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LONDON (AFP, REUTERS) - London’s Tower Bridge reopened Tuesday (Aug 10) to traffic, after a “technical failure” left the 19th-century landmark’s arms pointing skyward for almost twelve hours. The two sections of the bridge had been stuck since mid-afternoon on Monday, when they had been due to open for a tall wooden ship, the Sailing Vessel Tenacious, according to the bridge’s schedule. The bridge, which allows boats to pass underneath by raising the road which crosses it, got stuck shortly before 2:45pm (1345 GMT), a spokeswoman for the City of London police force said. It is the second time in...

An eight-year-old Hindu boy is being held in protective police custody in east Pakistan after becoming the youngest person ever to be charged with blasphemy in the country. The boy’s family is in hiding and many of the Hindu community in the conservative district of Rahim Yar Khan, in Punjab, have fled their homes after a Muslim crowd attacked a Hindu temple after the boy’s release on bail last week. Troops were deployed to the area to quell any further unrest. On Saturday, 20 people were arrested in connection with the temple attack. The boy is accused of intentionally urinating...

Palestinian Salafists protest against the Egyptian and Syrian regimes, in Rafah Refugee Camp, southern Gaza Strip, Islamic State-inspired actors threatened venue, and attacked it after threats went unheeded A luxurious seaside resort in the Gaza Strip was attacked with an explosive device, reportedly due to it holding events with male and female guests. The Bianco Resort was accused by hardline Muslims of failing to maintain gender segregation, and on Thursday was targeted in an explosion that caused no casualties but damaged a surrounding wall, The Jerusalem Post reported. Salafist groups active in the Gaza Strip were accused by Palestinians of...

Believe What Jesus Says – A Homily for the 19th Sunday of the YearThe Gospel this Sunday amounts to a summons to faith by Jesus. He is summoning us to faith in Himself and in the truth He proclaims about His presence in the Holy Eucharist. Last week’s Gospel ended with Jesus declaring that He was the bread come down from Heaven. This Sunday’s Gospel opens with His Jewish listeners grumbling because He claims to have come from Heaven. Throughout the Gospel Jesus stands firm in His call to faith; He teaches them of the necessity of faith, its origins,...

In an exclusive conversation with UCR, Gene Simmons revealed his thoughts on touring during the COVID-19 pandemic. “My druthers would be that everybody is mandated to get vaccines,” the Kiss bassist confesses. “I hope everybody is going to be wearing their masks. But we can only control what we can control and different states and different countries have different rules.” Kiss is currently slated to resume their End of the Road tour on Aug. 18. The trek spans deep into 2022, with Simmons estimating that the band will add “anywhere between 150 to 200 cities additionally.” In years past, the...

It was a huge deal when South Korea decided to convict Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong—also known as Jay Y. Lee in the west—for bribery in one of the most bizarre scandals in the country’s history. It was also massive when, after getting off easy in 2018, Lee was sent back to prison in January. Well, buckle up folks, because Lee is set to be released from prison... and it’s believed the global chip shortage may have been a factor.... ...The decision is a fraught one. Business leaders hope that Lee returning to his position will help Korea maintain its status...

Cameron Herrin, sentenced to 24 years in prison in Tampa, Florida, in April for vehicular homicide, has been determined “too cute” to be locked up. Three months into the 21-year-old’s jail stint, TikTok and Twitter users flooded the platforms with support for Herrin. On TikTok, supporters of Herrin jumped to make fan accounts to pay homage to their hot felon. Some users made highlight reels of Herrin’s hottest moments in court, tagged with #justiceforcameron. Hannah Kosh, a popular TikTok user, uploaded an explainer video of the bizarre cult following of Herrin, detailing the fan base he has accumulated in only...

There’s a big stink over celebrity shower habits — but experts say there might be more to this soap opera than meets the naked eye. Jake Gyllenhaal recently became the latest in a smelly string of A-listers — from O.G. anti-deodorant duo Matthew McConaughey and Cameron Diaz to modern “wait till you see the dirt” proponents Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis — who are freaking out fans by admitting they embrace the funk. “More and more I find bathing to be less necessary,” Gyllenhaal, 40, told Vanity Fair last week. His aromatic admission came virtually unprompted as the outlet had...

The Florida Department of Health took to Twitter on Monday to ask the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention to update its COVID-19 case tracker for the state because it incorrectly combined "MULTIPLE days into one," which made the Sunday daily case count explode to the state's worst ever. The department said it follows the CDC’s guidelines for reporting cases. The CDC reported 28,317 new cases on Sunday, which WSVN reported would mark the most confirmed infections in one day in the state since the beginning of the pandemic. Multiple media organizations picked up on the number and the department...

NASA has spent nine years and about $2 billion in its quest to drill and store samples of Martian rocks. The Perseverance rover was poised to finally make that happen for the first time on Friday. The rover picked a rock in an ancient Mars lake bed that could have once held alien life, and attempted to drill. But then something strange happened: The sample seems to have vanished without a trace.... ...To figure out what happened, NASA is instructing Perseverance to take close-up pictures of the bore hole it made. Mission controllers will then try to make plans for...

New York lawmakers will start the process toward impeaching Gov. Andrew Cuomo, leaving the beleaguered Democrat with few options to stay in power amid allegations of sexual harassment and other charges. State lawmakers will begin reviewing evidence Aug. 16 in a "secure location" and will hold public hearings after Aug. 23 – sessions that will include experts on both the impact of sexual harassment on its victims and on the impeachment process itself – in New York, which has not impeached a governor in more than a century, Assembly Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Lavine told reporters Monday. "We anticipate that...

Rashida Tlaib’s bigotry comes from the MAGA handbook Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) in June 2019. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post) Opinion by Dana Milbank Columnist Today at 7:29 p.m. EDT It’s a classic Trump move: Blame a minority group for a sinister conspiracy, then deny responsibility when your supporters act on your baseless claim.

<p>Jessica Maiolo, 31, posted a since-deleted video on TikTok about the Miami teen, who spent 10 days in the hospital with the virus, and how his mother said she’d wished she’d gotten him the vaccine sooner so the serious illness could’ve been prevented.</p>

For someone who prides himself on optics, Barack Obama just gave us quite an ugly spectacle. As the rest of America struggles with uncertain employment status and school reopenings, shifting mask mandates, anxiety over vaccinations and variants, the health of the economy and the citizenry at large, Obama had to go and throw himself a huge, epic, three-day birthday bash on Martha’s Vineyard. You would think a former president — one who clearly considers himself more intelligent and sensitive than most — would exercise some restraint. Or at least understand that this was a supremely bad look. Here was our...

While there are literally millions of different viruses around the world, most of which, of course, are benign, there is one thing that defines those which afflict humans most: Mutation.The first thing a virus does when it is met with resistance, for the most part, is to mutate so that it can continue to survive. Only when there is no host to mutate to, do most viruses finally die off.But that’s what is driving the new spike in COVID-19 infections in Florida — higher than average vaccination rates, and a vulnerable population.Thanks to the COVID-19 vaccines, the original strain has...

“The rich man's wealth is his strong city: the destruction of the poor is their poverty” (Proverbs 10:15).

Following the Democrat-run House of Representatives’ failure to extend the moratorium on evictions in the United States, Joe Biden walked back his earlier claim that he lacked the authority to extend the moratorium unanimously. And now, a federal judge is considering the legality of his order. Despite his lack of constitutional authority, Biden caved to progressives and extended the moratorium knowing full well that it would not pass muster if brought to the courts. On Monday, a federal judge rose up to challenge the Biden administration’s order, suggesting that it is engaging in legal “gamesmanship” to resurrect a pandemic-related eviction...

...New York prosecutors... have evidence that Barry Weisselberg, a Trump Organization employee, avoided taxes by living rent-free in a luxury apartment Trump owned, The Daily Beast reported on Sunday. ..Weisselberg, the manager of Trump's Wollman ice rink in Central Park, is the son of Allen Weisselberg.. Now prosecutors have evidence - delivered by Barry Weisselberg's ex-wife, Jennifer - that he avoided paying taxes... ..."In 2018, Weisselberg's family member was allowed to occupy a different Trump-owned apartment on East 61st Street in Manhattan, with no reported rent at all," the indictment said. "The value of lodging provided to [Allen] Weisselberg's family...

The $1 trillion “infrastructure” plan poised to pass the Senate is a bad bill; the only possible excuse its Republican backers have is the claim that it may help stop a truly terrible one — the $3.5 trillion social-spendapalooza Democrats will introduce next. Contra the hype, the 2,700-page “bad” bill won’t pay for itself, and only a tenth of its spending ($110 billion) is for roads, bridges and other major infrastructure projects.... Meanwhile, the bill drops plenty on Dem wish-list projects: $65 billion to expand broadband Internet access, including a new federal entitlement for low-income households, $73 billion for clean-energy...