sale right here. Read more...
It's been a long time since superheroes could be dismissed as mere kid stuff, thanks to stories as intelligent as Black Panther or as disturbing as The Dark Knight or as gleefully inappropriate as Deadpool.
But lost in all the praise over how mature and thoughtful and boundary-pushing these films can be is the fact that, well, superheroes are kid stuff. Most of us first fell in love with these larger-than-life crusaders as children, over comic books or Saturday morning cartoons or family trips to the multiplex.
Incredible videos shared on Twitter are showing the wild rough seas that have led to the evacuation of 1,300 people from a cruise ship off the coast of Norway.
The ship, Viking Cruise's "Viking Sky," sent a distress signal Saturday afternoon local time, reporting "engine problems in bad weather," according to CNN. And videos from both inside the cruise ship and from the shore show how bad the seas are.
The BBC reports that at least one of the ship's engines was successfully restarted, enabling the Viking Sky to move a bit further from the rocky shore. Not surprisingly, the BBC also notes, "The area is known as the Hustadvika and is reportedly one of the most dangerous stretches of Norway's coast." Read more...
If we're being honest, tweeting about what the world would be like without Twitter is peak 2019. And, yet, here we are, with #InAWorldWithoutTwitter trending on an early Spring Saturday.
The tweets are a mix of genuine and jokes yet most of them all hold a grain of truth in them and reveal the best and worst of Twitter as a platform.
#InAWorldWithNoTwitter we'd have no covfefe No hamberders No smocking guns No unpresidented No Scott Free No wire tapp No Melanie No Councel
Pity the remote reporter who has no control when the feed goes live and catches him or her in a vulnerable moment.
This happened to NBC's Matt Bradley who was broadcasting a live spot from Syria about the fight against ISIS. When the feed switched over, unbeknownst to Bradley, viewers got a full dose of the reporter using his spit to fix his hair.
Oh man, poor Bradley. Plenty of us have done something similar before in a moment of desperation but we weren't caught doing it on national cable television. Sure enough, Twitter responded to video of the moment with shock.
Patrons at the popular New York City gay bar Pieces got a big surprise on Friday night when ho-hum music superstar Adele and one of her besties, Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence, dropped by for some drinks and some fun.
Introducing herself onstage as a "stay-at-home mom," Adele garnered loud cheers from the crowd during the bar's "Frisky Fridays" drag show. Adele was later joined by Lawrence who was having just as much fun as her pal.
It’s been a loong winter with way too much time spent binge-watching in bed. All the more reason to strip those stale sheets, replace your threadbare towels, and hit up The Home Depot’s online-only Spring Savings.
Think high-quality basics: super-soft sheets, bath mats, and towels that aren’t adorned with weird bleach stains. In other words: bedding and bath essentials that make you feel like a grown-up. Below, find a look to match your style and then shop The Home Depot’s Spring Savings.
In Nebraska and Iowa there's a brown sea where there should be homes, roads, gas stations, and open country.
Historic floods have deluged vast swaths of the Midwest — even flooding a third of the U.S. Air Force base that houses the nation's critical U.S. Strategic Command. But the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says the floods aren't nearly over. The agency's 2019 Spring Outlook found that nearly two-thirds of the lower 48 states are at risk for flooding in the coming months.
"The extensive flooding we’ve seen in the past two weeks will continue through May and become more dire and may be exacerbated in the coming weeks as the water flows downstream,” Ed Clark, director of NOAA’s National Water Center, said in a statement. Read more...
If you need proof that kids these days are alright and amazing, simply cast your eyes on the students at New Jersey's North Bergen High School who put on a stage play version of the classic sci-fi horror film Alien.
The play was complete with all the trappings of the film, including the infamous facehugger alien, the stomach-bursting scene, and, yes, the large, menacing xenomorph that has come to haunt the nightmares of generations of moviegoers.
While Apple fans are getting hyped up for the big March 25 event, a new report circulating the web is already hinting at a new feature for the next iPhone model.
9 to 5 Mac has shared a report from Japanese Apple blog Macotakara that the next model of iPhone will be able to wirelessly charge other devices, including AirPods and the Apple Watch.
As noted above, this kind of wireless charging is already available with the Galaxy S10 and the Huwaei Mate 20 Pro. That the new AirPods 2 also feature a wireless charging case could be a big indicator Apple is finally ready to roll out its version on the next iPhone. Read more...
As the tire fire that is Theresa May's handling of Brexit continues to burn, a crowd pegged at around a million people flooded the streets of London on Saturday, protesting the disastrous policy and calling on a new referendum.
While the option of a second referendum on Brexit was once seen as highly unlikely, there's now a semblance of hope for those backing the vote. Prime Minister May has bungled the process and is faced with a variety of dubious options, including a yet-again delayed exit or even a no-deal Brexit that would have serious ramifications. Read more...
Some of us Earthlings may see dancing, green lights in the sky on Saturday night.
The sun blasted out a flare of energized particles into space on March 20, and the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Space Prediction Center forecasts that a strip of the northern U.S. may experience a visible effect of this event: an aurora, or eerie dancing greenish light, created when the sun's particles interact with Earth's atmosphere.
Such an atmospheric event is stoked by a disturbance called a geomagnetic storm, where energized solar particles propel changes in Earth's magnetosphere — a sprawling zone of space around Earth where the planet's magnetic field changes and evolves in reaction to the sun. Read more...
The just-announced second-generation AirPods may soon have some competition from Beats, but what does "competition" really mean when Apple also owns Beats? It means more options for you, the consumer, and that's about it.
A completely cord-free version of Beats' PowerBeats3 Wireless headphones could be announced very soon, according to CNET. Citing "a person close to the retail channel who has previously provided credible information," the report suggests that Apple is looking at an April reveal. Read more...
* US Marines recently led a simulated assault on a small island in the Pacific, honing skills that could be essential in a fight with China * The exercise involved the Army and Air Force, part of the Corps' efforts to refine the Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations concept * The mission simulated the process of securing advanced footholds for follow-on forces to conduct further military operations, with rapid redeployment * Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Congress that the ability to seize advanced bases would be critical in a war with China
The U.S. military is practicing tactics that it last rehearsed more than 70 years ago in preparation for a possibly conflict with China.
It was during World War II that U.S. Marines moved quickly from island to island as they fought bloody battles again Japanese forces who were determined to dominate the Pacific.
The Marine Corps is now re-examining its island-hopping strategy for today's troops, as a possible conflict with China draws ever-closer.
Russia has entered a new space competition, according to the head of the country's space agency, Roscosmos. The new "competition" is focused on manned space flight and deep space exploration.
"Now we are entering a new stage of a certain competition with leading space powers, related to future manned programs, including in deep space," Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin said Friday.
Rogozin also revealed that he recently talked to the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Sergeev and discussed the details of the Moon program and specifications of payloads needed for that.
It's not the Razzle Dazzle from Stripes, but it might as well be. Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro thinks his country is staring down the barrel of an upcoming U.S.-led invasion. The only problem is that no one in the American government really seems to care about Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. He's just a trash version of his predecessor, Hugo Chavez – who wasn't that great of a dictator anyway.
A CRUISE ship with 1,300 passengers on board suffered engine failure off the west coast of Norway on Saturday, sparking an arduous evacuation in treacherous conditions.
TWO Britons have described the "frightening" experience of being airlifted from a cruise ship, after the Viking Sky suffered an engine failure off the west coast of Norway, amid treacherous sea conditions.
(LONDON) — Anti-Brexit protesters flooded into central London by the hundreds of thousands on Saturday, demanding that Britain’s Conservative-led government hold a new referendum on whether Britain should leave the European Union.
The “People’s Vote March” snaked from Park Lane and other locations to converge on the U.K. Parliament, where the fate of Brexit will be decided in the coming weeks.
Marchers carried European Union flags and signs praising the longstanding ties between Britain and continental Europe. The protest drew people from across Britain who are determined to force Prime Minister Theresa May’s government to alter its march toward Brexit.
Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable, invited to help lead the march, called the crowd impressive and unified.
“There is a huge turnout of people here from all walks of life, of all ages and from all over the country,” he tweeted. “We are a Remain country now with 60 percent wanting to stop the Brexit mess.”
Police did not provide a crowd estimate. Independent legislator Chuka Umunna and others supporting a second Brexit referendum estimated the crowd at 1 million.
More than 4 million people endorsed an electronic petition this week in favor of revoking Article 50, the act that formally triggered the Brexit process.
The march comes as May, who opposes a second referendum on Britain’s EU membership, is easing away from plans to hold a third vote on her troubled Brexit withdrawal plan, which has been strongly rejected twice by Parliament.
In a letter to lawmakers on Friday night, May said she might not seek passage of her Brexit withdrawal plan in Parliament next week. The embattled leader said she would only bring her EU divorce plan back to Parliament if there seems to be enough backing for it to pass.
“If it appears that there is not sufficient support to bring the deal back next week, or the House rejects it again, we can ask for another extension before 12 April, but that will involve holding European Parliament elections,” she said.
May’s changing stance reflects the plan’s dismal chances in the House of Commons after two prior defeats.
She also says she would need the approval of House Speaker John Bercow to bring the plan back for a third time. Bercow has said a third vote would violate parliamentary rules against repeatedly voting on the same thing unless May’s Brexit divorce plan is altered.
Almost three years after Britons voted to walk away from the EU, the bloc’s leaders this week seized control of the Brexit timetable from May to avert a chaotic departure on March 29 that would be disruptive for the world’s biggest trading bloc and deeply damaging for Britain.
EU leaders at a summit in Brussels set two deadlines for Britain to leave the bloc of nearly half a billion people or to take an entirely new path in considering its EU future.
They agreed to extend the Brexit date until May 22, on the eve of the EU Parliament elections, if May can persuade the British Parliament to endorse her Brexit divorce deal.
Failing that, they gave May until April 12 to choose between leaving the bloc without a divorce deal or deciding on a radically new path, such as revoking Britain’s decision to leave, holding a new referendum on Brexit or finding a cross-party consensus for a very different kind of Brexit.
Despite May’s letter to lawmakers, it was not clear what path her minority government would take this week.
The anti-Brexit marchers on Saturday included 63-year-old Edmund Sides, who spent the last three weeks walking from Wales to London in order to take part.
Sides, a geologist, said he wanted to be able to speak to people along the way, encouraging families that have been split between Leave and Remain to mend their fences and talk.
“The whole country isn’t doing enough of that,” he said.
He is worried about the vicious tone that Brexit arguments have started to take and worries about national cohesion.
“People fear the atmosphere is very dangerous in this country,” Sides said.
(HELSINKI) — A cruise ship with engine problems sent a mayday call off Norway’s western coast on Saturday, then began evacuating its 1,300 passengers and crew amid stormy seas and heavy winds in a high-risk helicopter rescue operation.
The Norwegian newspaper VG said the Viking Sky cruise ship ran into propulsion problems as bad weather hit Norway’s coastal regions on Saturday and started drifting toward land. Police in the western county of Moere og Romsdal said the ship, fearing it would run aground, managed to anchor in Hustadsvika Bay, between the western Norwegian cities of Alesund and Trondheim, so the evacuations could take place.
Rescue teams with helicopters and boats were sent to evacuate the cruise ship under extremely difficult circumstances.
1400: Hustadvika. Cruiseskipet VIKING SKY melder MAYDAY, fremdriftsproblemer i dårlig vær. Driver mot land. HRS har sendt flere helikoptre og fartøy mot stedet. LRS Møre og Romsdal etablerer mottak på land. Pressetlf kan ikke besvares for øyeblikket
1645 Hustadvika: 5 helikoptre og en rekke fartøyer er med i evakuering av «Viking Sky». Det jobbes med å få mer enn den ene motoren i gang. Ca 30 er bragt i land (derav en m lettere skader) og evakuering fortsetter.
Norwegian public broadcaster NRK said the Viking Sky’s evacuation was likely to be a slow and dangerous process, as passengers needed to be hoisted from the cruise ship to the five available helicopters one by one. By 6 p.m. local time, some 100 people had been rescued.
Authorities told NRK that a strong storm with high waves was preventing rescue workers from using life boats or other vessels in taking passengers ashore.
“It’s a demanding exercise, because they (passengers) have to hang in the air under a helicopter and there’s a very, very strong wind,” witness Odd Roar Lange told NRK at the site.
According to the cruisemapper.com website, the Viking Sky was on a 12-day trip that began March 14 in the western Norwegian city of Bergen.
The ship was visiting the Norwegian towns and cities of Narvik, Alta, Tromso, Bodo and Stavanger before its scheduled arrival Tuesday in the British port of Tilbury on the River Thames.
The Viking Sky, a vessel with gross tonnage of 47,800, was delivered in 2017 to operator Viking Ocean Cruises.
(CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand) — A Jordanian prince and the family of a slain 3-year-old boy and were among those who visited a New Zealand mosque Saturday when it reopened for the first time since a terrorist killed dozens of people there.
Hundreds of people stopped at the Al Noor mosque in Christchurch to lay flowers or pray after police removed a cordon and those running the mosque decided to reopen.
Inside the mosque, there were few signs of the carnage from eight days earlier. Crews had replaced windows that worshippers smashed in a desperate attempt to escape when the attacker mowed them down during Friday prayers. Bullet holes were plastered over and painted. There wasn’t time to replace the carpet, which was pulled out and buried because it was soaked in blood.
Shagat Khan, the president of the Muslim Association of Canterbury, said they hadn’t planned to open the mosque so soon but when they saw the crowds gathering after the police cordon was removed they decided to allow people to enter in managed groups “so the mosque will be alive again.”
“Those who lost their families are of course quite emotional,” he said. “And those who were present here during the incident, of course the memories come back. The flashbacks.”
The gunman killed a total of 50 people at two mosques in Christchurch on March 15, in the nation’s worst terrorist attack. Australian Brenton Tarrant, 28, has been charged with murder in the attacks and is scheduled to make his next court appearance on April 5.
Abdullahi Ibrahim Diriye, the uncle of the youngest victim of the shooting, 3-year-old Mucaad Ibrahim, visited the mosque with the boy’s father. Diriye said he helped lift the boy’s coffin to a gravesite Friday as Mucaad’s mother wept. The coffin was very light with such a young child inside, he said.
“Always he was a happy boy, and he liked every person he met, not only Muslims,” Diriye said.
Prince Hassan bin Talal of Jordan, who traveled to New Zealand to pay his respects, hugged a man at the entrance of the mosque and told him to “be patient.”
“He was crying deeply from his heart for a loved one he had lost,” the prince later explained. “And I was saying, this is God’s will, be patient. Because only through patience can you endure.”
Prince Hassan said in the Middle East there have been wars every decade.
“To feel that this form of violence and cruelty is visited on you, living in this idyllic part of the world, is deeply, deeply moving,” he said.
Human dignity is being assailed on all fronts by extremists, he said, and people need to stand together as human beings.
Officials say four Jordanian nationals died in the attack, while a 4-year-old Jordanian girl is also recovering in an Auckland hospital.
Jereeth Abdeen, who was visiting from Auckland, said a friend of his escaped the attack. He said he found it hard to walk through the mosque, especially after glimpsing the gunman’s livestream of the attack after it was sent to him on social media before quickly closing out of the link.
“It’s terrible,” he said. “Nobody should do that in this world.”
Abdeen said he took some comfort that those killed were in a holy place and were about to pray.
“The sad thing is the way they died,” he said. “But our belief is they will be in paradise.”
(MOGADISHU, Somalia) — Gunmen set off a suicide car bombing then stormed a government building in Somalia’s capital of Mogadishu on Saturday, killing at least five people including the country’s deputy labor minister, police said. It was the latest attack by Islamic extremists in the troubled Horn of Africa nation.
After an hours-long gun battle, Somalia’s security forces took back control of the building Saturday afternoon from at least five attackers who forcibly entered the government building that houses the ministries of labor and public works, police Capt. Mohamed Hussein told The Associated Press.
Saqar Ibrahim Abdalla, Somalia’s deputy minister of labor and social affairs, was killed in his ground-floor office shortly after gunmen stormed the building, he said.
Hussein said at least 10 other people were wounded in the attack, which the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab extremist group has claimed responsibility for.
Dozens of people inside the building at the time since Saturday is a working day in Somalia. The building is located not far from the headquarters of the Somali intelligence agency.
As the attack unfolded, gunfire could be heard from inside the building. White smoke billowed from the scene, according to witnesses.
A similar attack targeting a busy area in Mogadishu at the end of February killed at least 24 people.
Al-Shabab, Africa’s most active Islamic extremist group, has been fighting for years to take power and create an Islamic state in Somalia. It frequently carries out suicide bombings targeting public places, hotels and government offices despite being pushed out of Mogadishu. It mostly operates from rural areas in the country’s south.
African Union peacekeepers stationed in Mogadishu and elsewhere in the country have helped Somali forces to keep al-Shabab fighters at bay.
The extremist group has also carried out many deadly attacks in neighboring Kenya in retaliation over Kenya’s deployment in 2011 of peacekeepers in Somalia.
The U.S. military has carried out a number of deadly airstrikes in recent months against al-Shabab.
(BEIRUT) — The Islamic State group has lost all the territory it once controlled in Iraq and Syria, but its shadowy leader and self-proclaimed “caliph” is still at large.
With a $25 million U.S. bounty on his head, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is the world’s most wanted man, responsible for steering his chillingly violent organization into mass slaughter of opponents and directing and inspiring terror attacks across continents and in the heart of Europe.
Despite numerous claims about his death in the past few years, al-Baghdadi’s whereabouts remain a mystery. He appeared in public only once, in 2014. Since then, many of his top aides have been killed, mostly in U.S.-led coalition airstrikes.
He is among the few senior IS commanders still at large after two years of steady battlefield losses that saw the self-styled “caliphate” shrink from an area the size of Britain to a tiny speck in the Euphrates River valley.
Although largely seen as a symbolic figurehead of the global terror network — he was described as “irrelevant for a long time” by a coalition spokesman in 2017 — al-Baghdadi’s capture would be a coveted prize for the various players across both Syria and Iraq.
But so far, he has eluded the Americans, Russians, Syrians, Iraqis and Kurds.
In the last days of IS, as U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces zoned in on the last slice of territory held by the militants in eastern Syria — a couple of villages and farmlands near the Iraqi border — the possibility remained that al-Baghdadi would turn up there. Several hundred IS leaders and hardcore fighters, many of them Iraqis, made a last stand in the enclave before surrendering.
The last pocket, in the eastern village of Baghouz, was declared liberated on Saturday after weeks of fighting. During the siege, civilians streamed out of the pocket and surrendered — estimated at more than 30,000, mostly family of IS. But there has been no sign ofal-Baghdadi.
“The Coalition is not holding him nor do we know where he is,” U.S.-led coalition spokesman Col. Sean Ryan told The Associated Press.
Mohammed Kheder, co-founder of the Sound and Picture group which documents IS, said the last time al-Baghdadi was spotted in the area was about 15 months ago, citing sources on the ground and the testimony of the people who left the area.
In Twitter posts, Kheder’s group has said it cannot rule out the possibility al-Baghdadi was detained long ago — “especially since many of American airdrops and night operations targeting IS leaders along the Iraqi border have not been disclosed by the coalition.”
Iraqi intelligence officials believe al-Baghdadi is hiding somewhere in the desert stretching across the Syrian-Iraqi border, using tunnels to move around.
“He does not use any communication equipment or internet to avoid detection by coalition planes,” a senior intelligence official said. “When he wants to see someone from the organization, they are brought to him individually in cars that stop around two hours away from where al-Baghdadi is, and then they are brought to him individually on motorcycles.”
Another official, a colonel, said the Americans recently targeted some of al-Baghdadi’s closest people, including his personal bodyguard Khaled al-Saudi — known as Khallad — who was killed last week near the area of al-Baaj along the Iraqi-Syrian border.
Khallad’s wife was arrested. Another close aide to al-Baghdadi was also recently killed and his wife captured, the colonel said, adding that the Americans believe such targets will soon lead them to al-Baghdadi. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity to share intelligence information.
Al-Baghdadi was born Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri al-Samarrai in 1971 in Samarra, Iraq, and adopted his nom de guerre early on. According to IS-affiliated websites, he was detained by U.S. forces in Iraq and sent to Bucca prison in February 2004 for his anti-U.S. militant activity.
He was released 10 months later, after which he joined the al-Qaida branch in Iraq of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. He later assumed control of the group, known at the time as the Islamic State of Iraq.
After Syria’s civil war erupted in 2011, al-Baghdadi dispatched comrades to the neighboring country to create a like-minded Sunni extremist group there. The group, which came to be known as the Nusra Front, initially welcomed moderate Sunni rebels who were part of the uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Over time, more of his fighters and possibly al-Baghdadi himself relocated to Syria, pursuing his plan to restore a medieval Islamic state, or caliphate. In April 2013, al-Baghdadi announced what amounted to a hostile takeover of the Nusra Front, saying he was merging it into a new group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Nusra Front’s leader Abu Mohammad al-Golani refused to accept the takeover — as did al-Qaida’s central leadership, which broke with al-Baghdadi.
Al-Baghdadi’s fighters went onto to capture a contiguous stretch of territory across Iraq and Syria, including key cities such as Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq. In June 2014, the group announced its own state, or caliphate. Al-Baghdadi became the declared caliph of the newly renamed Islamic State group.
The group ruled with a virulently extreme interpretation of Islamic law. The atrocities, massacres and beheadings by al-Baghdadi’s militants that followed — many broadcast in grisly and macabre video postings on militant websites — secured IS a spot in some of the darkest, most brutal annals of modern history.
Throughout it all, al-Baghdadi was in the shadows.
His only known public appearance on video was on June 29, 2014, when he appeared as a black-robed figure to deliver a sermon from the pulpit of Mosul’s Great Mosque of al-Nuri in which he urged Muslims around the world to swear allegiance to the caliphate and obey him as its leader.
“It is a burden to accept this responsibility to be in charge of you,” he says in the video. “I am not better than you or more virtuous than you. If you see me on the right path, help me. If you see me on the wrong path, advise me and halt me. And obey me as far as I obey God.”
Little is known about al-Baghdadi’s family. An ex-wife, Saja al-Dulaimi, and her daughter from al-Baghdadi, were detained in Lebanon in 2014. She was released a year later as part of a swap with al-Qaida in exchange for kidnapped Lebanese soldiers and policemen. In July 2018, IS announced that al-Baghdadi’s son, Huthaifa al-Badri, had been killed fighting government forces in central Syria.
None of the subsequent reports of al-Baghdadi being killed or wounded were confirmed. In 2017, Russian officials said there was a “high probability” he had been killed in a Russian airstrike on the outskirts of Raqqa, but U.S. officials later said they believed he was still alive.
He resurfaced in late September 2017, calling in an audio message on followers to burn their enemies everywhere. Another audio was posted last August in which al-Baghdadi urges followers to “persevere” in fighting IS’ enemies — the speech was sprinkled with references to current events to show it was recent.
Experts tracking militant figures said the voice in the recordings was al-Baghdadi’s.
More than 4.18 million people have signed an online petition urging the U.K. government to cancel Brexit, the most names collected in a public campaign.
The record was reached just before midday Saturday, days after Parliament’s petitions website repeatedly crashed as the signatures piled up — fueled by endorsements from singer Annie Lennox, actor Hugh Grant, science broadcaster Brian Cox and comedian David Mitchell.
“The rate of signing is the highest the site has ever had to deal with,” the House of Commons petitions committee said on Twitter as the petition went online. “Between 80,000 and 100,000 people have been simultaneously viewing the petition,” it said, “nearly 2,000 signatures are being completed every minute.”
A lot of people have been asking about numbers. Between 80,000 and 100,000 people have been simultaneously viewing the petition to revoke article 50. Nearly 2,000 signatures are being completed every minute.
The rate of signing is the highest the site has ever had to deal with and we have had to make some changes to ensure the site remains stable and open for signatures and new petitions. Thanks for bearing with us.
The previous record for an online petition was 4.15 million names in 2016 on a proposal to hold a second Brexit referendum, according to the Parliament website.
The current petition drive passed 1 million shortly before 3 p.m. London time Thursday after the link to the petition went viral on social media platforms including Facebook and Twitter. It passed 2 million less than eight hours later.
“The government repeatedly claims exiting the EU is ‘the will of the people,”’ the text of the petition says. “We need to put a stop to this claim by proving the strength of public support now, for remaining in the EU.”
Any petition exceeding 100,000 signatures is eligible for debate by Parliament. It’s then up to a special Petitions Committee of rank-and-file lawmakers to decide whether one should be held.
“I’ve signed. And it looks like every sane person in the country is signing too,” Grant wrote on Twitter. “National emergency. Revoke Article 50 and remain in the EU.”
I’ve signed. And it looks like every sane person in the country is signing too. National emergency. Revoke Article 50 and remain in the EU. – Petitions https://t.co/tPgkaz1soi
(PARIS) — Scattered yellow vest protesters clashed with French police firing tear gas Saturday after a peaceful march through Paris, but a tougher security measures and protest bans in high-risk neighborhoods prevented the kind of rioting that devastated the city a week ago.
The yellow vest movement, which backs greater support for struggling French workers and retirees, appeared diminished Saturday after last week’s destruction and violence further alienated supporters. The protests started four months ago, targeting French President Emmanuel Macron and the economic elite they feel he epitomizes.
Thousands of demonstrators marched peacefully through Paris — their 19th straight weekend of protests — ending up at the Sacre-Coeur Cathedral overlooking the city from the tourist-heavy Montmartre neighborhood.
Protesters sprayed yellow flares and unfurled a neon banner from atop the cathedral’s white dome. In a relaxed mood, demonstrators and tourists alike took selfies as the march wound down.
Later, however, tensions erupted as small clusters of masked protesters set garbage cans on fire and threw projectiles as they moved toward Republique Plaza in eastern Paris. Helmeted riot police fired volleys of tear gas in response.
Small groups of demonstrators and police also clashed in the southern French cities of Nice and Montpellier. Nice was placed under high security measures as Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to stay overnight on Sunday as part of his state visit to France.
Overall, Saturday’s protests were smaller and calmer than a week ago, when resurgent violence reminded France’s government that they’ve failed to quell yellow vest anger. Luxury shops were looted and ransacked last weekend around the Champs-Elysees Avenue in Paris and some were set on fire by protesters.
This week, the French Interior Ministry estimated 8,300 protesters nationwide, including 3,100 in Paris. There were about 10,000 in Paris alone last week.
French authorities banned protests from the Champs-Elysees Avenue in Paris and the central neighborhoods of several other cities including Bordeaux, Toulouse, Marseille and Nice in the south, and Rouen in western France.
The Champs-Elysees was almost empty Saturday except for a huge police presence. Fear of more violence certainly kept tourists away, and police shut down the Champs-Elysees subway stations as a precaution.
Paris police detained 70 people by late afternoon, issued fines to people defying protest bans in certain neighborhoods, and conducted nearly 7,000 “preventive checks” on people entering the capital.
The new Paris police chief, Didier Lallement, who took charge this week following the destruction wrought by last week’s protests, said specific police units were created to react faster to any violence.
About 6,000 police officers were deployed in the capital on Saturday and two drones helped monitor the demonstrations. French authorities also deployed soldiers to protect sensitive sites, allowing police forces to focus on maintaining order.
That decision prompted criticism from opposition leaders and some protesters.
“Since when do soldiers face a population? We are here in France. You would say that we are here in (North) Korea or in China. I never saw something like this,” said Christelle Camus, a protester from a southern suburb of Paris.
Polls suggest last week’s violence dampened public support for the yellow vests — but that a majority of French people still agree with the protesters’ anger over France’s stagnant economy.
Saturday’s marchers held signs demanding more say for citizens in public policy and denouncing “repressive measures” by Macron’s government. One group of women carried a banner reading “Soldiers, policemen, disobey and join us = United against this mafia.”
“We come to protest in a calm manner. We have the right to express ourselves, to say that we want to live (decently),” said Celine Dutry, who came to Paris to protest from the northern city of Amiens — Macron’s hometown. “We are not jealous of the rich.”
The protests started in November to oppose fuel tax hikes but have expanded into a broader rejection of Macron’s economic policies, which protesters say favor businesses and the wealthy over ordinary French workers. Macron countered by dropping the fuel tax hike and holding months of discussions with the public on France’s stagnant wages, high taxes and high unemployment.
The yellow vest movement was named after the fluorescent garments that French motorists must carry in their vehicles for emergencies.
(BAGHOUZ, Syria) — U.S.-backed forces declared military victory over the Islamic State group in Syria on Saturday after liberating the last pocket of territory held by the militants, marking the end of a brutal self-styled caliphate the group carved out in large parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014.
After weeks of heavy fighting, the tent camp where the militants had made their final stand in the village of Baghouz was bombed to shreds. A field pitted with abandoned trenches and bomb craters, and littered with scorched tents and the twisted metal carcasses of vehicles, was all that remained. Half buried in the dirt was a tattered shred of IS’s notorious black flag, while a giant yellow flag belonging to the Syrian Democratic Forces fluttered atop a shell-pocked building.
“Baghouz is free and the military victory against Daesh has been achieved,” tweeted Mustafa Bali, a spokesman for the Kurdish-led SDF, referring to IS by its Arabic acronym.
عاجل الباغوز تحررت،والنصرالعسكري ضد داعش تحقق. نهدي هذا النصر لكل عوائل الشهداء و جرحانا،أولئك الأبطال الذين لولا تضحياتهم لما تحقق هذا النصر. بعد سنوات من التضحيات الكبرى نبشر العالم بزوال دولة الخلافة المزعومة ونجدد العهد على مواصلة الحرب وملاحقة فلولهم حتى القضاء التام عليهم
Syrian Democratic Forces declare total elimination of so-called caliphate and %100 territorial defeat of ISIS. On this unique day, we commemorate thousands of martyrs whose efforts made the victory possible. #SDFDefeatedISIS
The elimination of the last Islamic State stronghold in Baghouz brings to a close a grueling final battle that stretched across several weeks and saw thousands of people flee the territory and surrender in desperation, and hundreds killed.
It spells the end of the militants’ proto-state, which at its height four years ago was the size of Britain and home to some 8 million people, but the extremist group still maintains a scattered presence and sleeper cells across Syria and Iraq. It’s not known whether the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is still alive or where he might be hiding.
IS affiliates in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, Afghanistan and other countries continue to pose a threat, and the group’s ideology has inspired so-called lone-wolf attacks that had little if any connection to its leadership.
The campaign to take back the territory by the U.S. and its partners has spanned nearly five years and two U.S. presidencies, unleashed more than 100,000 bombs and killed untold numbers of fighters and civilians.
But the weekend announcement, in a tweet, was anti-climactic, and on the ground sporadic gunfire continued. A day earlier, President Donald Trump declared that Islamic State militants no longer control any territory in Syria, a victory he had been teasing for days.
Associated Press journalists in Baghouz on Saturday reported hearing mortars and gunfire directed toward a cliff overlooking Baghouz, where U.S.-led coalition airstrikes were carried out a day earlier. SDF spokesman Kino Gabriel said Friday that there were IS fighters hiding in caves near Baghouz and that clearing operations were still underway.
On Saturday, journalists were taken to the encampment in Baghouz where the group had made its last stand — a wasteland of wrecked vehicles, torn tents and scorched trees. A few bodies could be seen and the faint smell of rotting corpses hung in the air.
Personal belongings and other items including generators, oil barrels, water tanks and satellite dishes were scattered in the dirt. Cars and motorcycles were turned to rusted, twisted heaps of metal. There were unused rockets, mortars and grenades, as well as a pile of suicide vests. Amid the empty fox holes and trenches stood a building with a huge yellow SDF flag on top.
Ciya Kobani, an SDF commander, announced the end of the operation from the rooftop: “We have been victorious against Daesh,” he declared.
At its height, the Islamic State group ruled a third of both Syria and Iraq, holding millions of people hostage to its harsh and violent interpretation of Islamic law. The group carried out massacres and documented them with slickly produced videos circulated online. It beheaded foreign journalists and aid workers, and burned alive a captured Jordanian pilot. During a rampage through Iraq’s Sinjar region in 2014, it captured thousands of women and girls from the Yazidi religious minority and forced them into sexual slavery. Many remain missing to this day.
The group also used its caliphate as a launchpad for attacks around the globe, including the assaults in Paris in 2015 that killed more than 130 people.
While it imposed an unforgiving version of Islamic law through public beheadings and crucifixions, the group also carried out the mundane duties of governance in its territories, including regulating prices at markets and repairing infrastructure.
Cornered in Baghouz, the group fought fiercely and desperately to hang on to the last shred of territory it controlled, using thousands of civilians, including women and children, as human shields. In the final weeks, they streamed out of Baghouz, bedraggled, angry and hungry, overwhelming Kurdish-run camps in northern Syria where they are being held.
Aid organizations say more than 100 people have died in the journey from Baghouz to the al-Hol camp in Hassakeh province, or soon after arriving.
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