Friday's Morning Email: Ebola Cases Could Top 20,000

The Morning Email
TOP STORIES

'WE DON'T HAVE A STRATEGY YET' President Obama made it very clear the administration has not settled on a strategic response to the expansion of ISIS. The U.S. "has identified" up to a dozen radicalized Americans fighting for ISIS. Reports emerged that James Foley and at least three other hostages were waterboarded. ISIS released another beheading video yesterday. The victim, a member of Kurdish Iraq's pesh merga forces, was dressed in a jumpsuit meant to resemble those worn by detainees at Guantanamo. And Syrian refugees number over 3 million, according to the U.N.

UKRAINE REINSTATES DRAFT "Kiev and its Western backers accused Moscow of sending Russian troops and armor to fight alongside rebels in eastern Ukraine, dimming hopes for a diplomatic solution to the crisis and prompting the U.S. and Europe to threaten new sanctions." President Obama and other NATO allies stopped short of calling Russia's moves an invasion. And Vladimir Putin's still as popular as ever in Russia. [Story, Image via WSJ]

WHO: EBOLA COULD HIT 20,000 CASES "Eight months after the deadly epidemic began in a forested corner of Guinea, there still aren't enough doctors, nurses, and epidemiologists to keep it from spinning out of control. The World Health Organization said Thursday that more than 40% of the 3,069 cases reported since the outbreak began in December 2013 have occurred in the past 21 days. At least 1,552 people have died. The WHO says more than 20,000 people could be infected before the outbreak can be brought under control." The virus has matured as the outbreak has spread. The National Institutes of Health are beginning to test a potential vaccine. [WSJ]

MISSOURI POLICE SUED FOR $40 MILLION "A group of people caught up in unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, after a white officer killed a black teenager, sued local officials on Thursday, alleging civil rights violations through arrests and police assaults with rubber bullets and tear gas." And Hillary Clinton finally chimed in. [Reuters]

VOLCANOS ERUPT "Iceland raised its aviation warning level to red, the highest on a four-point scale, and closed airspace in the north of the country after a volcano started to erupt overnight, the country's Ministry of Civil Protection said Friday. Airspace up to 18,000 feet around the Bardarbunga volcano is closed after a fissure eruption measuring about one kilometer long started in the Holuhraun lava field, just after midnight local time. A red warning indicates a significant ash emission is likely." Over in Papua New Guinea, residents close to Mount Tavurvur were evacuated to avoid falling ash from the erupting volcano. [WSJ]

RECLINING SEAT WARS A second flight in a week was diverted after passengers got into an altercation about reclining seats, a sign of the further devolution of American society. [HuffPost]

DRILLING FOR OIL AGAIN IN ALASKA? "Royal Dutch Shell submitted a plan to the federal government on Thursday to try once again to explore for oil in the Alaskan Arctic, following years of legal and logistical setbacks as well as dogged opposition from environmentalists. While the plan is just a first step in the process, it reflects the energy potential in the Arctic. Shell's proposed programs consist of two drilling rigs working simultaneously in the Chukchi Sea, which could produce more than 400,000 barrels of oil a day." [Story, Image via NYT]

WHAT'S BREWING

BAD WEEK FOR USC First USC captain Josh Shaw's fake hero story, then senior running back Anthony Brown claims head coach Steve Sarkisian is a racist. Brown, who quit the team, posted on Instagram yesterday, "Sark treated me like a slave in his Office...Can't play for a racist MAN!!!!! #Fighton." [ESPN]

BRANGELINA FINALLY GOT MARRIED Here's how they pulled off their top-secret nupitials, and all the adorable details about their kids' involvement.

JOAN RIVERS 'RESTING COMFORTABLY' The star has stabilized after she stopped breathing during vocal cord surgery. [ABC]

MEET THE ICE CREAM OF THE FUTURE From 3D printing to liquid nitrogen, say goodbye to your good ol' carton. [Time]

YOU REALLY NEED A VACATION Here are all the scientific reasons to pitch to your boss. [HuffPost]

GET YOUR KITCHEN ACTUALLY CLEAN These are the five spots everyone misses. [HuffPost]

75% OF IKEA IMAGES ARE CGI So you can feel a little better about your furniture construction going awry. [HuffPost]

ON THE BLOG

'MY FAMILY HAS BEEN RACIALLY PROFILED EVERYWHERE FROM HARVARD TO OUR OWN HOME' "The presumption of guilt and danger that is at the heart of racial profiling lays heavy upon every black person living in America. It changes our relationship with the world. We are constantly on guard against a charge, a confrontation, a challenge. Racial profiling does long-term damage to the self-image, self-esteem and ego of the African American." [HuffPost]

WE THOUGHT YOU SHOULD KNOW

~ Prince Harry already has a new girlfriend … life's hard for the royal.

~ This giant panda faked that she was pregnant for food.

~ Google's building drones of their own.

~ Everybody really loved President Obama's tan suit.

~ Beyonce wrote a poem with a Pulitzer Prize finalist because she's Queen B.

~ Did your favorite pizza joint make the list of the top pie spots in the U.S.?

~ And here's how you can master the push-up.

Got something to add? Send tips/quips/quotes/stories/photos/events/scoops to Lauren Weber (lauren.weber@huffingtonpost.com). Follow us on Twitter (@LaurenWeberHP). Does somebody keep forwarding you this newsletter? Get your own copy. It's free! Sign up here.




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Thursday's Morning Email: Russia Continues 'Stealth Invasion'

The Morning Email
TOP STORIES

UKRAINE: RUSSIA INVADING "Determined to preserve the pro-Russian revolt in eastern Ukraine, Russia reinforced what Western and Ukrainian officials described as a stealth invasion on Wednesday, sending armored troops across the border as it expanded the conflict to a new section of Ukrainian territory." According to Mykhailo Lysenko, the deputy commander of the Ukrainian Donbas battalion, "This is a full-scale invasion." [NYT]

POLICE DEFEND FERGUSON TACTICS "St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar defended his department's use of tear gas, smoke, batons, rifles and armored trucks in the days of civil unrest that followed the Michael Brown shooting, saying that the military equipment is sometimes necessary to patrol urban areas." A St. Louis forum showcased the "long-simmering anger over police violence" in the area. And former police chief Daniel Isom II is set to become the only African American in Missouri Governor Jay Nixon's cabinet after he appointed him director of the Department of Public Safety. [USA Today]

NO WINNERS IN GAZA CONFLICT Fifty days and 2,100 fatalities later, Israel and Hamas have entered into another tenuous ceasefire. Meet the last four people to die in the conflict. [Businessweek]

ISIS 'ONE OF WORLD'S RICHEST TERROR GROUPS' "The Islamic State runs a self-sustaining economy across territory it controls in Syria and Iraq, pirating oil while exacting tribute from a population of at least eight million, Arab and Western officials said, making it one of the world's richest terror groups and an unprecedented threat." Meet the ISIS leadership. A second radicalized American may have been killed fighting for ISIS in Syria. Shirley Sotloff, the mother of a U.S. journalist held captive by ISIS, made a public video plea to the terrorist group to release her son. [WSJ]

40% OF EBOLA CASES IN LAST 21 DAYS According to the World Health Organization, Ebola "continues to accelerate." The deadly virus "has killed nearly as many people as all the previous known outbreaks combined." [Reuters]

JPMORGAN, OTHER BANKS BREACHED IN CYBERATTACK "The hackers infiltrated the networks of the banks, siphoning off gigabytes of data, including checking and savings account information, in what security experts described as a sophisticated cyberattack." Bloomberg alleges the Russians are involved. [NYT]

FORGET ABOUT THE iPHONE 6 The iWatch is also getting released in September -- watch out Google. [Story, Image via Recode]

WHAT'S BREWING

DON'T MAKE UP A HEROIC STORY ...if you do something stupid like sustaining two ankle sprains while jumping from a building -- especially if you're a captain on the USC football team. "Southern California cornerback Josh Shaw has admitted to lying to school officials about how he sprained his ankles last weekend, retracting his story about jumping off a balcony to save his drowning nephew. Shaw has been suspended indefinitely from all of the Trojans' team activities, the school announced in a statement Wednesday." [HuffPost]

COLLEGE FOOTBALL STADIUMS MISSING STUDENTS Student attendance is down 7.1% since 2009, a mark of "soaring ticket prices, more lopsided games and fewer matchups against longtime rivals, and the proliferation of televised games that make it easier than ever for students to keep tailgating long after kickoff." Also, it's really hard to text in a football stadium. [Story, Image via WSJ]

GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK, DIANE Watch Diane Sawyer's final signoff as the anchor for "World News." [HuffPost]

FALL MOVIE PREVIEW Get ready for some serious Oscar bait. [HuffPost]

THE COUCH WILL ALWAYS BE THERE That's why Netflix has quite the bevy of binging options come September. [Time]

AN ELEVEN-YEAR-OLD IS A SERIAL ARSONIST "The dude is a terror," said David Cox, the fire chief of Flint, Michigan. "This has been going on for months. They have been having their way all summer. These kids were so tough -- they had pit bulls at [an abandoned] house they had access to." [HuffPost]

WHEN YOU GET A COMPLIMENT Here's how to respond "without just giving one back." [HuffPost]

OVER 14.5 MILLION LOST INTERNET YESTERDAY "Experts say the limited number of Internet service providers—and unimpressive bandwidth speeds—available to many Americans is a major issue. 'This outage sheds light on one of the most significant challenges facing the United States: our lack of a plan for world-class, stable, resilient communications capacity,' Susan Crawford, a professor at Cardozo Law School, visiting professor at Harvard Law School, and former adviser to the Obama administration told VF Daily." [Story, Image via Vanity Fair]

ON THE BLOG

PEGGY DREXLER: MEN AND WOMEN AREN'T TOTALLY DIFFERENT "All of this being said, it's important to recognize that the qualities men and women share, or don't, are fluid and ever-changing, and prone to shifting with time, experience, and relationships. We're not stagnant beings." [HuffPost]

WE THOUGHT YOU SHOULD KNOW

~ Zara pulled the children's pajamas that looked like concentration camp uniforms (and no, this is not an Onion article).

~ You can see what records look like with your Instagram photos on them.

~ This tiny piglet hopping through the grass is bound to make your day.

~ You can now buy a 99-pack of beer.

~ Jimmy Kimmel staged a mini-Friends reunion, with a set featuring the purple door and all.

~ Taco Bell for life apparently means just $10,000 worth of tacos.

~ Stop the presses: Hello Kitty is NOT a cat.

Got something to add? Send tips/quips/quotes/stories/photos/events/scoops to Lauren Weber (lauren.weber@huffingtonpost.com). Follow us on Twitter (@LaurenWeberHP). Does somebody keep forwarding you this newsletter? Get your own copy. It's free! Sign up here.

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