Today's News: May 25, 2018

World News

The Latest: Syrian army warns Daraa rebels of nearing attack
AP – Syria state-run media says Syrian aircraft have dropped leaflets on rebel-held areas in the country’s south warning of an imminent government offensive, and urging fighters to disarm.

In Mexico, murders keep coming, and so do tourists as violence (mostly) passes them by.
Dallas News – As summer vacation formally gets under way with start of Memorial Day weekend, Shirk’s analogy helps explain the state of Mexico’s tourism industry. Despite bloody headlines from some of the favorite tourist destinations for Americans — from Cancun to Los Cabos — the industry continues to grow, in part, because tourists are almost never the targets

Rising tensions between China, USA
AFP – President Donald Trump has often bragged of his friendship with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, but recent events point to growing stresses between Washington and Beijing.
This week, the Pentagon pulled its invitation for China to participate in maritime exercises in the Pacific, then Trump on Thursday scrapped a summit with North Korea after suggesting Xi may have exacerbated a breakdown in communications.
And all this against a backdrop of simmering trade tensions — and a bizarre case involving a US official and a possible “sonic attack.”

U.S. News, Politics & Government

Deportation protection restored in high-profile Georgia case
AP – Federal immigration authorities have agreed to renew the temporary protection from deportation for a Mexican woman whose case made national headlines eight years ago when she was a Georgia college student, according to a court filing.

Environmental red tape stalls border agents trying to fill drug-smuggler tunnels
Fox – Environmental red tape is causing “long delays” for border agents as they try to fill tunnels used to smuggle people and dangerous drugs into the U.S. from Mexico, according to border officials and Republican lawmakers who have discussed the problem with agents.
Frustrated agents complain the lengthy federal review process can stall critical tunnel-plugging efforts for months after passageways are first discovered.
The tunnels are being used to move people, illegal drugs and even fake pharmaceuticals. But regulations stemming from laws like the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act are putting “remediation” on hold.

Weinstein arraigned on rape, criminal sex act charges… Pleads Not Guilty
AP – The charges stem from encounters with two of the dozens of women — some famous, some not — who have accused him of sexual misdeeds. The rape charge involves a woman who has not come forward publicly; the other is a onetime aspiring actress who was among his first accusers.
Weinstein has consistently denied any allegations of nonconsensual sex.

Teacher and student shot at Noblesville school; shooter in custody
WDTN – Two people are in critical condition and a shooter is in custody after a shooting inside of Noblesville West Middle School.
The Noblesville Police Department said the call first came in at 9:06 a.m. Two people were shot, a 13-year-old girl and a teacher. They are in critical condition.
A male student was detained and taken into custody.

New Push to Topple Obamacare Looms
Wall Street Journal – A group of Republicans and advocacy groups will soon release a proposal intended to spark another push to repeal the Affordable Care Act, resurrecting a potentially volatile issue in the months before the November midterm elections.
The proposal to topple the Obama-era health law and replace it with a plan that would give states more control over health policy is the result of eight months of behind-the-scenes work by a coalition of conservative groups.

Chelsea Manning says mass surveillance ‘getting worse’
AFP – Mass surveillance by government agencies is increasing, especially in the United States, whistleblower Chelsea Manning told a Montreal audience on Thursday as she called for limits on the development of artificial intelligence.
“Ten years ago, I was working in military intelligence and I could feel the power, and could see how technology is implemented,” Manning, once jailed for leaking classified information, said at the C2 Montreal business conference.
Manning said she is stunned now by the “dramatic change in policing style, and aggressive (government) surveillance.”
It is “getting worse, especially in the United States,” she added

Energy & Environment

Subtropical Storm Alberto, First Storm of 2018 Atlantic Hurricane Season, Forms in Western Caribbean Sea
The Weather Channel – Subtropical Storm Alberto has formed in the western Caribbean Sea, and will track north through the Gulf of Mexico through the Memorial Day weekend, bringing the threat of flash flooding, rip currents, strong winds, coastal flooding and tornadoes to the Southeast.

As hurricane season nears, New Orleans worries over flooding
A{ – Dr. Lauren Morris’s dental office is in sight of one of the pumping stations designed to push water out of New Orleans. But despite that proximity, the roughly year-old business has already flooded. Now with a storm in the Gulf threatening heavy rain and the June 1 start to hurricane season nearing, she’s worried.

Australia builds world’s longest cat-proof fence to save wildlife
Channel NewsAsia – A conservation agency has constructed what is believed to be the world’s longest cat-proof fence in central Australia to save native wildlife and vegetation ravaged by the feline predators.

Science & Technology

Android Malware Comes Baked into Some New Tablets, Phones
Dark Readng – d-loading malware is being built into the firmware and operating system of some new tablets and phones from three major manufacturers.
Malware could be one of the features of your fancy new Android tablet. According to researchers at Avast, this malware isn’t just pre-loaded: it’s fully baked in.
Some phones and tablets from ZTE, Archos, and myPhone are coming with malware called Cosiloon pre-installed. It’s an ad loader, and while it loads ads rather than steals information, it’s also impossible to fully eradicate since it’s built into the firmware of the infected devices.

FBI warns Russians hacked hundreds of thousands of routers
Reuters – The FBI warned on Friday that Russian computer hackers had compromised hundreds of thousands of home and office routers and could collect user information or shut down network traffic.
The U.S. law enforcement agency urged the owners of many brands of routers to turn them off and on again and download updates from the manufacturer to protect themselves.
The warning followed a court order Wednesday that allowed the FBI to seize a website that the hackers planned to use to give instructions to the routers. Though that cut off malicious communications, it still left the routers infected, and Friday’s warning was aimed at cleaning up those machines.

Health

Mussels test positive for opioids in Seattle’s Puget Sound
BBC – Scientists at the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife have found that mussels in Seattle’s waters are testing positive for opioids.
The finding suggests “a lot of people” are taking oxycodone in the Puget Sound, researchers say.
Scientists used mussels as a way to test pollution in Seattle’s waters and discovered high enough oxycodone levels for the shellfish to test positive.
Mussels do not metabolise opioids, but some fish can become addicted.

Cockroach Milk? Experts Call Insect Dairy The Next Superfood
CBS – Scientists say they have discovered the neDrug abuse among elderly growsxt superfood that’s a perfect non-dairy alternative. However, they may have a hard time getting people to try cockroach milk. Using a 2016 report on the benefits of insect dairy, scientists found that the Pacific Beetle cockroach of Hawaii possesses nutrient-filled milk crystals, which they use to feed their young. “A single crystal is estimated to contain more than three times the energy of an equivalent mass of dairy milk,” the report stated.

Drug abuse among elderly grows
My San Antonio – The face of the nation’s opioid epidemic increasingly is gray and wrinkled.
But that face often is overlooked in a crisis that frequently focuses on the young.
Consider this: While opioid abuse declined in younger groups between 2002 and 2014, even sharply among those 18 to 25 years old, the epidemic almost doubled among Americans over age 50, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Because of information like that, the Senate Special Committee on Aging convened a hearing Wednesday on opioid misuse by the elderly.

Indian child dies from mother’s ‘snake bite’ breast milk
Medical Press – An Indian woman who was bitten by a snake in her sleep and unknowingly breastfed poisoned milk to her daughter has died along with the child, police said Friday.
The 35-year-old woman from Uttar Pradesh state did not realise she had been bitten when she woke and breastfed her daughter.
The three-year-old girl and the mother fell ill on Thursday and both died before they could reach hospital, police inspector Vijay Singh told AFP.