Khachaturyan sisters who killed father touch Russian hearts

In July 2018 three teenage sisters stabbed and battered their father to death in his sleep, in their Moscow flat.

Investigators have confirmed the girls' father abused them physically and psychologically for years.

Charged with murder, the sisters and what should happen to them have become one of the hottest topics of debate in Russia and more than 300,000 people have signed a petition calling for their release.

What happened to the father?
On the evening of 27 July 2018 Mikhail Khachaturyan, 57, summoned Krestina, Angelina and Maria, who was a minor at the time, one by one to his room. He scolded them for not cleaning the flat properly and sprayed pepper gas in their faces.

Soon afterwards, when he had fallen asleep, the girls attacked him with a knife, hammer and pepper spray, inflicting fatal wounds to his head, neck and chest. He was found to have more than 30 knife wounds.

The young women then called the police and were arrested at the scene.

The investigation soon uncovered an extensive history of violence in the family. Khachaturyan had regularly beaten his daughters over three years, torturing them, keeping them as prisoners and sexually abusing them.

That evidence against their father is cited in their indictments.

California hotel employee 'prevents mass shooting'

California police say a hotel worker may have prevented a mass shooting after the worker reported that a disgruntled colleague had threatened to shoot staff and guests.

Acting on the tip-off, officers arrested a 37-year-old man who was found to have high-powered weapons and ammunition at his Los Angeles home.

It comes amid a wider FBI effort to prevent such shootings.

That followed attacks in El Paso and Dayton that killed 31 people.

Since then US authorities say they have foiled a series of alleged plots to carry out attacks, some of which would have targeted minority groups.

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The FBI has reportedly instructed its field offices to conduct threat assessments and has also urged the public to report threats or suspicious activity.

What happened in California?

Execution set for US killer who preyed on gay men

A serial killer who preyed on gay men along the US east coast is set to be put to death in Florida on Thursday, barring a stay by the US Supreme Court.

Gary Ray Bowles admitted to killing six men in 1994 from Florida to Maryland but was only convicted of three deaths.

Sometimes dubbed the "I-95 killer", most of his victims were found nearby to the interstate corridor that spans the entire eastern seaboard of the US.

The Florida Supreme Court rejected his appeal earlier this month.

Investigators say the 57-year-old West Virginia native left an abusive household as a child and worked as a prostitute to gay men for a number of years before beginning his killing spree.

After two jail sentences for grand theft, robbery, assault and rape, he moved to Daytona Beach in 1993.

During this time he continued to work as a prostitute, and was living with a girlfriend who left him after discovering his sex work.

JOBS: Do You Know A Good Rocket Scientist

Meet Beth Moses, chief astronaut instructor at Virgin Galactic. The woman who teaches the super-rich to slip the surly bonds of Earth. And who also teaches them a little about the niceties of “adult undergarments” on a space flight without loos.

Why should I trust her? Because NASA did. And because her day job involves using words such as “mothership” and “spacecraft”. Also, though she isn’t strictly a rocket scientist, her advice will be ringing in your ears when you’re on a flight into space, travelling at Mach 3.

What does she do? She trains people to go into orbit. Or almost. Virgin Galactic plans to send people into space but turn round and come back without going into orbit.

Turn back? Sounds a bit Apollo 13. Absolutely not. (Though Tom Hanks is said to have signed up for a flight.) This is turning back in a planned, calm, the-champagne-is-in-the-ice-bucket sort of way. Think private jet zooming through the clouds and then keeping on going.

Will the trolley service include drinks and light refreshments? Trollies do very badly in zero gravity. But you won’t starve without your in-flight peanuts. One of the chefs mooted for the swish Foster + Partners New Mexico spaceport on the ground specialises in Japanese-inspired dishes. Feast before you fly. In her NASA days, says Moses, she usually had “a tuna-fish sandwich from the cafeteria”.
And no cabin crew in natty red suits? No cabin crew. And no one knows what any passengers will be wearing. Virgin’s spacesuits, even more than their science, are “top secret”. The most Moses will say is that the suits are not in the traditional “puffy like a Michelin man” vein but are instead “exceptionally sleek”. Albeit with room for those undergarments.

America angers China with a sale of fighter jets to Taiwan

FOR TAIWAN, there is nothing like an American president who is not squeamish about outraging China. Even before he took office, Donald Trump stirred indignation in Beijing by taking a congratulatory phone call just after his election from Tsai Ing-wen, the president of Taiwan. (China saw this as a breach of the “one-China principle”, under which it demands that countries that maintain formal diplomatic ties with it do not also have them with Taiwan, which it views as part of China.) America recently allowed Ms Tsai to visit New York for one of the longest stays ever granted to a Taiwanese president, and sold Taiwan tanks and anti-aircraft missiles worth $2.2bn. But this week Mr Trump thrilled Taiwan with a step that China will see as an even bigger affront.

Spider-Man Fallout: Sony ‘Disappointed’ But Planning To Move On Without Marvel

Seismic waves ripped through the Marvel universe yesterday when news broke that Sony and Disney no longer could figure out how to cooperate on a proper deal to share Spider-Man, meaning that the Tom Holland iteration of the character would be leaving the MCU and only appearing in Sony films from here on out. In a nutshell, it was Sony taking its ball and going home after Disney reportedly asked for a new revenue-share model that was more of a 50/50 split – giving Sony far less than they were getting in the previous agreement.

Since the initial report, new statements have been floated to various outlets suggesting that the report of a complete break are premature, but Sony did officially weigh in on its own social media account, explaining:

Larry King files for divorce from 7th wife, Shawn King

Larry King is ending his marriage to his 7th wife Shawn Southwick King, after being together for 22 years.

The American television and radio host had reconciled with his estranged wife when she tried pulling the plug in April 2010, but initiated the divorce process himself in 2019. Larry King who has been married 7 times to 8 different women, tied the nuptial knots with Shawn in 1997.

Their wedding took place in his hospital room while preparing to undergo surgery to clear a clogged blood vessel in his heart. The couple have two grown sons together, and they are said to be 19 and 20 years old.

Boy, 13, hanged himself after finding out his crush has a boyfriend

A 13-year-old schoolboy took his life after finding out the girl he has a crush on had started dating somebody else.
Harry Storey, told friends on Whatsapp that he was feeling suicidal but they thought he was joking. Later that night on March 1 his father Andrew found his body at their home in Chilton, Oxfordshire.
Mr Storey said: "I could not comprehend what I was seeing."
He carried out CPR and when his wife walked in he shouted for her to call emergency services. Harry was taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital where he died three days later.

Couple found dead in their home in Niger state

A couple in Niger state was found dead in their home in the early hours of today August 21st.
According to reports, the couple went about their businesses yesterday August 20th and retired to their home later in the evening. Sadly this morning, they were both found dead by their neighbors. The cause of their death is yet unknown. However their remains have been buried according to Islamic rites.

‘Angel Has Fallen’ Film Review: Gerard Butler Lurches Through Pointless, Silly Threeque

 No one has ever accused a Gerard Butler action movie of being too smart, but “Angel Has Fallen” operates on such a level of half-considered logic and improbable motivations that even moderately well-mounted action can’t distract audiences from how dumb it is. Returning for the third time to the role of Mike Banning, Butler at least addresses the threat of aging out of a surprisingly anemic landscape of C-grade movies that actually open nationwide in theaters, but director and co-writer Ric Roman Waugh (“Snitch”) seems more interested in defying his main character’s reality than substantially exploring it in this political thriller that blends the most overworked and stale ideas from “First Blood,” “The Fugitive” and even “The Bodyguard” into a watery, tasteless, unfulfilling stew.

 Three years after the events of “London Has Fallen,” Mike Banning is poised for a promotion to head of the Secret Service under President Allan Trumbull (Morgan Freeman), an honorable leader frustrated by the leaks that inexplicably pour out of his inner circle. Banning isn’t sure if he wants the job; despite a growing addiction to painkillers to get through daily life — much less his military exercises — he doesn’t know if behind a desk is the best place for his skill set.

The Matrix 4 confirmed with Keanu Reeves and more key players returning

They aren't just rumours anymore – The Matrix 4 is happening! And not just in the matrix.

It was announced on Tuesday (August 20) that Lana Wachowski is on board to write and direct a fourth movie set in the world of The Matrix, reports Variety.

Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss are confirmed to be back, reprising their iconic roles as Neo and Trinity respectively. More casting announcements will be made in due course.

Trinity in The Matrix
WARNER BROS.
Warner Bros Studios boss Toby Emmerich said: "We could not be more excited to be re-entering The Matrix with Lana.

"Lana is a true visionary – a singular and original creative filmmaker – and we are thrilled that she is writing, directing and producing this new chapter in The Matrix universe."


Lana is currently adapting concepts she previously developed with sister Lilly Wachowski for a new screenplay in collaboration with The Lazarus Project author Aleksandar Hemon and writer David Mitchell.

The new James Bond movie now has a title

We can stop calling it "Bond 25" now.

The 25th entry in the James Bond franchise now has a title.
On Tuesday, the official James Bond Twitter account announced that the new film is titled "No Time to Die."
"Daniel Craig returns as James Bond, 007 in... NO TIME TO DIE," the tweet read. "Out in the UK on 3 April 2020 and 8 April 2020 in the US."
There's been tons of excitement surrounding the film, given that it reportedly will be Craig's last turn as Bond.

Twitter removes nearly 1,000 accounts tied to China's campaign against Hong Kong protesters

Twitter has removed nearly 1,000 accounts and suspended thousands of others tied to a campaign by the Chinese government against protesters in Hong Kong, the company announced on Monday.

Twitter disclosed a “significant state-backed information operation” originating from within the People’s Republic of China (PRC) targeting the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong. It removed 936 accounts and suspended approximately 200,000 accounts its investigation found were illegitimate.

“Covert, manipulative behaviors have no place on our service – they violate the fundamental principles on which our company is built,” Twitter said in a statement.

The company released an archive of offending tweets and accounts, many of which accused protesters of violence and being sponsored by western governments. “We don’t want you radical people in Hong Kong,” one deleted tweet said.

In addition, Twitter said it was banning all advertising from state-controlled news media entities. “Any affected accounts will be free to continue to use Twitter to engage in public conversation, just not our advertising products,” it said, adding that the ban would not apply to entities that are taxpayer-funded but independent.

De Niro's company sues ex-employee for $6m for embezzlement and Netflix bingeing

Chase Robinson, who until recently held a senior role in Robert De Niro’s film production company, has been sued by her employer for $6m.

According to Variety, who have seen papers filed in a state court on Saturday, Robinson – whose most recent position was vice-president of production and finance at Canal Productions – is accused of embezzling money and wasting time during office hours watching television shows.

The suit states that Robinson, who left the company in April on a $300,000 annual salary amid growing concerns of “corporate sabotage”, abused expense accounts to pay restaurant and hotel bills and used millions of De Niro’s own frequent flyer miles for personal trips.

It continues to allege that Robinson wasted “astronomical amounts of time” watching Netflix during work hours, including 55 episodes of Friends during one four-day period in January. Another four-day period saw her view 20 episodes of Arrested Development and 10 of Schitt’s Creek.

The suit states: “Watching shows on Netflix was not in any way part of or related to the duties and responsibilities of Robinson’s employment and, on information and belief, was done for her personal entertainment, amusement and pleasure at times when she was being paid to work.”

Don’t Burn Trees to Fight Climate Change—Let Them Grow

Of all the solutions to climate change, ones that involve trees make people the happiest. Earlier this year, when a Swiss study announced that planting 1.2 trillion trees might cancel out a decade’s worth of carbon emissions, people swooned (at least on Twitter). And last month, when Ethiopian officials announced that twenty-three million of their citizens had planted three hundred and fifty million trees in a single day, the swooning intensified. Someone tweeted, “This should be like the ice bucket challenge thing.”

So it may surprise you to learn that, at the moment, the main way in which the world employs trees to fight climate change is by cutting them down and burning them. Across much of Europe, countries and utilities are meeting their carbon-reduction targets by importing wood pellets from the southeastern United States and burning them in place of coal: giant ships keep up a steady flow of wood across the Atlantic. “Biomass makes up fifty per cent of the renewables mix in the E.U.,” Rita Frost, a campaigner for the Dogwood Alliance, a nonprofit organization based in Asheville, North Carolina, told me. And the practice could be on the rise in the United States, where new renewable-energy targets proposed by some Democrats and Republicans in Congress, as well as by the E.P.A., treat “biomass”—fuels derived from plants—as “carbon-neutral,” much to the pleasure of the forestry industry. “Big logging groups are up on Capitol Hill working hard,” Alexandra Wisner, the associate director of the Rachel Carson Council, told me, when I spoke with her recently.

The story of how this happened begins with good intentions. As concern about climate change rose during the nineteen-nineties, back when solar power, for instance, cost ten times what it does now, people casting about for alternatives to fossil fuels looked to trees. Trees, of course, are carbon—when you burn them you release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. But the logic went like this: if you cut down a tree, another will grow in its place. And, as that tree grows, it will suck up carbon from the atmosphere—so, in carbon terms, it should be a wash. In 2009, Middlebury College, where I teach, was lauded for replacing its oil-fired boilers with a small biomass plant; I remember how proud the students who first presented the idea to the board of trustees were.