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Saudi Arabia will extend its voluntary oil production cut of 1 million barrels per day into September, the state-owned Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said on Thursday. This is the third month in a row that the kingdom has implemented the cut.

The SPA said that the cut will reduce Saudi Arabia's production to approximately 9 million barrels per day in September. The cut can be extended or deepened, the SPA said.

The decision to extend the cut comes as global oil prices have been under pressure in recent months. The price of Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, is currently trading around $105 per barrel.

The cut is likely to support oil prices in the short term. However, it could also lead to higher gasoline prices for consumers in the United States and other countries.

Background

Saudi Arabia is the world's largest oil exporter. The kingdom's decision to cut production is a significant move that could have a ripple effect on global oil markets.

The cut is part of Saudi Arabia's efforts to support oil prices. The kingdom has been under pressure from the United States and other countries to increase production in order to lower prices. However, Saudi Arabia has resisted these calls, arguing that it needs to protect its market share.

Impact

The extension of the oil production cut is likely to support oil prices in the short term. However, it could also lead to higher gasoline prices for consumers in the United States and other countries.

The cut could also have a negative impact on the global economy. Higher oil prices could lead to slower economic growth and higher inflation.

Conclusion

Saudi Arabia's decision to extend the oil production cut is a significant move that could have a ripple effect on global oil markets and the global economy. The cut is likely to support oil prices in the short term, but it could also lead to higher gasoline prices and slower economic growth.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Moscow promised retaliation Saturday after Ukrainian drones hit a Russian tanker in the Black Sea near Crimea late Friday, the second sea attack involving drones in one day.

Ukraine struck a major Russian port earlier on Friday.

Moscow strongly condemned what it sees as a Ukrainian “terrorist attack” on a civilian vessel in the Kerch Strait, said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

“There can be no justification for such barbaric actions, they will not go unanswered and their authors and perpetrators will inevitably be punished,” she wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

For the past 18 months, orcas have been attacking boats and yachts in the Mediterranean Sea near the Strait of Gibraltar. A new report of an orca boat attack in the North Sea near Scotland is a surprising development.

It's possible that the orcas are displaying “cultural evolution” and other pods are learning behaviors from one another Scientists long assumed that humans were the only animals capable of “cultural evolution”—that is, learned behaviors developed beyond the innate skills gifted to us by genetic evolution. But for a few decades now, the animal kingdom has been providing evidence to the contrary.

Monkeys and whales have shown a particular gift for cultural evolution, and other animals outside the class Mammalia have shown simpler forms of collective learning and adaptation.

Now, the majestic orca (Orcinus orca) is under scrutiny for the same kind of behavior, as boats in the Mediterranean near the Strait of Gibraltar—and surprisingly, off the coast of Scotland in the North Sea—appear to be specifically targeting boats. Although this behavior was well-known in the Iberian orca population, it’s a shocking development that orcas seemingly unaffiliated with the Mediterranean pod are exhibiting similar behaviors.

“I’d be reluctant to say it cannot be learned from [the southern population],” Conor Ryan, a scientist who’s studied orca pods off the Scottish coast, told The Guardian. “It’s possible that this ‘fad’ is leapfrogging through the various pods/communities.”

Despite being known as “killer whales,” orcas are actually members of the dolphin family and are highly sociable, using complex vocalizations to communicate with one another. The learn matrilineally, meaning “grandmother” orcas (which can live for 80 years or more) become matriarchs of their pods and pass on vital hunting skills.

With three boats sunk and upwards of 100 others damaged in Iberia, scientists think that this behavior may come from one such “grandmother” orca named White Gladis. The thought is that she may have survived a traumatic event earlier in life involving a boat, and has since taught her pod how to attack them. It’s also possible that these attacks are timed with Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) migrations, and the orcas perceive boats as competition for food.

Of course, humans are not necessarily innocent victims in these orca hit-and-runs, as boats cause noise pollution and other hazards for the creatures and other marine life. But, regardless, how exactly did an orca in the North Sea learn this seemingly isolated behavior from 2,000 miles away? Some scientists think that highly mobile pods could be capable of teaching these boat-destroying tricks to individuals in other pods.

So, will orcas always be on the hunt for boats and yachts of all shapes and sizes? Well, not necessarily. As seemingly easy as it was for the orcas to pick up this hunting trick, it’s possible that this “cultural evolution” will disappear just as rapidly. Similars shifts have happened before. For example, the website Salon reports that, a few years back, bottlenose dolphins were carrying sea sponges on their noses of the coast of Australia. But as quickly as this “fad” appeared, it became scarce, and soon disappeared entirely.

Scientists don’t know how long this particular “cultural evolution” will stick around. But considering our bang-up job protecting the planet, it almost feels like there’s a measure of justified cosmic karma at play here.

HONG KONG—At dawn, officers from Hong Kong’s national-security police burst into the apartment of Derek Yuen and Eunice Yung, the son and daughter-in-law of a high-profile pro-democracy campaigner who criticizes China’s Communist Party from perches abroad.

The police seized a laptop and mobile phone in the raid last Monday and took Yuen and Yung, who is a pro-Beijing politician in the city’s legislature, to a police station for hours of questioning about the activities of their dissident relative before releasing them without charges, according to Yung.

Elmer Yuen, the 74-year-old U.S.-based activist who is the focus of the authorities’ ire, is one of eight overseas critics of China who are facing arrest warrants in Hong Kong after being accused of national-security crimes. He appeared at a news briefing in Washington last month and another in London on Tuesday, discussing his plans to form an unofficial government in exile.

Elmer Yuen, who shares his political commentary in lengthy videos posted online, said the authorities’ actions against his family members were intended to pressure him to speak out less and to halt his political efforts.

“Of course I worry about my safety and that of my family, but our work has a goal, and a price must be paid,” he told The Wall Street Journal. He said he wouldn’t be deterred “even if they arrest my entire family.”

The family and the widely diverging politics of its members have been the subject of public discussion in Hong Kong in recent years. They appeared in a 2020 documentary aired by the city’s public broadcaster RTHK, and their story has resonated with many Hong Kongers in politically divided homes.

Yung is the vice chair of a major pro-Beijing political party. Her husband once joked that their daughters’ crayons at home were missing a yellow one—the color of the city’s pro-democracy movement—because his wife had removed it.

After Yung was questioned, she said she was cooperating fully with investigators and hoped her father-in-law and the other dissidents would be arrested soon. “If I know about his whereabouts, I will without a doubt disclose it,” she said.

Yung and her husband didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Hong Kong’s chief executive, John Lee, has encouraged friends and relatives of the wanted dissidents to share tips and said they were eligible, along with other members of the public, for a reward of about $128,000 for capture of each activist.

1. Deadline is extended One option is for the Ecowas leaders to extend the deadline.

This has the danger of being seen as a climbdown, but the heads of state could save face by saying that diplomatic efforts have made progress and they want to give them more time.

The problem at the moment is that Ecowas mediation efforts have not borne fruit. A delegation sent to Niger on Thursday returned within a few hours with apparently little to show for it.

Meanwhile, the junta stepped up its rhetoric against both the West and Ecowas. It announced that it was cutting diplomatic ties with Nigeria, Togo, the US and France, and said it was cancelling the military agreements with France which allows the former colonial power to base some 1,500 soldiers there.

And President Bazoum, who is being held by the military, used stark language in an article in the Washington Post. He described himself as a "hostage" and called on the US and the entire international community to help restore constitutional order.

On Friday, the US said it will pause some of its aid to Niger's government, but will continue to provide humanitarian and food assistance.

2. They agree on a timetable for a transition To try and cool things down and find middle ground, the junta and Ecowas could agree on a timetable for a return to democratic rule.

This could include the release of President Bazoum, as well as other political detainees, in order to keep talks going and possibly buy more time. This has been a key demand of those who have condemned the coup in Africa and elsewhere.

The West African bloc has already approved democratic transitions in Niger's neighbours in the Sahel region, Mali and Burkina Faso, which were both taken over by the military in recent years.

But the negotiations were fraught with problems, with deadlines for elections continually pushed back and it is still not guaranteed that the handovers of power will actually happen.

Sudan, which created a mixed civilian-military government in 2019 that was supposed to pave the way to democracy after a coup there, provides another model. But the collapse of that country into a bitter conflict between rival military leaders offers a cautionary tale.

3. Military intervention The West African leaders did not say that force would definitely be used if President Bazoum was not reinstated but left it open as a possibility.

Nigerian officials have described it as a "last resort". President Tinubu said there could be a military intervention "to enforce compliance of the military junta in Niger should they remain recalcitrant".

Ecowas has used military force to restore constitutional order in the past, for example in The Gambia in 2017 when Yahya Jammeh refused to step down after losing an election.

But the calculation about whether to go ahead this time would be far more difficult.

Firstly, Niger is geographically the largest country in West Africa, while The Gambia is a tiny sliver of land surrounded by Senegal and the Atlantic Ocean, so sending troops in would be a whole different prospect.

Secondly, regional power Nigeria, which is leading the charge to restore President Bazoum, is facing a host of security challenges at home, so sending a significant portion of the army to Niger would be something of a gamble.

Thirdly, both Mali and Burkina Faso have said that military intervention in Niger would be seen as a "declaration of war" and they would go to defend their fellow coup leaders.

So it risks snowballing into a full-scale regional war, especially if the Niger population resists foreign intervention. Although it is impossible to know how they would react.

Nigeria and Niger share many historical and ethnic ties, with people on both sides speaking the same language so this could make some Nigerian troops reluctant to fight if it came to that.

Countries like Algeria, Niger's neighbour to the north, China and Russia have asked for restraint and the continued use of dialogue to douse tension.

However, after a three-day meeting in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, Ecowas defence chiefs say they have drawn up a detailed plan for military intervention for the regional leaders to consider.

Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Benin have all said they are willing to send troops into Niger if Ecowas decided to do so.

Nigeria alone has about 135,000 active troops, according to the Global Fire Power index, while Niger has about 10,000 but that certainly doesn't mean an invasion would be easy.

A peaceful solution is no doubt preferable for all sides but Ecowas is keen to show its resolve as it has failed to prevent a spate of coups in the region in the last three years.

The storms were so intense that half-a-metre-high piles of hailstones formed in some places.

Intense storms in southern and western Germany saw hailstones pile up to half a metre high.

So much hail fell in the village of Weiler, in Bavaria, over such a short period of time that some roads were entirely blocked with ice.

Many streets, squares and even gardens were briefly transformed into winter landscapes by the heavy hailstorms.

Trees were uprooted and the fire brigade had to go out to pump out flooded cellars during the storms.

The British group of 4,500, the largest in attendance, is moving from a camp site at Saemangeum to Seoul, the Scout Association confirmed.

The US and Singaporean teams are also pulling their members out of the event.

South Korea's government said it was sending 60 more medics and 700 service workers to maintain the toilets and showers, with many countries staying at the site for the next week.

The jamboree, described as the world's largest youth camp, gathers Scouts from around the world every four years, each time in a different country.

Most of those attending are aged between 14 and 18, and 155 countries are represented in South Korea.

This is the first jamboree since the pandemic and is due to run until 12 August.

Coaches of British teenagers have started arriving back in Seoul - about 120 miles (197km) from the campsite - and they will spend the next week in hotels.

The UK Scout Association said young people and adult volunteers had begun "settling into their accommodation" and the Jamboree experience would continue in the city before returning to the UK on 13 August as planned.

The BBC has been told that some scouts are sharing five to a room, while up to 250 are sleeping in the ballroom of one Seoul hotel due to a lack of available accommodation.

Security footage shows the incident taking place.

According to 11-year-old Jace Eury, he and his sister Jayla were playing in the apartment complex pool Wednesday when Jennings, who residents say is the property manager, hit her.

The brother stepped in to retaliate.

"She slapped me and then my brother came and splashed water on her," Jayla Eury said.

According to a news release from Greensboro police, officers responded to the complex Thursday around 2:30 p.m. Warrants were obtained and hours later, Jennings was arrested.

The parents say they believe if the tables were turned, the response would be different.

"What she did to him, if I put one finger on her, I am the one that’s going to be in trouble. And that’s just not cool," mother Jae Eury said. "You hit my child, you hit both of my children. You've been harassing my children all summer long and all they wanted to do was just swim in the heat. Just swim, enjoy themselves as children should."

Since the video was posted online, several residents and activist groups have shown support for the family. The post has gone viral and circulated across social media. Still, the Eurys say they want more done for what happened.

"The outpouring is great and it makes you feel good that people are behind you but, it's kind of making me angrier, like I'm angry," Jae Eury said.

The family, who live nearby the apartment complex, says they want Jennings fired from the apartment complex and plan on filing a lawsuit against both Jennings and the property management company.

WXII reached out to Sedgefield Gardens Apartments in person, but received no response. The investigation is ongoing.

https://www.wxii12.com/article/greensboro-police-arrest-woman-who-assaulted-two-children-apartment-complex-kids-describe-incident/44739400#:~:text=GREENSBORO%2C%20N.C.%20%E2%80%94&text=Avenue%20in%20Greensboro.-,Sixty%2Dtwo%2Dyear%2Dold%20Kimberly%20Jennings%20was%20arrested%20and,father%20of%20the%20children%2C%20said.

After a Twitch Streamer Caused Chaos In Manhattan, NYPd Responded By Smashing A Complying teen's Head Through A taxicab window.

An 87-year-old woman says she offered a young man who entered her Brunswick, Maine, home while she was sleeping a late-night snack to keep him busy until police arrived.

Marjorie Perkins told CNN she woke up in the early hours of July 26 to find a man standing “by my bed, no shirt on, and it was dark, and he said, ‘I’m going to cut you.’” Perkins said she jumped out of bed and picked up a chair, which she said she used as a shield.

“He kept knocking me against the wall, he put a bruise on my forehead and one on my cheek,” Perkins said.

The attack continued, Perkins said, until “he got tired of that,” at which point she said she followed the intruder, who wasn’t wearing shoes, pants, or a shirt, into the kitchen, while telling him to get out. The intruder then told Perkins that he was hungry.

“He stopped in the kitchen by the sink and said he was very hungry, and he hadn’t had anything to eat in a long time,” Perkins said.

The 87-year-old said she offered him a “box of peanut butter and honey crackers” and two tangerines, along with other snacks, citing her time as a teacher for her quick thinking.

“That was to keep him busy, what do you think? I taught school (for) 35 years,” Perkins said.

Perkins said she called 911 while he ate. When he finished, the suspect put on his pants and walked out the door but left his shoes, shirt, and knife behind, according to Perkins.

The intruder isn’t unknown to Perkins: She says she knows members of his family and that as a boy, he had mowed her lawn for cash.

The police in a news release did not identify the suspect or name Perkins, who is described as a resident. It says the suspect didn’t have the knife on him when he entered Perkins’ bedroom at around 2 a.m. on July 26, saying it had been “left with his belongings in another room.” The release also stated that Perkins was unharmed during the incident and the suspect had fled her home on foot, leaving behind a pair of shoes.

Brunswick police say they tracked a juvenile matching the resident’s description to a nearby residence, where he was taken into custody and then transferred to a nearby youth development center. He faces charges of burglary, criminal threatening, assault and a civil infraction: minor consuming liquor.

A Maine court clerk would not provide any updates on the charges or attorney information because the alleged intruder is a minor.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/03/us/maine-home-intruder-snacks/index.html

Chaos erupts at Manhattan's Union Square during livestreamer Kai Cenat's giveaway Story by Jesse Zanger • 31m

NEW YORK - Chaos erupted Friday after a large crowd gathered at Manhattan's Union Square Park for livestreamer Kai Cenat's giveaway.

Some of the crowd could be seen tearing down construction barricades and hurling objects, including throwing some objects at responding police officers.

Officials are expected to give an update on the situation shortly. You can watch that live on WCBS-TV and on CBS News New York.

As one vehicle attempted to leave - which is believed to have been carrying Cenat - the crowd could be seen mobbing it. It moved slowly through throngs of people before eventually speeding off, with people clinging to the sides and back. At least three people could be seen tumbling off the vehicle onto the pavement as it sped away.

Cenat was taken into police custody for questioning at around 5 p.m. CBS New York's Marcia Kramer has learned exclusively Cenat did not have a permit for the event. Earlier in the day, he posted on social media that he would be there in person for the giveaway.

Cenat has more than 9 million followers on Twitch and other social media platforms.

Related: Who is Kai Cenat? Watch Chopper 2 over the scene As the chaos unfolded, Chopper 2 was overhead and spotted people climbing on top of the roof covering the entrance to the Union Square subway station. One person was seen setting off a fire extinguisher, sending huge smoky plumes over the crowd.

The crowd was apparently gathered there for Cenat's giveaway - apparently he had planned to give away 300 PlayStations. Authorities estimated some 2,000 people showed up.

New York City subways are bypassing Union Square station.

While the crowd gathered as early as 1 p.m., the raucous behavior broke out roughly around 3 p.m. or so.

The NYPD called for a massive response - a Level 4 mobilization, meaning roughly 1,000 officers - after people began demolishing construction barricades, throwing objects, and standing on top of the Union Square subway entrance. Several people could be seen being placed into custody.

Responding officers, however, were not in riot gear, wearing helmets, or carrying shields - a clear difference from how they responded to George Floyd protests.

Police could be heard using loudspeakers to tell the crowd that if they disperse, they will not be arrested.

Some of the people at Union Square could be seen standing on top of cars and trucks.

Much of the crowd was milling about peacefully.

By 4:40 p.m., the crowd had thinned out significantly, but there were still plenty of people in the area.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/chaos-erupts-at-manhattans-union-square-during-livestreamer-kai-cenats-giveaway/ar-AA1eO2on

A little more than six months after the racist attack on Jenkins and his friend Eddie Terrell Parker, six former officers pleaded guilty on Thursday.

The officers included Christian Dedmon, Hunter Elward, Brett McAlpin, Jeffrey Middleton and Daniel Opdyke of the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department and Joshua Hartfield, a Richland police officer. Their attorneys did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

They pleaded guilty to charges including conspiracy against rights, obstructions of justice, deprivation of rights under color of law, discharge of a firearm under a crime of violence, and conspiracy to obstruct justice.

The Mississippi attorney general’s office announced Thursday it had filed state charges against the men including assault, conspiracy and obstruction of justice.

Federal court records detail how they burst into a home without a warrant, handcuffed Jenkins and Parker, assaulted them with a sex toy and beat Parker with wood and a metal sword. They poured milk, alcohol and chocolate syrup over their faces and then forced them to strip naked and shower together to conceal the mess.

Then one of them put a gun in Jenkins’ mouth and fired.

As Jenkins lay bleeding, they didn’t render medical aid. They knew the mission had gone too far and devised a hasty cover-up scheme that included a fictitious narcotics bust, a planted gun and drugs, stolen surveillance footage and threats.

The deputies were under the watch of Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey, who called it the worst episode of police brutality he has seen in his career.

Law enforcement misconduct in the U.S. has come under increased scrutiny, largely focused on how Black people are treated by the police. The 2020 killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police ignited calls for sweeping criminal justice reforms and a reassessment of American race relations. The January beating death of Tyre Nichols by five Black members of a special police squad in Memphis, Tennessee, led to a probe of similar units nationwide.

In Rankin County, the brutality visited upon Jenkins and Parker was not a botched police operation, but an assembly of rogue officers “who tortured them all under the authority of a badge, which they disgraced,” U.S. Attorney Darren LaMarca said.

The county is just east of the state capital, Jackson, home to one of the highest percentages of Black residents of any major U.S. city. A towering granite-and-marble monument topped by a Confederate soldier stands across the street from the Rankin County sheriff’s office.

The officers warned Jenkins and Parker to “stay out of Rankin County and go back to Jackson or ‘their side’ of the Pearl River,” court documents say, referencing an area with higher concentrations of Black residents.

Kristen Clarke, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said the trauma “is magnified because the misconduct was fueled by racial bias and hatred.” She mentioned another dark chapter in Mississippi law enforcement: the 1964 kidnapping and killing of three civil rights workers.

The violent police misconduct is a reminder “there is still much to be done,” Clarke said.

After Dedmon summoned “The Goon Squad,” the officers crept around the ranch-style home to avoid a surveillance camera. They kicked down the carport door and burst inside without a warrant.

Opdyke found a sex toy, which he mounted on a BB gun he also found, and forced into Parker’s mouth. Dedmon tried to sexually assault Jenkins with the toy. The officers repeatedly electrocuted the victims with stun guns to compare whose weapons were more powerful.

Elward forced Jenkins to his knees for a “mock execution” by firing without a bullet, but the gun discharged. The bullet lacerated Jenkins’ tongue and broke his jaw before exiting his neck.

As Jenkins bled on the floor, the officers devised a cover story for investigators: Elward brought Jenkins into a side room to conduct a staged drug bust over the phone and Jenkins reached for a gun when he was released from handcuffs.

Middleton offered to plant an unregistered firearm, but Elward said he would use the BB gun. Dedmon volunteered to plant methamphetamine he had received from an informant. Jenkins was charged with a felony as a result, but the charges were later dropped.

Opdyke put one of Elward’s shell casings in a water bottle and threw it into tall grass nearby. Hartfield removed the hard drive from the home’s surveillance system and later tossed it in a creek.

Afterward, McAlpin and Middleton made a promise: They would kill any of the officers who told the truth about what happened.

They kept quiet for months as pressure mounted from a Justice Department civil rights probe. An investigation by The Associated Press also linked some of the deputies to at least four violent encounters with Black men since 2019 that left two dead and another with lasting injuries.

One of the officers came forward in June, Bailey said.

Bailey on Thursday said he was lied to and first learned everything that happened to Jenkins and Parker when he read unsealed court documents. Some of the deputies, including McAlpin and Elward, had worked under Bailey for years and been sued several times for alleged misconduct.

The sheriff promised to implement a new body camera policy and said he was open to more federal oversight. He also called the officers “criminals,” echoing federal prosecutors.

https://apnews.com/article/mississippi-deputies-guilty-pleas-civil-rights-e4937b4cd1d2ed2388b2fd1c3aeefcb9