The Daily Moth 8-15-19
[Transcript] Hello, welcome to The Daily Moth! It is Thursday, August 15. Ready for news?
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Six Philadelphia police officers shot by gunman
On Wednesday afternoon in Philadelphia, a gunman shot and injured six police officers in a standoff that lasted more than seven hours.
It started at 4:30 pm when police officers went to a home to serve an arrest warrant from a narcotics investigation. When they got into the house, they were shot at multiple times.
Officers returned fire. Some escaped through windows and doors, but two officers were trapped inside for several hours until they were rescued by a SWAT team.
There was a massive police response that took up several city blocks. News videos show dozens of officers huddled behind police cruisers, pointing their firearms towards a house. Bullets ricocheted off the streets around the officers. Injured officers were rushed into police cruisers and taken away.
Witnesses said there were over 100 gunshots and that it terrified the neighborhood. There was a daycare across the street from the home, but nobody was injured. Temple University was near the scene and it was on lockdown for several hours.
After negotiations that lasted past midnight, the gunman walked out of the house with his arms raised. He was arrested, taken to a hospital for treatment, and is in custody.
ABC 6 News identified the gunman as Maurice Hill (34) and said he has a long criminal record of drug offenses that dates back to 2003.
The Philadelphia Police Commissioner said it is a miracle that they don’t have multiple officers killed.
All of the six officers who were shot were released from the hospital Wednesday night. One of them was grazed in the head in a close call.
The gunman’s attorney said he was a part of the negotiations and helped to get him out to be arrested without incident.
The Philadelphia mayor said the suspect had weapons, a large magazine, and a large amount of bullets. He criticized federal and state governments for a lack of progress on gun control and said politicians were unwilling to stand up to the NRA.
President Trump said the gunman looked like he was having a “good time after his capture, and after wounding so many police.” He said he should have a long sentence and that we must get much tougher on street crime.
https://6abc.com/6-philly-officers-shot;-suspect-surrenders-after-hourslong-standoff/5467896/
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/police-fired-upon-philadelphia-they-respond-shooting-incident-n1042436
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/police-fired-upon-philadelphia-they-respond-shooting-incident-n1042436
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1161985864412667905
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Israel blocks U.S. Reps. Omar and Tlaib
Israel’s government announced they will not allow U.S. Representatives Ilhan Omar (D-Minn) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich) to enter the country.
President Trump had pressured Israel to not allow them in.
Omar and Tlaib are the first Muslim women elected to Congress. They had plans to visit several places in Israel this weekend and the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, which is a site that is revered as holy and contested between Jewish and Muslim and Christian followers because it used to be the site of an ancient, holy Jewish temple -- and it is where two holy Muslim buildings now stand.
This planned visit raised controversy. There is also already an ongoing controversy because both Omar and Tlaib have signaled support for the pro-Palestinian BDS movement, which criticizes Israel’s settlements, demands equal rights for Palestinians, and calls for businesses to boycott Israel. BDS is short for Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a few weeks ago, said Omar and Tlaib would be allowed to enter despite their support for BDS, because he respects the U.S. Congress.
Israel law allows the country to bar visitors if they support BDS.
Although they were invited, after President Trump’s tweets that said Israel would show great weakness if it allowed the representatives in because they hate Israel and all Jewish people, Israel announced they are barring Omar and Tlaib.
Now Netanyahu is saying the two Congresswomen only wants to damage Israel and to foment against Israel.
Tlaib was born in Detroit in a family of Palestinian immigrants. Omar was born in Somalia and became a U.S. citizen after her family moved to Minnesota.
Omar and Tlaib have been outspoken in the past against U.S. politicians who support Israel or outspoken against Israel’s policies.
Omar has said that politicians support Israel because of money, then apologized after both Democrats and Republicans condemned the comments were anti-Semitic.
Tlaib has a grandmother who lives in the West Bank, which is occupied by Israel, and planned to visit her.
News analysts said President Trump took an unprecedented step to intervene and influence an allied nation to punish his political opponents at home.
Democratic leaders said Trump’s actions threatened democracy. The AIPAC, a pro-Israel lobby group, said they disagreed with Israel’s decision to bar the Congresswomen.
President Trump doubled down on Twitter, saying Omar and Tlaib “HATE Israel!”
https://www.axios.com/israel-visit-benjamin-netanyahu-ilhan-omar-rashida-tlaib-c66faf62-d416-45c6-8883-6f2fe1247595.html
https://www.wsj.com/articles/israel-weighs-blocking-omar-tlaib-from-west-bank-visit-11565859308?mod=hp_lead_pos3
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“It’s raining plastic,” says scientists in Denver study
Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey said they have found tiny plastics in more than 90 percent of samples of rainwater in the Denver-Boulder area. They published a study that was titled, “It is Raining Plastic.”
They study provides images of microscopic plastic fibers, beads, and shards that are said to have been floating in the air before being caught by rainfall that fell in buckets that were placed in different locations. The fibers were found in both urban and remote, mountainous sites.
The scientists said there should be more studies to assess the effects on the environment and on people and animals.
Another study in Switzerland that analyzed snowfall in the Alps and the Arctic also found “enormous concentrations” of microplastics.
A recent study in Australia said that people around the world are ingesting an average of 5 grams of plastic every week, which is equivalent to a credit card.
Microplastics can come from artificial clothing fibers, varnish that was used to coat cars and ships, rubber from tires, microbeads that are used in toothpastes, or from packaging materials.
https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2019/1048/ofr20191048.pdf
https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/14/health/plastic-rain-colorado-trnd/index.html
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/06/11/health/microplastics-ingestion-wwf-study-scn-intl/index.html
https://nypost.com/2019/08/15/scientists-find-enormous-concentrations-of-microplastics-in-arctic/
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Russian plane makes emergency landing in cornfield
A Russian passenger jet with 233 people on it was forced to make an emergency landing in a farm after it hit a flock of birds shortly after takeoff.
Ural Airlines Airbus 321 took off from Moscow and was destined to go to Crimea when it hit the birds, which got into both engines and caused them to malfunction.
The plane managed to land on a cornfield half a mile from the airport. A picture of the scene showed all doors open with inflatable slides deployed.
The Russian government said 55 people required medical assistance on the scene and 29 people were taken to a hospital, including 10 children and a pregnant woman. All of them are expected to recover.
Ural Airlines said the pilot was very experienced.
This incident is similar to a U.S. Airways plane that was forced to land in the Hudson River after striking a flock of geese after taking off from New York City’s LaGuardia Airport in 2009. All 155 people onboard survived.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/russia-plane-crash-ural-airlines-flight-a321-moscow-emergency-landing-birds-engine-today-2019-08-15/
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Man arrested for kidnapping 4-year-old deaf child
A Deaf family from Gadsen, Alabama, the Williams, said a man who lived near them took their four-year-old daughter to his home without their knowledge nor permission last week.
The man, Darrell Wade Watkins, was arrested and charged with second-degree kidnapping.
The father, Jeremiah, told “The Daily Moth” that he was cutting wood with power tools in the front of his house when Watkins pulled up to the front of their home in a truck.
JEREMIAH WILLIAMS:
What happened? First of all, a white male, Darrell, drove from down the road and past me. I glanced at him as I was cutting wood. He then turned his truck back and parked. We asked what was up. The man said, “Hello, how are you? I’ve missed you. I haven’t seen you in a while.” My daughter could speak so she helped with interpreting and communication. The man kept on saying, “God bless you.” He appeared to be a bit buzzed. But it seemed to be okay because we knew him for almost a year. He offered to help me to cut wood with his equipment, a saw and a trimmer, but I said I didn’t need his help and we were already about to leave after I finished a bit of work. The man said, “Oh, okay.”
Alex: The couple has four children and all of them were outside with both parents. The man sat down on the porch. The father went back to his yard work.
The mother, Mirandia, said her son fell and hurt his knee, so he picked him up and walked to let Jeremiah know that she would be going inside and that he needed to watch the kids.
She said when she came back, she saw that the 4-year-old girl was missing.
MIRANDIA WILLIAMS:
I thought it was harmless because I knew the man for a year. I assumed it was okay because he was just sitting there. After I walked away and came back, I was puzzled because I saw my older daughter and another daughter there, but (the 4-year-old girl) was missing. The man was already gone. It took less than two minutes for me to talk with my husband and to get band-aid for my son’s knee. He was gone and it was less than two minutes. I couldn’t believe it.
Alex: Jeremiah said he immediately drove towards where the man came from. He did not know where he lived, but saw the same truck the man used parked at a home. He called Mirandia’s father, who is hearing, on FaceTime so he could help with communication.
JEREMIAH WILLIAMS:
I was talking with her father, who is my father-in-law, on my phone. I got out of my vehicle and saw through the door’s screen the man holding a cat. My daughter was petting it. I pointed my phone towards him so my father-in-law could witness the kid in there. He immediately called the police. The phone battery died. I opened the door and went inside and grabbed my kid and told the man to back off. The man was shocked and said, “I’m sorry.” He looked drunk. I said don’t take her without my permission. Really, I could have hit him, but I saw that my daughter looked excited with the cat and I didn’t want to beat him up and cause confusion and trauma for my daughter. I kept my cool, took her, and told him to back off. I decided to let the police handle it. The man said he was sorry. I left, got home, and after a while a police vehicle came up.
Alex: The girl was taken to a hospital for an examination, and everything looked normal.
The parents said Watkins lured the girl by asking if she wanted to see the kitten that the family gave to him in March. That is the same cat that the father saw Watkins holding inside of the house with the girl.
The county sheriff told The Gadsen Times that Watkins admitted that he was drunk and that he intended to take the girl with him to get the cat and bring it back to her house.
The sheriff said Watkins had bad judgment and that you can’t take someone else’s child from their property without asking the parents.
Online records show that Watkins is still jailed on a $50,000 bond.
The couple said they are concerned about Watkins because he has an extensive criminal history.
Online records show that since 2010, Watkins was arrested several times for domestic violence, endangering welfare of a child, DUI, and criminal possession of explosives.
The couple said they plan to build a fence.
JEREMIAH WILLIAMS:
Please watch your kids, no matter what. Don’t ever let them out of your sight.
Gadsen Times: https://bit.ly/2Z3XiMx
http://www.etowahcountysheriff.com/sheriff/
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That is all for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light!
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