PayPal always comes to collect your debt, a British man has discovered in a grievous manner, after the US company threatened action against his wife, who recently died of cancer, for the "breach of contract for being deceased."

The death of the 37-year-old British woman, Lindsay Durdle, who passed away from breast cancer, apparently violated PayPal's account holder policies. After being notified by her surviving husband, Howard, of her tragic end on May 31, the American company demanded, in a quite peculiar way, repayment of about £3,200 that she owed.

"You are in breach of condition 15.4(c) of your agreement with PayPal Credit as we have received notice that you are deceased," PayPal scolded, in a letter addressed to Mrs Durdle, after her husband provided copies of her death certificate, her will and his ID.

As US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin prepare to meet in Helsinki, all eyes are on what generally are regarded as the "usual" political issues that divide the world's two foremost military powers: Ukraine, Syria, sanctions, claims of election interference, and so forth. This reflects the near-universal but erroneous view that this current, second Cold War is not ideological, as opposed to the first Cold War that pitted atheistic Soviet communism against America's "in God we trust" capitalism. (Leave aside whether "capitalism," an anarcho-socialist term popularized by Marxists, is the proper description of contemporary neoliberal corporatism.)

No, we are told, the current Washington-Moscow standoff is a turf war, nothing more. Unlike the 1945-1991 rivalry it "lacks an ideological dimension" beyond the authoritarian determination to elevate "the Russian state, ruled by him and his clan."

Such a view totally dismisses the fact that following the demise of communism as a global power bloc there has been an eerie spiritual role reversal between East and West. While it's true that during original Cold War the nonreligious ruling cliques in Washington and Moscow held basically compatible progressive values, ordinary Christian Americans (mainly Protestants, with a large number of Roman Catholics) perceived communism as a murderous, godless machine of oppression (think of the Knights of Columbus' campaign to insert "under God" into the Pledge of Allegiance). Conversely, today it is western elites who rely upon an ideological imperative of "democracy" and "human rights" promotion to justify a materialist global empire and endless wars, much like the old Soviet nomenklatura depended on Marxism-Leninism both as a working methodology and as a justification for their prerogatives and privileges,. In that regard, promotion of nihilist, post-Christian morality - especially in sexual matters - has become a major item in the West's toolkit.

Israel's navy seized a boat on Tuesday that had left from a Gaza port with wounded Palestinians aboard in a bid to challenge the blockade of the besieged coastal territory.

Hundreds of people had gathered to see off the boat carrying nine passengers, including four people said to have been wounded by Israeli soldiers along with students.

The passengers "with specific needs are prevented from traveling, receiving care and finishing their studies", said organiser Raed Abu Dair.

"We are determined to break the blockade."

Mahmoud Abu Ataya, 25, who recently suffered a leg wound east of Gaza City, said: "I am leaving to be cared for abroad."

But the boat was seized by Israel's navy a short time after setting off.

Europe's problems with criminal trafficking gangs and illegal immigration are getting worse, the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) has warned, just days after the United Nations (UN) claimed that boat arrivals were "necessary" for the continent.

Pointing to a sharp rise in the number of attempted crossings from Africa along with the emergence of increasingly sophisticated ways of trafficking people across borders within the EU, the NCA revealed authorities in Europe are struggling to deal with smuggling gangs and immigration-related crime.

Criminal networks are making profits of up to £6 billion a year from charging would-be migrants, the majority of whom are from Africa, said Tom Dowdall, the agency's deputy director of organised immigration crime.

According to the Daily Mail, the crime agency chief reported that attempted crossings to Spain and Italy have risen 75 per cent from last year while the Italian government's crackdown on NGO boats has resulted in a "bottleneck" of 700,000 migrants currently in Libya who are waiting to get to Europe.

On July 8, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) advanced along the Syrian-Jordanian border and reached the town of Khrab al-Shahm, which is located 15km northwest of Daraa city, according to the Syrian News Channel.

Currently, the SAA is only 4km away from ISIS pocket in the western Daraa countryside. Furthermore, only 3km of the border line is still under the control of the terrorist group.

In addition to the mountain of much-discussed reasons the American public should be alarmed by President Donald Trump's Supreme Court pick Brett Kavanaugh - from his anti-abortion views to his past opinions favoring the interests of big polluters - advocacy groups are warning that the 53-year-old judge's established record of hostility to net neutrality and support for mass surveillance shows that his confirmation would spell "disaster for internet freedom."

"Trump's SCOTUS pick Brett Kavanaugh is an enemy of net neutrality and has sided with big cable companies in the lower courts," noted Demand Progress on Twitter following Trump's official selection of Kavanaugh Monday night, citing his previous argument that net neutrality rules violate the free speech of internet service providers.

A Honduran national in the United States illegally has been charged with killing two women in Miami over the past three months and dumping their bodies on the street, police announced Monday.

Juan Carlos Hernandez-Caseres, 37, was arrested Saturday morning for the murders of Ann Farrin, 41, and Neidy Roche, 39. Both women, police said, were prostitutes.

Farrin's body was found by paramedics Wednesday morning in the 3000 block of Northwest 25th Avenue, between Northwest 38th Street and Northwest 37th Street. Hernandez-Caseres told police he had picked Farrin up in his car for the purpose of paying her for sex, but sometime during intercourse, he became "enraged" and punched her in the throat and neck.

Surveillance footage taken at the time shows a black vehicle coming to a stop between Northwest 38th Street and Northwest 37th Street. The driver gets out, removes a body from the passenger side and leaves it on the sidewalk.

Police officers in Crafton, Pennsylvania, arrested a 52-year-old black man, Robbie Sanderson, for shoplifting at a CVS in September of 2016. He called them Nazis, skinheads, and Gestapo as they cuffed him.

Because of those epithets, Sanderson was charged with "ethnic intimidation." Insulting the officers in such terms was an anti-white hate crime, from the perspective of the authorities. Sanderson had made bias-motivated "terroristic threats," they claimed. The alleged motivation increased the seriousness of Sanderson's crime from a first-degree misdemeanor to a third-degree felony.

That's according to The Appeal's Joshua Vaughn, who reports that Pennsylvania residents were charged with hate crimes for making offensive statements to police at least three other times. In each of these cases, including Sanderson's, the hate crime charges were eventually dropped. But the threat of a hate crime conviction can still hurt. Defendants might plead guilty to other offenses, for instance, if prosecutors agree to drop a hate crime charge.

YouTube will invest $25 million in funding "quality journalism" on its platform. The initiative will aim to provide context and to promote 'reputable' sources; but there are doubts as to what, exactly, that might mean.

YouTube announced the initiative on Monday, and says it aims to make "it easier to find quality news" and improve "the news experience on YouTube." The initiative forms part of a wider, $300 million Google program aimed at "helping journalism thrive in the digital age."

In the coming weeks, videos posted about breaking news events will be accompanied with a link to carefully vetted news article about the events, as well as a reminder that breaking news can rapidly change. YouTube will also highlight breaking news videos from reputable news organizations on its homepage, and recommend that viewers watch similar videos following the ones they were watching.

The woman killed when a helicopter crashed into her Williamsburg home Sunday afternoon was identified as 91-year-old Jean Lonchak Danylko, according to Virginia State Police. The name of the R44 helicopter's pilot -- who was also killed in the crash -- has not yet been released.

"[The helicopter] departed the Williamsburg-Jamestown airport around 4:30 p.m. [Sunday]. The pilot was the only person on board," National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigator Doug Brazy said during a Monday afternoon press conference. "We don't know the destination of the flight yet."

The helicopter crashed into the Bristol Commons Townhomes -- about one mile from the airport on Settlement Drive -- minutes after takeoff.

"The pilot -- who we believe was on board -- held a commercial pilot certificate," Brazy said.