Elizabeth Warren joins Biden at the head of the pack

Welcome to 2020 Vision, the Yahoo News column covering the presidential race with one smart, fast takeaway every weekday and a deeper roundup every weekend. Reminder: There are 130 days until the Iowa caucuses and 404 days until the 2020 election. While the political world was transfixed, understandably, by the building drama of an impeachment inquiry into President Trump, significant news was also being made on the campaign trail. I

t looks like the Democratic primary contest has a new frontrunner. Or a co-frontrunner, to be exact. In terms of polling, the story of the summer was how Elizabeth Warren started out in late April around 7 percent, still reeling from her stumble in handling questions about her claims to Native American ancestry, then slowly but surely gained support until she broke away from the pack and joined Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders in the top tier.

Rep. Schiff says he's 'flattered' by Trump's attacks over Ukraine inquiry

 


Donald Trump and Rep. Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and one of the Democrats’ point people on impeachment, got into a war of words Thursday. Moments after Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire testified about his handling of a whistleblower complaint against Trump, Schiff told reporters on Capitol Hill that it was “hard to imagine a more serious set of allegations than those contained in the complaint,” which deals with the president’s attempts to enlist the government of Ukraine in gathering damaging information about his potential rival, Joe Biden. Schiff said his committee would continue to investigate the president through a 14-day recess scheduled to begin on Friday.

 “We need to look into the allegation that this may not be the only communication of a potentially corrupt character that was shielded by this classified information computer system, abused for that purpose,” Schiff said, referring to allegations that records of Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky were sequestered on a super-secure server rather than the one ordinarily used for such purposes.

Bollywood Legend Amitabh Bachchan to Receive India's Highest Film Honor

The acting icon, who also made his Hollywood debut in 'The Great Gatsby,' will receive the government's Dadasaheb Phalke Award for his stellar 50-year career.
Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan will be honored with India's highest film honor, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award.

The announcement was made Tuesday by India's Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar in a tweet stating, "The legend Amitabh Bachchan, who entertained and inspired for two generations, has been selected unanimously for Dadasaheb Phalke Award. The entire country and international community is happy. My heartiest congratulations to him."

The award is named after Dadasaheb Phalke who directed India's first film, Raja Harischandra, in 1913.

"There is a paucity of words searching a response.. for the generosity of words that pour in ..I am but deeply grateful and most humbled .. my sincerest gratitude," Bachchan tweeted as social media erupted with congratulatory messages for the star.

Chinese Gamer Ends Up Paralyzed Waist Down After Playing 20 Hours in Internet Cafe

Love spending long hours playing your favorite video games? Well let this be a warning for you. As you can tell from the headline, a gamer from China recently ended up getting paralyzed from his waist down after a 20-hour stint playing computer games in an internet cafe.

The man, whose identity remains unknown at the moment, began playing games in the evening. The following day, his friends already had to call an ambulance when he realized he couldn’t move the lower part of his body as he tried to get up for a bathroom break.

This guy had to be taken to the hospital after playing too much video games.
According to the reports we’ve gathered online, the incident happened in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province and the said gamer had to be taken to a nearby medical facility.

A $1B Estate, 74 Horses and a Secret Daughter: Meet the Original Real Housewife of Beverly Hills

From the exclusive archives of Dolly Green, daughter of city co-founder Burton E. Green, emerges a picture of an over-the-top heiress: "When you were with her, you felt like you were with royalty."
Wherever midcentury socialite Dolly Green went, a party usually followed. "She would walk into restaurants, and piano players would break into 'Hello Dolly,' " her godson Hernando Patrick Courtright recalls. "She would peel out a hundred-dollar bill and throw it in the fish bowl. Everybody made a fuss over her. When you were with her, you felt like you were with royalty."

In a way, Dolly was royalty: As the daughter of Burton E. Green, an oilman turned real estate developer, she was the princess of the first family of Beverly Hills. A century before Lisa Vanderpump and Denise Richards brought indulgence and sass to The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Green luxuriated in extravagance and dominated its social scene, hosting the top movie stars and moguls of her time. Her reign was set before she was born. In 1900, her father and a group of speculators — including drilling pioneer Charles Canfield and Pacific Electric Railway owner Henry Huntington — bought the Hammel and Denker ranch in rural West Los Angeles. They thought they'd find oil, but instead found groundwater. The oil company quickly was reinvented as Rodeo Land and Water Co., and the high-end development of Beverly Hills was born.

Though it is up for debate whether Burton coined "Beverly Hills," after his hometown of Beverly Farms, Massachusetts, there is no doubt he was the first founder to build a mansion in the neighborhood, a grand Tudor on Lexington Road where he would live until his death in 1965.

‘The Batman': Jonah Hill in Talks to Play Riddler

Jonah Hill is in negotiations to play the Riddler in Matt Reeves’ “The Batman,” an individual with knowledge of the project told TheWrap.

Robert Pattinson is set to star as the Dark Knight. Reeves took over the directing gig after Ben Affleck stepped away from the role. Affleck was also expected to play Batman again but then said he would be hanging up the cape for good. Reeves has since described the film as a “defining” and “very personal” story about the Dark Knight, rather than an origin story in the vein of Frank Miller’s beloved “Year One” series.

For months now, reports have said Hill was the frontrunner to play the antagonist the Penguin. The character first made his appearance in “Detective Comics #58” in December 1941 — he is one of Batman’s biggest enemies, a Gotham City mobster and crime boss. The Riddler first appeared in “Decective Comics #140” in October 1948 and is a criminal mastermind in Gotham City who likes to incorporate riddles and puzzles into his schemes. He is also one of Batman’s biggest foes.

Jan Merlin, Actor and Emmy-Winning Writer, Dies at 94

His toughest gig may have come on 'The List of Adrian Messenger,' for which he received no screen credit.
Jan Merlin, who played villains in dozens of films and TV shows and good guys on Tom Corbett, Space Cadet and The Rough Riders, died Friday in Los Angeles, his family announced. He was 94.

In a painful year in England and Ireland in which he served as a "movable prop" and received no screen credit, Merlin donned masks and heavy makeup to portray several characters and substitute for Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis, Frank Sinatra and others in John Huston's The List of Adrian Messenger (1963). He then wrote a 2001 novel, Shooting Montezuma, based on that experience.

Merlin wrote several other books, many in collaboration with William Russo, who wrote Saturday in a blog post: "Most of our Hollywood history tales were based on his insider knowledge of how a set works, from knowing nearly every star of the 1950s and 1960s. [Merlin] laughed they were all 'six feet tall,' no matter what the truth might be."

Merlin also spent about five years as a writer on the NBC soap Another World, winning a Daytime Emmy in 1975 and receiving another nomination two years later.

'The Simpsons' and 'Rick and Morty' producer J. Michael Mendel dead at 54

J. Michael Mendel, the Emmy-winning producer who worked on "Rick and Morty" and "The Simpsons," has died two days short of his 55th birthday.

Adult Swim, the US television network which has broadcast Rick and Morty since its debut in 2013, released a statement on Twitter saying: "All of us at Adult Swim are devastated by the untimely passing of Rick and Morty producer Mike Mendel.
"He guided and supported a generation of artists, writers and creators and his absence will be felt by the entire community. Our deepest condolences go out to his family, friends and colleagues."
The cause of his death has not yet been confirmed.

UK PM faces calls to resign

As Westminster slowly returns to normal, talk is turning to what happens next.

As things stand: Parliament was not officially suspended; Brexit is happening on October 31; Parliament has passed a law instructing Boris Johnson to request a Brexit extension and avoid a no-deal Brexit; Johnson says he won't.

So Brexit becomes a game of chicken.

We know that Johnson wants an early election, as does his rival, Jeremy Corbyn.

Where they differ is on whether that happens before Brexit has happened, or after it has been extended to avoid a no-deal exit.

Corbyn has two options: call for a vote of no confidence in Johnson's government or keep applying pressure on the Prime Minister hoping he will resign.

Both options are risky as they could lead to Johnson simply sitting tight and watching a no-deal Brexit happen by default.

House of Reps member Chima Uju denies raping mother of four, says she is a ''serial liar and fraudster''

ju Chima, a member of the House of Representatives, has denied the rape allegation levelled against him by businesswoman and mother of four, Nkeiruka Cynthia Kamalu.
Kamalu in a fundamental rights suit filed before a Federal High court, alleged that Chima forcefully had sex with her when she was married in 2015. Read initial story here.
In a chat with the Nation, Chima who represents Ohaji/Egbema, Oguta and Oru West Federal Constituency of Imo State, said Kamalu was a liar and serial fraudster out to extort money from him.

“It is a pure case of fraud, someone who has been defrauding for years. Pure case of fraud! She even defrauded my friend to the tune of over N10 million. (There is) evidence, complete evidence!
Now, you are a man, let me ask you a question: somebody that said you raped her in 2015, and in 2018, the same person came and said she had birth (sic) for you: Is it possible?

Cristiano Ronaldo shades FIFA Best Awards with epic Instagram post

Football star, Cristiano Ronaldo took to his Instagram to make a post shading FIFA Best Awards after they awarded the 2019 FIFA Best Men's award to Lionel Messi.
Ronaldo, who was absent from the award showpiece event, immediately posted a photo of himself operating his i-pad while at home, suggesting that he purposely avoided the awards ceremony.
Ronaldo may have gotten a hint he won't win the award and avoided going to the ceremony.

Mike Pence takes eight-vehicle motorcade across island where cars have been banned for a century

For more than a century, motorised vehicles have been banned from Mackinac Island in Michigan - giving the former Revolutionary War battle site a unique charm and turning it into a tourist haven.

The ban is so strictly enforced that when President Gerald Ford visited in 1975, he and first lady Betty Ford travelled by horse-drawn carriage.

But the Trump administration is known for its norm-breaking, and on Saturday, vice president Mike Pence rumbled across the island in an eight-vehicle motorcade.

Mr Pence was on the island to speak at the Michigan Republican Party's leadership conference, the first ever sitting vice president to address it in its 60-year history.

How a routine training flight ended with 6 Marines killed in a tragic midair collision and 4 officers out of a job

The Marine Corps has finally finished investigating a midair collision off the coast of Japan that killed six Marines in December.

The collision of an F/A-18D Hornet and KC-130J Super Hercules was caused by an inexperienced fighter pilot who conducted an unusual maneuver, hitting the back end of the tanker aircraft during nighttime refueling operations.

But there were other issues, as the investigation also called attention to inadequate oversight of training and operations by squadron leadership and an unprofessional command climate within the squadron.

In the wake of the incident, the commanding officer, the executive officer, the operations officer, and the aviation safety officer were all relieved of their duties.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Six Marines lost their lives in a tragic midair collision last December, and an investigation revealed a series of problems that resulted in the unfortunate incident.

Man Wearing Pennywise Mask With Knife Chased Family Through Woods

Police are on the hunt for a man wearing a 'Pennywise-style' clown mask after he allegedly terrorised a group of families and even tried to get children to 'go with him' in broad daylight.

Mum Ashleigh Hunt warned parents about the creepy stranger after claiming she and her seven-year-old daughter had been chased through the woods near a University of Exeter campus site in Penryn, Cornwall.

In a Facebook post, Ms Hunt said the man was dressed up as the murderous killer clown from horror movie IT, which was based on a novel by Stephen King.

She said: "WARNING to anyone in the Penryn area. Whilst walking near Tremough Campus/Greenwood area around 7.30 this evening, me, my sister and my 7-year-old were chased by a person in a Pennywise-style clown mask and full black clothing!

"My daughter is so terrified she won't even go to the bathroom without me and she cries if I have to leave the room. Police are out looking. Be vigilant people."

Computer-assisted fraud: Hundreds arrested in worldwide crackdown against scam romances, lotteries

The US The Justice Department announced Tuesday that it had arrested 281 of them – including 74 people in the United States – and charged them with wire fraud, money laundering and other crimes for a wide range of digital scams designed to prey on the unsuspecting. The arrests were part of a four-month crackdown on digital schemes called Operation reWired.

The scams tended to target real-estate buyers, the elderly and others by convincing them to make wire transfers to bank accounts that the suspects controlled, according to the department. The suspects would impersonate a key employee to make a transfer after gaining access to the victim’s email account, or perhaps sensitive employment or tax records, often through romance or lottery scams, according to the department.

The arrests included 167 people in Nigeria, 18 in Turkey, 15 in Ghana and others in France, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia and the United Kingdom. Authorities seized nearly $3.7 million, the Justice Department said.