China sends aircraft and vessels toward Taiwan days after US approves $500-million arms sale

The Derrick

26 August 2023

China sends aircraft and vessels toward Taiwan days after US approves $500-million arms sale

The Palestinian news agency has reported that a 20-year-old died of wounds a month after being shot during an Israeli army raid in the occupied West Bank. The WAFA news agency said Ezzedine Kanan, from the town of Jaba near Jenin, was shot in the head on July 3 during one of the most intense Israeli military operations in the West Bank since an armed Palestinian uprising against Israel’s open-ended occupation ended two decades ago. Kanan’s death brings the total to 14 killed in the raid, which lasted two days and include airstrikes, hundreds of ground troops and bulldozers that were used to raze roads and buildings. The army claimed to have inflicted heavy damage on militant groups in the Jenin refugee camp.

Russian media say a drone attack on Moscow forced a temporary shutdown of all three major airports serving the city. Officials blamed Ukraine for what appeared to be the latest in a series of regular strikes on the Russian capital and the surrounding region, as Kyiv apparently seeks to take the 18-month-war into the heart of Russia. The Russian defense ministry and Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said that the drone was shot down early Saturday over the Istra district of the Moscow region, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Red Square. Sobyanin said there were no reports of casualties.

Knowledge is power and the greatest asset you can acquire in order to compete for a fantasy football championship.

Bill Reinhard offers nine fantasy football tips to help you prepare for your draft and the 2023 season.

FORT WORTH, Texas — No amount of free food and drink could entice a TCU fan to re-watch the national championship game, but coach Sonny Dykes dared do what mortals should not.

Knowledge is power and the greatest asset you can acquire in order to compete for a fantasy football championship.

CHICAGO — For a roomful of area female flag football players, meeting Diana Flores on a summer evening at Halas Hall was something they couldn’t stop smiling about.

PHILADELPHIA — It was 10:17 a.m. Tuesday when my flight out of Sydney left the gate, and it was 6:09 a.m. Tuesday when the plane arrived in San Francisco.

Knowledge is power and the greatest asset you can acquire in order to compete for a fantasy football championship.

PITTSBURGH — This opinion is not based on Kenny Pickett shredding the Atlanta Falcons JV team (although that was impressive). It's based on how Pickett finished last season and how he has performed and comported himself all offseason.

German Chancellor OIaf Scholz is vowing that his coalition government will quickly resolve a dispute over child benefits that has marred attempts to put months of damaging public infighting behind it. Center-left Social Democrat Scholz leads a coalition of three parties that are broadly socially liberal. But their approaches to economic and other issues are often at odds. His two junior coalition partners squabbled at length earlier this year over a plan to replace fossil-fuel home heating systems, which helped drag down the government’s poll ratings. Now they are arguing about a plan to expand child benefits. Scholz said in an interview published Saturday that details of that plan will be cleared up “by next week.”

Fire department officials say two men have been arrested in different parts of Greece on suspicion of deliberately starting wildfires. Across Greece, hundreds of firefighters are battling fires, some of which have been burning for days and have been blamed for 21 deaths. One man was arrested on Evia island for allegedly deliberately setting fire to dried grass in the island’s Karystos area. The fire department said he confessed to having set four other fires in July and August. A second man was arrested in central Greece, also for allegedly deliberately setting fire to dried vegetation. Officials have said arson has been to blame for several fires in Greece over the past week.

GREENVILLE, S.C. — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his staff want to project the nephew of a late president and member of a storied American political family is a viable and major candidate for the White House, rather than the longshot who’s polling nearly 60 points behind the incumbent president.

UNDATED (AP) — Atlantic Coast Conference athletic directors held a video call Thursday night to discuss the possibility of adding California, Stanford and SMU to the league and what to do with the extra revenue expansion would generate. So far, no new talks are scheduled. Adding schools cou…

UNDATED (AP) — LSU defensive tackle Maason Smith’s long-awaited return from a major knee injury last season will be delayed by one game because of a suspension that will sideline him for the No. 5 Tigers’ opener against eighth-ranked Florida State on Sept. 3. A person familiar with the detai…

UNDATED (AP) — Welcome to the final season of college football as we know it. That might sound extreme, but 2023 has an end-of-an-era feel. Texas and Oklahoma are taking their last lap in the Big 12. The Pac-12 is still a Power Five conference. Will it even be a conference in 2024? The Colle…

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Matt Rhule is in a much better place now. A year ago, he was about to break training camp with the Carolina Panthers and dealing with a host of injury and personnel issues that hastened his firing five games into the season. The first-year Nebraska coach showed a sunny d…

Amane Beriso Shankule led a 1-2 finish by Ethiopia in the women’s marathon on a warm day at the world championships. Shankule powered through the city streets of Budapest to finish in a time of 2 hours, 24 minutes, 23 seconds to edge defending champion and teammate Gotytom Gebreslase. Fatima Ezzahra Gardadi of Morocco took bronze. The 31-year-old Shankule said the Ethiopian team worked together to make it difficult on the rest of the runners. Of the 77 runners who started, 65 finished in a race that began with temperatures at 23 degrees Celsius and soared to 29 Celsius by the end.

The Miami Marlins aim to break their three-game home skid with a victory against the Washington Nationals.

When police arrived at a Labor Day weekend boat crash in Biscayne Bay, they found a capsized craft and more than a dozen people tossed into the water.

One year after unveiling a broad plan to address CTA service and safety challenges, President Dorval Carter touted decreases in crime on the transit system and service that runs more closely to schedule, helping to limit the prevalence of ghost buses and trains.

The Philadelphia Phillies lead 1-0 in a three-game series with the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Arizona Diamondbacks host the Cincinnati Reds trying to continue a six-game home winning streak.

The Los Angeles Dodgers take on the Boston Red Sox after Freddie Freeman had four hits on Friday in a 7-4 win over the Red Sox.

The Oakland Athletics play the Chicago White Sox after Nick Allen had four hits against the White Sox on Friday.

The San Diego Padres hit the road against the Milwaukee Brewers looking to break a three-game road losing streak.

The Pittsburgh Pirates host the Chicago Cubs on Saturday.

The New York Mets aim to end their three-game slide when they play the Los Angeles Angels.

Police in Oklahoma say four people were shot during a high school football game where an officer also fired a gun. Choctaw Police Chief Kelly Marshall says officers responded to a report of a shooting around 10:30 p.m. Friday at a game in Choctaw between Choctaw High School and Del City High School. The victims were transported to a hospital with gunshot wounds and one was treated and released. Marshall says at least one of those shot was a student. Police did not have a suspect in custody Friday evening. Del City Police Chief Loyd Berger says off-duty Del City officers were at the game providing security and one of them fired his weapon but was not injured.

SpaceX launches a new space station crew with four astronauts from four countries.

Four astronauts from four countries are rocketing toward the International Space Station. It is NASA's most multinational crew yet, representing the U.S., Denmark, Japan and Russia. SpaceX launched the astronauts before dawn Saturday from Florida's Kennedy Space Center. They should reach the orbiting lab Sunday for a half-year stay, replacing four astronauts living up there since March. Commanding the SpaceX Dragon capsule is NASA's Jasmin Moghbeli, a Marine pilot making her first spaceflight. Her crewmates include a Japanese surgeon and Danish and Russian engineers. Another NASA astronaut will launch to the station next month on a Russian rocket.

Islamic State extremists have almost doubled the territory they control in Mali in less than a year, and their al-Qaida-linked rivals are also capitalizing on the deadlock and perceived weakness of armed groups that signed a 2015 peace agreement. That's according to a new report from United Nations experts. The stalled implementation of the peace deal and sustained attacks on communities have offered the Islamic State group and al-Qaida affiliates a chance “to re-enact the 2012 scenario,” they said in the report circulated Friday, referencing a military coup that took place in March, with rebels in the north forming an Islamic state two months later. The panel said Mali’s military rulers are watching the confrontation between the rival extremist groups from a distance.

Many people who have evacuated communities in Canada's Northwest Territories because of raging wildfires have had to leave their beloved pets behind. But a group of people, including a veterinarian in territorial capital of Yellowknife, have been working find these animals, reunite them with their owners or keep tabs on them until the evacuation is lifted. In some cases, owners have left out food and water for pets left behind, thinking they'd be back home in a day or two. But with evacuations lasting a week or longer, they've had to turn to volunteers for help.

Spain soccer head won't resign for kissing player at World Cup. Team won’t play until he goes

The Seattle Mariners tied Texas for the AL West lead, beating the Kansas City Royals 7-5 behind Eugenio Suárez’s three hits and three RBIs that included go-ahead, two-run single in the fourth inning. Seattle was 10 games out of first at 47-48 before play on July 20, but the Mariners have gone on a 25-8 run. At 128 games into the season, this is the latest the Mariners have had a share of first place since 2003. Kansa City led 3-2 before Suárez’s fourth-inning single.

Nine people died in southern India after a fire broke out inside a stationary train compartment, officials said. The fire broke out early on Saturday morning inside a train’s private compartment which was detached and parked on the railway tracks in the Madurai station, located in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, according to a release from the railways. The blaze burned for two hours before firefighters were able to put it out, authorities said. A gas cylinder smuggled in by some passengers caused the fire, according to a statement by the Southern Railway. Officials told the Press Trust of India news agency that 20 others were injured and taken to hospital.

The Wagner Group’s presence extends from Syria to Africa, projecting the Kremlin’s global influence with mercenaries accused of using brutal force and profiting on mineral wealth. But that was under Yevgeny Prigozhin. In what could have been his final video released this week, he boasted that Wagner is “making Russia even greater on all continents and Africa even more free.” On Wednesday, a private jet carrying Prigozhin and his top lieutenants of the mercenary group crashed northwest of Moscow, two months after he led an armed rebellion that weakened the authority of President Vladimir Putin. That crash has raised questions about the future of the Wagner Group without Prigozhin.