| The Lincoln Project's 'Never Trump' ads expertly troll a president who never fails to take the bait Posted: 10 Jul 2020 03:04 PM PDT  The Lincoln Project, which was created by a group of anti-Trump Republican political operatives last December, believes there is a logic to being a metaphorical fly buzzing around the president's head.
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| Ghislaine Maxwell says she hadn't been in contact with Jeffrey Epstein for more than 10 years before his death Posted: 10 Jul 2020 11:37 AM PDT  Lawyers for Ghislaine Maxwell filed court documents on Friday asking her released on bail as she awaits trial amid the coronavirus pandemic.
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| Police are welcome at Seattle ice cream shop — but their guns aren’t, owner says Posted: 09 Jul 2020 07:21 PM PDT  "Police officers: Molly Moon's is a gun-free zone," the sign says.
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| Russia's journalists under increasing pressure from the secret services in wake of Putin's shaky referendum victory Posted: 11 Jul 2020 10:15 AM PDT  Russia's intelligence services have 'stepped up' their war on free media, carrying out a series of operations designed to intimidate journalists in the wake of Vladimir Putin's controversial referendum victory last week. In an unprecedented case for post-Soviet Russia, prominent defence reporter Ivan Safronov was seized outside his home on Tuesday morning by secret service agents and arrested on suspicion of treason. Citing the secret nature of the case, the investigators have not published any evidence to back up their claims but the reporter faces 20 years in prison. Last week's overwhelming approval of constitutional amendments allowing Vladimir Putin to stay in office at least until 2036 was hailed by the Kremlin as a "triumph." But results at the polling stations that were monitored by independent observers indicated something resembling a split vote. That was an apparent cue for Russia's FSB secret service to take action.
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| Comet streaking past Earth, providing spectacular show Posted: 10 Jul 2020 07:38 AM PDT  A newly discovered comet is streaking past Earth, providing a stunning nighttime show after buzzing the sun and expanding its tail. Comet Neowise — the brightest comet visible from the Northern Hemisphere in a quarter-century — swept within Mercury's orbit a week ago. NASA's Neowise infrared space telescope discovered the comet in March.
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| American Airlines flight attendant, 61, dies suddenly while working Posted: 09 Jul 2020 07:11 PM PDT |
| Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue features first transgender model Posted: 10 Jul 2020 01:40 PM PDT  This isn't the first time the 23-year-old Brazilian beauty has broken barriers for trans models.
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| New photos show suspects in Lancaster beating, robbery Posted: 09 Jul 2020 06:09 PM PDT  The sheriff's department has released new photos of a man and a possible female accomplice involved in a vicious beating and robbery of an 80-year-old grandfather at a Lancaster grocery store.
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| Trump still struggling to articulate his agenda for a second term Posted: 10 Jul 2020 09:55 AM PDT  The president has been asked three times in the last two weeks to name his top priority items for a second term — and he has struggled to name them.
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| Russian accused of harassing Black family in Oregon was ordered deported 10 years ago Posted: 10 Jul 2020 02:07 PM PDT  The man was ordered deported in June 2010.
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| Fourth day of virus protests in Serbia Posted: 10 Jul 2020 03:20 PM PDT  The protests were held as the Balkan nation announced a record daily death toll from COVID-19. Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said earlier Friday the Balkan state recorded 18 fatalities and 386 new cases over 24 hours in what she described as a "dramatic increase". At the same time, Brnabic condemned as "irresponsible" protests held in Belgrade and other cities on Thursday, after demonstrations in the capital on the previous two days had spilled over into violence.
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| Pompeo slams UN report on deadly US drone strike on Iranian Posted: 10 Jul 2020 07:41 AM PDT  U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has criticized an independent U.N. human rights expert's report insisting a American drone strike that killed a top Iranian general in January was a "watershed" event in the use of drones and amounted to a violation of international law. The report presented by Agnes Callamard to the U.N.-backed Human Rights Council on Thursday chronicled events around the death of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani and the legal implications of his killing as part of a broader look on the use of drone strikes.
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| These Arizona teachers shared a classroom for summer school. All 3 contracted COVID-19. 1 died. Posted: 09 Jul 2020 07:31 PM PDT  An Arizona teacher is dead after contracting COVID-19. Two others tested positive after teaching in the same classroom. They hope schools stay closed.
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| Fauci on COVID-19 vaccine: 'We have responsibility to the entire planet' Posted: 10 Jul 2020 10:39 AM PDT  The U.S. government is already working with vaccine manufacturers to make hundreds of millions of doses, the nation's top infectious disease expert said.
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| A patient in their 30s has reportedly died from coronavirus after attending a 'COVID party' in Texas Posted: 11 Jul 2020 09:35 AM PDT  According to the hospital's chief medical officer, the patient told their nurse, "I think I made a mistake. I thought this was a hoax, but it's not."
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| Dutch government to file suit against Russia over downing of MH17 Posted: 10 Jul 2020 05:52 AM PDT  The Dutch government on Friday said it would file a suit against Russia at the European Court of Human Rights over the downing of Malaysia Airlines passenger flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine six years ago. "The submission is a new step in our efforts to establish truth, justice and accountability", Dutch Foreign minister Stef Blok said in a letter to parliament. Blok said his government would give the court all its information on MH17, thereby supporting the individual applications already submitted by the victims' next of kin.
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| In Hong Kong Security Law, China Asserts Legal Jurisdiction over the Entire World Posted: 10 Jul 2020 01:48 PM PDT  The Chinese Communist Party's new security law has criminalized any actions it deems to be subversion, secession, terrorism, and collusion with foreign entities in Hong Kong. The law spells an abrupt end to the political freedoms that Hong Kongers used to enjoy. Authorities Friday raided the offices of a research and polling institute associated with the pro-democracy camp just ahead of primaries in which it will choose its candidates for Legislative Council elections, and there's certainly more to come. But there's an additional reason to be wary of the law: It is Beijing's assertion of legal jurisdiction over the entire world.The text of the legislation's Article 38 is blunt, and makes an unprecedented jurisdictional claim: "The Law shall apply to offences under this Law committed against the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region from outside the Region by a person who is not a permanent resident of the Region." If the provision is enforced as it is written, Hong Kong authorities could charge and prosecute individuals who have never stepped foot in the city but whom Beijing deems to have violated the law. "If mainland practice to date is any guide—and it is—then the definitions don't matter that much," wrote Donald Clarke, a professor at The George Washington University Law School, in an analysis. "Anything can be stretched as necessary to cover something done by the person being targeted."The CCP could thus use Article 38 to prosecute offenses that are illegal in China but legal in the West. Theoretically, Westerners could be arrested by security agents from Beijing's new base in the city, then rendered to the mainland for trial — for the crime of speaking freely in liberal democracies. Or as Clarke put it, the CCP "is asserting extraterritorial jurisdiction over every person on the planet."This is not just a theoretical concern, either, says Kevin Carrico, a senior research fellow at Melbourne's Monash University. In 2015, Beijing abducted five employees of Causeway Bay Books, a store that sold works on political topics considered sensitive by mainland authorities, in violation of Hong Kong's Basic Law. The kidnappings demonstrate the CCP's desire for extraterritorial law-enforcement authority, says Carrico in an email, and the new law "just gives the false appearance of legality" to its efforts to secure such authority.It's not abnormal for countries to make legal claims that stretch beyond their borders or to punish their own nationals for crimes they commit abroad. But for a country to prosecute a foreigner for acts abroad would require harm to that country under widely accepted interpretations of international law. The other way that countries might claim jurisdiction over foreigners who live abroad is through extradition treaties. Without such treaties, says Terri Marsh, the executive director of the Human Rights Law Foundation, it would be very hard for China to reach non-Chinese citizens living in foreign countries. "China's incursion into our sovereignty is a demonstration of why precisely other nations who are equally sovereign should not comply or cooperate in any way shape, or form," says Marsh.As it happens, some 20 countries have extradition treaties with Hong Kong, including several that have not inked such agreements with the mainland. The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, a group comprising legislators from 13 countries, has in the wake of the new security law's enactment led a drive for countries to cancel these treaties. In recent days, Australia and Canada have suspended theirs, earning Beijing's ire, and the United States could soon follow suit. Others, such as the Netherlands, have warned their citizens against traveling to Hong Kong.Although most countries will not extradite an individual based on political charges, Jerome Cohen, an expert in Chinese law at New York University School of Law, points to Beijing's history of concocting false charges of conventional crimes, such as tax evasion, to target dissidents. Just this week, Xu Zhangrun, a prominent critic of the CCP, was arrested in Beijing on prostitution charges. Fake allegations won't be a problem in countries with robust justice systems, such as France, but Cohen says he's wary of countries that have voted with China on the U.N. Human Rights Council, and even of certain European countries.In addition to the risk of extradition, the high concentration of foreign journalists and businesspeople in Hong Kong would make it "a very convenient target, if China wanted to do something to hold some Americans hostage," says Ho-fung Hung, a professor at Johns Hopkins University. He notes the 2018 detention of two Canadian citizens in retaliation for Ottawa's arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou. While hostage diplomacy had already existed as a possibility on the mainland, Americans critical of the Chinese Communist Party have generally been denied visas to visit China, ending up in Hong Kong instead. They used to enjoy immunity from Beijing's reach there, but with the security law, Beijing could well detain and try them for speaking against the CCP in other countries. Carrico offers a dire warning: "In traveling to China and Hong Kong today, one is in effect taking the same type of risks as someone travelling to Pyongyang."The danger is particularly acute for Taiwanese individuals and organizations. Leaders in Taipei have watched the Hong Kong crackdown with apprehension, fearing that the CCP will turn its focus to them next. Carrico notes that Hong Kong, which despite its former autonomy from the mainland did not diverge from Beijing's official position on Taiwan, had until now allowed Taiwanese organizations to operate in the city. But "the [national-security law] means the end of that, and if I was in any way linked to the Taiwanese government and living in Hong Kong right now, I would leave immediately." In fact, the law subjects foreign and Taiwan-based organizations with offices in Hong Kong to onerous regulations requiring cooperation with the city's police commissioner. According to new rules released this week, the city police can even ask staff at "foreign and Taiwan political organizations" in Hong Kong to provide personal and financial information about their organizations.It is important to note that until Hong Kong's rulers release further guidelines on implementation of the law, the precise nature of the danger it poses will remain unclear. Cohen predicts that Article 38 will be interpreted more narrowly than its wording would suggest. "Now even China's regular domestic criminal law doesn't go as far as this new national security law could be interpreted," he says, noting that the mainland's criminal code would not lead to prosecutions of foreigners over political speech legal in their own countries. He thinks that Article 38's expansive wording was the result of a time crunch faced by those responsible for drafting it. But he is careful to emphasize that he's only making a prediction, and that the law is already intimidating some activists into silence. "They are already being deterred, not only in Hong Kong, but around the world," he says.
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| Author Christopher Buckley: 'Everything Trump touches dies' Posted: 10 Jul 2020 01:41 PM PDT  The son of conservative icon William F. Buckley Jr., Christopher Buckley's new novel "Make Russia Great Again" is a rollicking satire of Donald Trump's White House.
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| Execution blocked after victims' family raises virus concerns Posted: 10 Jul 2020 04:53 PM PDT  Daniel Lewis Lee, a former white supremacist who robbed and murdered a family of three, including their 8-year-old daughter, was scheduled to be executed on Monday.
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| Kellyanne Conway: Biden is plagiarizing Trump’s ‘America First’ plan Posted: 10 Jul 2020 06:14 AM PDT  White House counselor Kellyanne Conway reacts to Joe Biden's economic plan and previews Trump's New Hampshire rally on 'Fox and Friends.'
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| Iran's president warns lockdowns could lead to protests Posted: 11 Jul 2020 12:00 PM PDT  Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said Saturday that lockdowns meant to curb the spread of the pandemic could lead to street protests over economic problems, his website reported. In a regular Cabinet meeting on the coronavirus, Rouhani said the easiest way to fight the virus is to close off all activities. Confirmed virus cases and deaths reached a record low in May after mass lockdowns were imposed in Iran.
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| Mexico asks Canada to arrest, extradite ex-investigator Posted: 10 Jul 2020 01:30 PM PDT  Mexico is to seek the arrest and extradition from Canada of the former chief investigator in the murky disappearance of 43 students in 2014, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said Friday. Tomas Zeron, who was head of the Criminal Investigation Agency, is in Canada and work is underway to extradite him, the minister said. "There is going to be no impunity, part of our function at the ministry of foreign affairs is to guarantee that, when there are cases of this nature, extradition occurs," Ebrard said.
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| Atlanta mayor rolls back the city's reopening to Phase 1 guidelines Posted: 10 Jul 2020 04:25 PM PDT  Gov. Brian Kemp pushed back: "As clearly stated in my executive orders, no local action can be more or less restrictive, and that rule applies statewide."
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| Gilead analysis shows remdesivir reduced coronavirus death risk, more studies needed Posted: 10 Jul 2020 06:02 AM PDT  Remdesivir has been at the forefront of the global battle against COVID-19 after the intravenously administered medicine helped shorten hospital recovery times, according to data in April from a separate U.S. government trial. In the latest analysis, Gilead said it analyzed data from 312 patients treated in its late-stage study and a separate real-world retrospective cohort of 818 patients with similar characteristics and disease severity. Gilead's late-stage study evaluated the safety and efficacy of five-day and 10-day dosing durations of remdesivir in hospitalized patients.
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| China Threatens ‘Firm Countermeasures’ after U.S. Sanctions Officials over Uighur Rights Posted: 10 Jul 2020 06:29 AM PDT  China on Friday vowed to retaliate after the U.S. slapped sanctions on senior Chinese officials over alleged human-rights abuses against Uighur Muslims in China.Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian promised "reciprocal measures" and said the U.S. is the one violating human rights by interfering in China's affairs."In light of these wrong actions, China will impose reciprocal measures on U.S. officials and organizations that have displayed egregious behavior on human rights in relation to Xinjiang affairs," Zhao said.The U.S. on Thursday sanctioned Chen Quanguo, the Communist Party secretary of the autonomous Xinjiang region and a member of the Communist Party's powerful Politburo. Washington also sanctioned three other senior Chinese officials: Zhu Hailun, a former deputy Communist Party secretary of the Xinjiang region, Wang Mingshan, the current director and Communist Party secretary of the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau, and Huo Liujun, a former Communist Party secretary of the bureau."If the United States insists on acting arrogantly, China will definitely fight back," Zhao said. "We urge the U.S. to correct this wrong decision. If the U.S. continues to proceed, China will take firm countermeasures."The Xinjiang region is home to millions of Uighur Muslims, whose culture Beijing has aimed to suppress in the name of national cohesion.Since 2017, the Chinese government has detained an estimated one million -- if not more -- Uighur Muslims and other ethnic minorities in "re-education camps" around Xinjiang, which are designed to instill a sense of loyalty to the government. Around 80,000 Uighurs have been forced to work in factories, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute has estimated.China claims that the detention camps are for voluntary education and training and are used to combat extremism, but Chinese government documents leaked last year detail how the facilities are run with extreme control over their residents.
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| Thousands of US pediatricians warn against reopening schools for in-person learning after Trump's push against CDC guidelines Posted: 11 Jul 2020 11:42 AM PDT  The American Academy of Pediatrics said officials looking to reopen schools must follow "science" and "evidence, not politics."
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| Three LAPD officers face felony charges for falsely labeling people as gang members Posted: 10 Jul 2020 08:59 AM PDT  According to a 59-count criminal complaint, three officers were charged with conspiracy, filing false reports, and prepping fraudulent documents for court.
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| Nile Dam row: Egypt and Ethiopia generate heat but no power Posted: 10 Jul 2020 02:02 AM PDT  Egypt sees the dam as an existential threat, while Ethiopia sees it as an existential necessity.
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| New York's hungry rats torment alfresco diners after lockdown famine Posted: 10 Jul 2020 08:55 AM PDT  * Surge in rat activity as city starts to open outdoor restaurants * 'Last night, a customer had a baby rat running on his shoe'New York City is starting to tentatively emerge from the ravages of the coronavirus pandemic but a revival in outdoor restaurant dining is facing a new hazard – a plague of rats.Diners are facing a surge in rat activity following a lockdown period where the rodents were cut off from key food sources as businesses including restaurants and grocery stores shut down, forcing rats to battle for snacks and even eat each other.Since 22 June, New York City restaurants have been allowed to serve people again in outdoor settings, prompting sidewalks and car parking spaces to be dotted with tables and chairs. But the resumption of alfresco dining has led to people having unexpected rodent companions for their meals.Giacomo Romano, who owns Ciccio, an Italian restaurant in Manhattan's Soho, said rats from a nearby park have been harassing diners since the outdoor meals were permitted. "Last night, a customer had a baby rat running on his shoe, and I let you just imagine his reaction," Romano told NBC.Romano and other business owners have called on the city to do more to reduce rat populations, as the city hauls itself out of a pandemic crisis that has claimed more than 20,000 lives. New infections and deaths have dropped sharply since April but New York City has postponed plans to allow indoor dining due to concerns over surging Covid-19 cases in other states, such as Florida, Texas and Arizona.New York City has waged a long and often fruitless war against rats, with the rodents adapting adroitly to the city's haphazard waste collection and disposal practices. Rats are a common sight in streets and in the subway, where the rodents have proven themselves adept at spiriting away slices of pizza.The resumption of dining activity is likely to stir a wave of activity among rats following a period of relative famine, meaning interactions with people are set to continue."Rats are designed to smell molecules of anything that's food-related," Bobby Corrigan, an urban rodentologist, told NBC. "They follow those food molecules like heat-seeking missiles – and eventually you know they end up where those molecules are originating."
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| Ex-Trump fixer Cohen returned to prison where sentence began Posted: 10 Jul 2020 12:46 PM PDT  President Donald Trump's former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, was transferred to the same federal lockup in Otisville where he was serving time for tax evasion, lying to Congress and campaign finance crimes before the coronavirus pandemic prompted his early release, his attorney said Friday. The move late Thursday came hours after federal authorities said Cohen refused to accept the conditions of his home confinement, specifically that he submit to wearing an ankle monitor. Cohen attorney Jeffrey Levine said Cohen never refused to wear an ankle monitor but raised concerns about conditions of his home confinement that forbade him from using social media, speaking with the press and publishing a tell-all book he wrote in federal prison.
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| Roman Catholic Church Received Between $1.4 Billion and $3.5 Billion in PPP Loans Posted: 10 Jul 2020 09:02 PM PDT  Taxpayers' money is going a lot of places in the wake of COVID-19, including billions to the Catholic church, and some say it may never have to be paid back. There are allegations locally that the cash will revamp the church's accounts hit hard by sex abuse settlements.
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| Utah Governor Declares State of Emergency Due to ‘Civil Unrest’ Posted: 10 Jul 2020 07:29 AM PDT  Utah governor Gary Herbert declared a state of emergency in Salt Lake City late Thursday, citing clashes between police and protesters who flooded the streets after the city district attorney announced that the May police killing of Bernardo Palacios Carbajal was justified. "In the case of the Salt Lake City Officer Involved Critical Incident that resulted in the death of Bernardo Palacios Carbajal, District Attorney Sim Gill's findings provide significant evidence of the justifiable actions of Salt Lake City police officers," Mayor Erin Mendenhall said in a statement. "This evidence shows that our officers acted according to their training and the state law regarding use of lethal force."Protesters broke windows to the district attorney's office, leading police to deem the demonstration an unlawful gathering, the Salt Lake City Police Department said. Demonstrators then disrupted traffic in the city's downtown area and allegedly used pepper spray on officers. One officer was taken to a nearby hospital. Police arrested two protesters, the department said. The state of emergency order, which closes the Utah State Capitol grounds to the public, will stay in effect until at least July 14. Herbert also offered Utah's Department of Public Safety to Salt Lake City.In May police fired 34 shots at Palacios, leaving him with more than a dozen wounds, after a report of someone making "threats with a weapon," CNN reported. "I know that for some, today's decision does not feel like justice," Mendenhall said. "It has become increasingly apparent in our city and across the nation that there is a difference between what so many feel is morally correct, and what is considered appropriate and justified under the law."
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| Dr. Anthony Fauci says he hasn't briefed Trump in at least two months, despite pandemic resurgence Posted: 10 Jul 2020 09:49 AM PDT  Asked about Trump's claim 99% of coronavirus cases were "harmless," Fauci said the president had made an error and conflated statistics.
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| Reparations for Black people in this North Carolina city could be coming. Here’s how Posted: 10 Jul 2020 04:23 PM PDT  The city council will vote on a resolution supporting reparations for the Black community next week.
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| Prosecutor whose star has risen under Trump named Brooklyn-based acting U.S. Attorney Posted: 10 Jul 2020 02:25 PM PDT  U.S. Attorney General William Barr on Friday named Seth DuCharme, a prosecutor who has risen rapidly in the Justice Department under the Trump administration, as acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. DuCharme, who for the last six months has been principal associate deputy attorney general in Washington, is swapping roles with Richard Donoghue, the current U.S. Attorney for the Brooklyn-based Eastern District. The Justice Department earlier this month announced shorturl.at/inqL3 Donoghue's move to Washington.
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| Seattle mayor and police chief told to remedy ‘unacceptable’ arrest of Independent journalist Posted: 11 Jul 2020 04:47 AM PDT  Seattle's mayor and police chief have been told to remedy the "unacceptable" treatment of journalists, including an Independent reporter who was arrested covering Black Lives Matter protests.Andrew Buncombe was shackled, assaulted and detained for more than six hours after being accused of "failing to disperse" from a demonstration he had the legal right to report on.
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| Seoul mayor's death prompts sympathy, questions of his acts Posted: 09 Jul 2020 08:05 PM PDT  The sudden death of Seoul's mayor, reportedly implicated in a sexual harassment complaint, has prompted an outpouring of public sympathy even as it has raised questions about a man who built his career as a reform-minded politician and self-described feminist. Park Won-soon was found dead on a wooded hill in northern Seoul early Friday, about seven hours after his daughter reported to police he had left her a "will-like" verbal message and then left their home. Authorities launched a massive search for the 64-year-old Park before rescue dogs found his body.
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| A revival of ultrafast supersonic passenger jet travel is inching closer to reality – take a look at the prototype debuting in October Posted: 11 Jul 2020 05:18 AM PDT  Boom Supersonic's XB-1 will take to the skies in 2021 to clear a path for the Overture, a supersonic jet that will continue the legacy left by the Concorde.
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| Filippinos starve as President Duterte vows not to ease the world's longest lockdown Posted: 11 Jul 2020 04:05 AM PDT  Jeepney buses, with their cheerfully gaudy exteriors and packed-in seats, are a national symbol of the Philippines, a form of public transport known affectionately as 'kings of the road'. But almost all of them have been forced off the roads by possibly the world's longest and strictest coronavirus lockdown. The situation has left many of the drivers destitute and desperate, with fellow citizens stepping in to raise money for them via Facebook groups. Jowel Palaña, 41, a jeepney driver in Manila, told the Telegraph: "Every single day has been a struggle." He has not been able to work as a driver since March 15, when the lockdown began. Instead, he swept the streets in exchange for food from his local district leaders. He was unable to travel to see his wife, three children and their extended family outside the city - or send them any money to survive - for months.
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| Israel records highest single-day virus tally Posted: 10 Jul 2020 09:26 AM PDT  Israel has recorded its highest number of coronavirus infections over a 24-hour period, with nearly 1,500 new cases confirmed in the most recent daily count, the health ministry said Friday. Israel had won early praise for its virus containment efforts, but cases have surged since a broad re-opening began in May. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted in a late Thursday news conference that the decision to allow businesses, including bars and event spaces, to re-open may have been made "too soon".
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| The Supreme Court Just Set a Time Bomb to Explode Under President Biden Posted: 10 Jul 2020 01:45 AM PDT  In delaying any public release of Donald Trump's financial records on Thursday, the Supreme Court also handed itself a major victory. The loser could be our democratic system of government. The court's majority in Trump v. Mazars granted the judiciary broad new leeway to decide whether congressional subpoenas against the president will be enforced. The court's majority found that rigorous judicial oversight is required to ensure that Congress does not harass or overburden presidents with politically motivated demands for information.The result may be a time bomb set to go off under a President Biden, as a judiciary packed with Trump appointees now has broad new discretion to involve itself in fights between future presidents and Congress, potentially undermining effective congressional oversight of the executive branch.Everything Donald Trump Stands For Just Got Slapped Down by the Supreme CourtAs Justice John Roberts pointedly implied in his majority opinion, Trump's intransigence is the reason the Mazars case ended up before the court in the first place. Congress has demanded information from the executive branch, often to the great annoyance of presidents, for hundreds of years, but disputes over those demands have rarely ended up before the courts. This is because, as part of what courts refer to as the accommodation process, Congress and the president, often after quite rancorous debates, typically reach agreements on the scope of congressional information requests. Thus, while the threat of courtroom litigation has often loomed over such disputes, it has rarely occurred, and, until Trump's presidency, had not reached the Supreme Court in modern times.After Democrats took over the House in 2018, however, Trump simply refused to accept Congress' oversight authority, and systematically stonewalled congressional requests for information, thereby forcing the House to issue formal subpoenas and to seek to enforce them in the courts. Trump's unprecedented recalcitrance thus set the stage for Thursday's decision, which concerned congressional subpoenas for Trump's financial records, issued to his banks and accountants.Two federal appellate courts ruled in favor of Congress, following a long line of cases regarding the scope of congressional subpoena authority, which provide that courts should generally steer clear of second-guessing the merits of such legislative informational demands and uphold them so long as they are plausibly related to a legislative purpose. That long-standing hands-off approach is based on a view that judges should not be mucking about in the oversight work of Congress, which necessarily involves gathering information, because doing so would pose a serious risk to the separation of powers, and could effectively arrogate legislative prerogatives to the courts. In Thursday's decision, however, Roberts asserted that allowing Congress to exercise its normally broad subpoena authority when it comes to the president would itself pose a serious separation of powers problem, including by allowing Congress to harass or otherwise improperly intrude upon the president. The Court's answer was to require any congressional subpoena directed at the president to satisfy an elaborate, and in many respects, highly restrictive, balancing test.Courts have a particular affinity for balancing tests. According to cynics, that is because such tests afford judges broad leeway to reach the results they desire in any given case. That is certainly the case with the balancing test Justice Roberts announced in Mazars, which requires Congress to demonstrate that a subpoena has a proper "legislative purpose," is supported by "substantial evidence", is "no broader than reasonably necessary", and is not unduly burdensome. The court cautioned that "[o]ther considerations may be pertinent as well," thus leaving open the possibility that the list of factors available for courts to balance may grow over time. In sum, the decision affords courts wide leeway to open or close the door on congressional subpoenas involving the president.The seven justices who signed on to Robert's opinion, including all five of the court's liberals, presumably believe that they have set the stage for a return to the old accommodation process, and that—because the vagueness of the test announced in Mazars makes it difficult to predict how the courts will resolve a given subpoena dispute—presidents and legislators will once again be motivated to negotiate in relative good faith, and likely end up reaching agreement.That, however, may well not happen. Trump, of course has had particular success in stocking the federal courts—and particularly the Supreme Court—with his nominees, and many of them have proven to be particularly amenable to the assertion of executive power, at least by the current president. Accordingly, Trump, or a future Republican successor, may well choose to stonewall Congress just as Trump has done, in the hope that the courts will apply their balancing test in his favor, and thereby effectively aid the president in frustrating legislative oversight.While some may find it unduly cynical to expect that courts may review congressional subpoenas through a partisan or ideological lens, the fact remains that the test the court adopted Thursday is tailor-made to arrogate power to the judiciary, and to make Congress' critical oversight power subject to the whims of the judges.The roadblocks the court has now placed in the way of Congress' ability to enforce subpoenas in the courts make it all the more important that the legislature seek to come up with a workable way to exercise its so-called inherent contempt authority to compel compliance with presidential subpoenas. Under the inherent contempt doctrine, Congress may have the theoretical power to go so far as to imprison recalcitrant executive branch witnesses if they refuse to answer the legislature's questions. Indeed, Trump appellate court appointee Neomi Rao has openly suggested that Congress might choose to use force to compel compliance with its subpoenas. But, as impeachment expert Frank Bowman III has observed, whether Congress can actually effectively and practically exercise that authority, is another matter. Indeed, it is unclear if there is a workable means for Congress to exercise its inherent contempt authority without involving the courts. A recent proposal by Rep. Ted Lieu that would let Congress impose fines on officials who defy its subpoenas offers a starting point. In the wake of the Mazars decision, however, it is clear that more thought needs to be given to this important open question.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. 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| Five Guys employees were fired for refusing to serve police officers in Alabama, as tension mounts between service workers and law enforcement Posted: 11 Jul 2020 07:41 AM PDT  Five Guys confirmed the termination of the workers who turned their backs to the officers and that store is temporarily closed for customer service training.
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| Lebanese PM sues American University of Beirut over exit package Posted: 10 Jul 2020 02:33 AM PDT  Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab is suing the American University of Beirut (AUB), where he worked for 35 years as an academic, a spokesman for Diab said, in a dispute over his exit package from the financially struggling institution. AUB, which has been hit hard by Lebanon's economic meltdown, declined to comment on the case. Lebanon is grappling with a crisis caused by decades of state corruption and bad governance.
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