| U.S. will use 'every tool' to secure release if any Americans held in Venezuela: Pompeo Posted: 06 May 2020 08:46 AM PDT  The U.S. government will use "every tool" available to secure the return of Americans if they are being held in Venezuela, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo vowed on Wednesday, after Venezuelan officials said they had captured two U.S. "mercenaries" in a failed armed incursion. "There was no U.S. government direct involvement in this operation," Pompeo told reporters, echoing President Donald Trump's remarks a day earlier. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Monday that authorities there had detained a pair of U.S. citizens working with a U.S. military veteran who has claimed responsibility for the foiled incursion, launched last weekend.
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| Mass arrests and overcrowded prisons in El Salvador spark fear of coronavirus crisis Posted: 06 May 2020 05:20 AM PDT  Governments around the world, from Brazil to the United States, are releasing some prisoners in an effort to reduce COVID-19 outbreaks in overcrowded prisons and jails. But not El Salvador. Over the past month, thousands have been arrested and jailed for allegedly violating quarantine orders in this small Central American country. El Salvador was one of the first countries in the Americas to declare a state of emergency due to the coronavirus pandemic, in mid-March. President Nayib Bukele announced a mandatory national quarantine with few exceptions. At first, his decisive action had broad support. But Bukele's use of police and soldiers to enforce coronavirus restrictions has led to criticism that the president is abusing his emergency powers to curtail civil liberties and undermine democracy. A tough response to coronavirusIn April, the Salvadoran Supreme Court ruled that the government lacked the legal authority to detain citizens indefinitely without suspicion of crime, despite the "extraordinary circumstances" presented by COVID-19. In open defiance of the court, the administration has continued to arrest thousands, allegedly for violating quarantine, and send them to ad hoc "containment centers."The mass detentions put further stress on the country's already overburdened penal system, creating conditions ripe for a public health crisis. In 2018, a special observer sent by the United Nations described the conditions of El Salvador's jails and prisons as "hellish."I used to visit MS-13 designated Salvadoran prisons on a weekly basis in the early 2000s, when I was in El Salvador and conducting research on the "war on gangs." Even then I found conditions in these cinderblock warehouses to be harsh, with overcrowding and poor food. Running water was hit or miss. Sometimes, inmates would go days without access to water, leaving them to drink only what they'd stored.Starting in 2016, the government banned almost all visitors to and observers in these kinds of prisons, claiming it was necessary for security. Since then incarcerated life has become even worse, from the little that outside groups like the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights are able to document. Explicit photosRecently, though, amid the global pandemic, the world got an unexpected glimpse into El Salvador's prisons. On April 25, the Salvadoran government's official press secretary tweeted out disturbing images of shirtless prisoners packed together like sardines – no chance of social distancing – hands cuffed behind their backs. Some had white surgical masks flapping uselessly. Many were unmasked. The images were touting a government crackdown on incarcerated gang members intended as reprisal for a recent uptick in the murder rate. But the draconian treatment they revealed raised outcry among public health and human rights advocates. To these chilling images, the Salvadoran prisons director Osiris Luna Meza added that cells would be sealed "without a ray of sun," and promised to house members of rival gangs together in the same cells – a proposition almost certain to trigger violence. Public enemy No. 1Inflammatory rhetoric, punitive law enforcement and the public humiliation of gang members have become more common in El Salvador over my two decades of research on human rights and the rule of law in the country. So-called "mano dura" or "iron fist" policies are politically popular in El Salvador and other Central American countries grappling with gang violence. For much of the past decade, El Salvador's murder rate has ranked it among the world's most dangerous countries.But too often crime strategies allegedly meant to protect the public, like the recent mass arrests and the prison clampdown, create more problems than they solve. Research shows that hard-line policing has actually exacerbated violence in El Salvador. According to a 2019 U.S. State Department report, Salvadoran police and soldiers given free rein to repress gangs have committed assault, arbitrary arrests, forced disappearances, torture and extrajudicial executions. Bukele, a young leader who took office last year, promised to "turn the page" on the country's rough history. Instead, he has returned to these old authoritarian tactics. A brewing crisisDoing so during a global pandemic turns the country's overcrowded prisons into a public health hazard.El Salvador's national prison system is built for approximately 18,000 inmates, and currently holds over 38,000, according to the World Prison Brief, a database on prison populations worldwide. This number does not include those arrested for curfew violation, who are crammed into local facilities.Even before COVID-19, infectious disease spread rapidly among Salvadoran prisoners. According to a 2016 epidemiological study in El Salvador, infection rates for tuberculosis were at least five times greater in prisons than in the general population.That same year, the Salvadoran Supreme Court declared that prison overcrowding violated prisoners' basic human rights and ordered the government to release some people and build more facilities. Neither has happened. By 2017, journalist Sarah Maslin wrote in The Washington Post that one Salvadoran jail "had become a petri dish for outbreaks of scabies, pneumonia and tuberculosis." Human cost of an iron fistThe coronavirus outbreak makes infectious diseases in Salvadoran prisons an even more urgent concern. Stuffing more people into overcrowded, unsanitary jails and prisons radically increases the risks for COVID-19 outbreaks. The disease inevitably spreads into broader society through prison staff and inmates who are released, according to recent analysis by data scientists published on Law 360. Bukele says his government's harsh security measures are necessary to "defend the lives of Salvadorans." But now more than ever, such actions seem likelier to hurt the people they're meant to protect. [You need to understand the coronavirus pandemic, and we can help. Read The Conversation's newsletter.]
Este artículo se vuelve a publicar de The Conversation, un medio digital sin fines de lucro dedicado a la diseminación de la experticia académica. Lee mas:
Miranda Cady Hallett does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
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| China is reportedly silencing coronavirus survivors who want answers on what went wrong with the country's early coronavirus response Posted: 04 May 2020 10:01 PM PDT  According to The New York Times, Wuhan residents who survived the virus or lost loved ones have been threatened for questioning China's response.
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| Biden losing edge over Trump amid virus, poll reveals Posted: 06 May 2020 04:04 AM PDT  A new poll has revealed that Joe Biden's advantage in popular support over President Trump has been eroding in recent weeks.
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| Drug Smugglers May Have Started COVID-19 Outbreak Aboard Destroyer, SecDef Says Posted: 05 May 2020 02:32 PM PDT  The destroyer Kidd is the second Navy ship to deal with a coronavirus outbreak.
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| Fox News Anchor: Tara Reade Allegations ‘Drive a Stake Into Heart’ of #MeToo Movement Posted: 06 May 2020 01:38 PM PDT  Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum asserted on Wednesday that the sexual-assault allegations made against presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden by former Senate staffer Tara Reade has essentially driven "a stake into the heart" of the MeToo movement.Reacting to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's insistence this week that the accusation by Reade that Biden assaulted her back in 1993 is a "closed issue" and she won't answer questions on it again, MacCallum took the speaker to task over her prior stance on Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and the allegations raised against him in 2018."I do find it very interesting to watch Nancy Pelosi say, 'I believe him, he said it didn't happen and I support him,'" the Fox anchor said during an appearance on Bill Hemmer Reports. "Now that kind of answer was completely unacceptable, as we all know, when it came to Brett Kavanaugh."Saying that this "raises a lot of important questions about the MeToo movement," which arose amid a number of high-profile cases of sexual misconduct by powerful men, MacCallum claimed that it "went very sadly off-track when we started getting into the territory of believing all women.""It should all be about due process," she continued. "I think it drives a stake into the heart of this movement in many ways because what are they going to do now?"MacCallum went on to say that the accusation against the former vice president "starts to neutralize" the multiple allegations of sexual misconduct against President Donald Trump, adding, "Especially since you have a lot of people who say, 'I believe Tara Reade but I support Joe Biden anyway.'"MacCallum also referenced a recent poll that shows that while voters are split on whether or not they believe Biden or Reade, Democrats are still overwhelmingly willing to support Biden this election. Fox News has devoted wall-to-wall coverage of the allegations over the past couple of weeks even while it all but ignored some of Trump's accusers, largely devoting its airtime to calling out Democrats for hypocrisy and the mainstream media for supposedly ignoring the story. Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Former FDA commissioner says U.S. may be unable to decrease coronavirus transmission much more Posted: 05 May 2020 07:16 AM PDT  Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb believes the United States may not be able to reduce coronavirus transmission much more, saying we should prepare for a "new normal."Gottlieb spoke with Today on Tuesday as many states allow some nonessential businesses to begin reopening and after a key model that's been cited by the White House significantly raised its projected death toll from COVID-19 to almost 135,000 by early August."We still have a high level of infection in this country," Gottlieb said. "We've reached a plateau, but we haven't seen the kind of declines that we were expecting to see at this point. And as we start to reopen the country, cases are likely to go up, not down."Gottlieb went on to suggest that as cases continue to rise in many states, the country may not be able to lower the rate of infection much further."I think that we need to understand, this may be the new normal," he said. "We may not be able to get transmission down much more. I hope we can."Gottlieb expanded on this in a Twitter thread, in which he wrote that "we need to prepare to deal with covid as a persistent threat," including by protecting those who are most vulnerable and being "prepared with case-based interventions, and widespread screening, to slow the transmission."On Monday, The New York Times reported that the Trump administration is privately forecasting that the U.S. daily coronavirus death toll will reach 3,000 by June 1, up from about 1,750, as well as 200,000 new cases a day by the end of the month, up from about 25,000. > "We need to understand this may be the new normal. We may not be able to get transmission down much more. I hope we can." -@ScottGottliebMD pic.twitter.com/yF1eijFIDV> > -- TODAY (@TODAYshow) May 5, 2020More stories from theweek.com American individualism is a suicide pact What a sane country would learn from coronavirus Why even mask skeptics should want to wear them
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| US shopper uses KKK hood as face covering Posted: 05 May 2020 02:18 PM PDT  Authorities in California have launched a probe after a man was spotted at a grocery store using a Ku Klux Klan hood as a face covering against coronavirus infection. "I am stunned, stunned because it's always sad when somebody, regardless of what the reasoning is, resorts to putting any kind of symbol out there that depicts some kind of hatred," John Minto, the mayor of the town of Santee, near San Diego, told the local ABC station. Images of the man taken by a fellow shopper at a Vons grocery store have sparked outrage and the San Diego Sheriff's Department said it had launched a probe into the incident that took place Saturday.
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| Coronavirus: Nigeria's death penalty by Zoom 'inhumane' Posted: 06 May 2020 02:17 PM PDT  A man is sentenced to hang for murder after a virtual court session amid the coronavirus pandemic.
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| Israeli Supreme Court: Netanyahu may form government Posted: 06 May 2020 01:22 PM PDT  Israel's Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may form a new government while under indictment for corruption charges, clearing the way for him and his rival-turned-uneasy ally to join together in a controversial power-sharing deal. Netanyahu and his rival-turned-partner, Benny Gantz, said they expected their coalition to be sworn into office next week. After battling to three inconclusive elections over the past year, Netanyahu and Gantz, a former military chief, announced their "emergency" government last month, saying they would put aside their rivalry to steer the country through the coronavirus crisis.
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| Venezuela: Two US citizens arrested after beach invasion aimed at capturing Nicolas Maduro, says regime Posted: 04 May 2020 06:56 PM PDT  Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Monday that authorities have captured 13 "terrorists", including two US citizens he described as mercenaries, over allegations that they were involved in a failed plot to invade the country and oust him. In a state television address, Maduro showed what he said were the passports and other identification cards of Airan Berry and Luke Denman, who he described as employees of Silvercorp, a Florida-based company whose owner has claimed responsibility for the invasion attempt. Venezuelan authorities said on Monday that they arrested another eight accused "mercenaries" in a coastal town and showed images on state TV of several unidentified men handcuffed and lying prone in a street. The Venezuelan government said that more than 25,000 troops have been mobilised to hunt for other rebels operating in the country. Diosdado Cabello, the vice-president of the ruling party, posted on his Twitter account a video of a Venezuelan identified as Josnars Adolfo Baduel, who was also detained, and claimed that two US citizens were among those arrested. Mr Baduel is shown responding to a security official who asks him about the Americans captured. Venezuelan state television broadcast the video but did not identify the Americans. But Jordan Goudreau, a Florida-based former Green Beret, said he was working with the two men in a mission launched early Sunday to "liberate" Venezuela.
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| Coronavirus spreads among Indian police enforcing world's largest lockdown Posted: 06 May 2020 06:13 AM PDT  Hundreds of Indian police have tested positive for the coronavirus in recent days, raising alarm among an over-stretched force as it attempts to enforce the world's largest lockdown to contain the pandemic. TV footage early in the crisis showed police beating back migrant workers as they tried to board city buses to reach their villages, making a mockery of social distancing. India has been under lockdown since March 25 and confirmed nearly 50,000 coronavirus cases and some 1,694 deaths.
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| The final results are in: Finland's basic-income trial found people were happier, but weren't more likely to get jobs Posted: 06 May 2020 10:16 AM PDT  Basic income has gained renewed interest during the pandemic with millions people out of work and national economies thrown into tailspins.
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| National intelligence director nominee Ratcliffe pulls a 180 on whistleblower protections, 'deep state' Posted: 05 May 2020 10:47 AM PDT  Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) has a few new principles now that he's under the Senate's spotlight.Ratcliffe faced a Senate nomination hearing on Tuesday after President Trump nominated him, for the second time, to be the next director of national intelligence. In his hearing, Ratcliffe promised protections for whistleblowers and showed support for the intelligence community — a stark contrast from how he spoke about those topics in the past.Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) on Tuesday asked Ratcliffe if he thought "the intelligence agencies of the United States are running amok," which Ratcliffe answered with a blunt "no." That's a change from the many times Ratcliffe has railed against intelligence agencies' alleged "bias" and "prejudice" toward Trump. Ratcliffe also said the "intelligence I will provide if confirmed will not be altered or impacted by outside influence."> .@SenatorBennet: "Do you think the intelligence agencies of the United States are running amok?"> > DNI Nominee Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-TX): "No."> > Full video here: https://t.co/7wGdBDyQFY pic.twitter.com/QJFnDBGcOM> > — CSPAN (@cspan) May 5, 2020Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) meanwhile asked Ratcliffe if his "past remarks" demanding the Ukraine whistleblower testify publicly and doubting the whistleblower's report would "discourage" further whistleblowers. Ratcliffe promised potential whistleblowers "every protection under the law."> .@SenFeinstein: "Do you believe that your past remarks concerning the Ukraine whibsltblower will discourage IC whistleblowers from exercising their rights...?> > DNI Nominee Rep. Ratcliffe: "Every whistleblower, past, present and future, will enjoy every protection under the law." pic.twitter.com/JDq6fsin2X> > — CSPAN (@cspan) May 5, 2020And as for the "deep state" — the conspiracy theory of a group within the intelligence community allegedly set on undermining Trump that Ratcliffe has alluded to in the past? Ratcliffe said Tuesday he doesn't "know what that means."More stories from theweek.com American individualism is a suicide pact Why even mask skeptics should want to wear them Trump is reportedly back to obsessing over the color of his border wall
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| Broadcaster shutdown crosses dangerous line for Philippines Posted: 05 May 2020 11:31 PM PDT  The shutting down of the Philippines' top broadcaster crosses a dangerous line in eroding the nation's democracy and sends a warning to those who risk angering President Rodrigo Duterte, watchdogs said. Since rising to power in 2016, Duterte has steadily tightened his grip on the nation's key institutions and jailed or sidelined his loudest detractors, but until now his worst threats against critical media had not been fully realised. Tuesday's halting of broadcasting giant ABS-CBN's operations marks the first time a major, independent outlet was shut down since Duterte took office in a step that echoes the country's grim authoritarian past.
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| 10 Eco-Friendly Comforters Under $300 Posted: 06 May 2020 07:22 AM PDT |
| Ilhan Omar Demands Answers on Civilian Deaths in Somalia Posted: 06 May 2020 02:13 AM PDT  NAIROBI, Kenya—U.S. Africa Command, known as AFRICOM, has been conducting air and ground operations, mainly targeting the al Qaeda affiliate al Shabaab, in Somalia since 2007. In those 13 years it has admitted to four civilian deaths.On the Eve of Congressional Hearings, New Evidence About Alleged U.S. Massacre in SomaliaThe difference between the number of civilian casualties declared by AFRICOM compared to those recorded by organizations like Amnesty International and Airwars is so vast that it has prompted members of Congress to write directly to the American general in charge.Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn) is leading the initiative. The letter is co-signed by seven other Democratic representatives, all of them chairs of relevant committees and subcommittees, including Eliot Engel (D-NY), the Chair of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and Adam Smith (D-WA), the Chair of the House Armed Services Committee. The letter, shared exclusively with The Daily Beast, requests that the military clarify how it investigatives civilian casualty allegations. It suggests that an explanation of the research process might help explain the discrepancy between the figures reported by human rights organizations and the numbers acknowledged by the military. It also reminds AFRICOM that providing clarity about the reasons for discrepancies and defining who the military considers a "combatant" is required by recent legislation passed by Congress as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020, Section 1703. Allegations of civilian casualties in Somalia have increased since the Trump administration gave AFRICOM commanders more flexibility to carry out offensive strikes against suspected militants in 2017.With the loosened restrictions, there's been a steady drumbeat of reports of civilian deaths documented by international human rights organizations, local and foreign journalists, Somali politicians and officials. Omar was born in Somalia and there is a significant Somali diaspora in her Minnesota constituency.AFRICOM's efforts to degrade the military capabilities of al Shabaab "are greatly welcomed by most Somalis, but they seem to be rushing at targets blindly, without proper intelligence resulting in many civilian deaths and a public outcry," Hussein Sheikh-Ali, the national security adviser and counterterrorism adviser to the current and former presidents of Somalia, told The Daily Beast. With testimonial evidence, corroborating accounts and expert analysis of images and video from strike sites, satellite imagery, and weapons identification, Amnesty International has investigated nine airstrikes, and of those nine incidents found 21 civilians dead and 11 injured.Analyzing all strikes and ground operations via official AFRICOM statements, open-source information on social media and internal military documents obtained by journalists with the Freedom of Information Act, London-based airstrike monitoring group Airwars estimates that up to 142 civilians have been killed in the 227 declared actions the U.S. has conducted since 2007. "We urge you to, wherever possible and consistent with the need to protect classified information, provide detail on how assessments are made and acknowledge where they may differ from the assessments of credible, independent non-governmental organizations and others," says the letter, addressed to U.S. Army Gen. Stephen Townsend, the chief of U.S. Africa Command. "When reporting comes from credible and sophisticated NGOs with cultural and linguistic capacity, civilian casualty reports are not easily dismissed."At the end of March, the command committed to issuing quarterly reports on civilian casualty allegations in Africa. The announcement was met with cautious optimism. "We welcome this step to provide increased transparency and public accounting of U.S. military operations and as part of our national commitment to minimizing civilian casualties," the letter reads.Last week AFRICOM released the first report. It said in the last 14 months it had conducted 91 airstrikes in Somalia and Libya (of those 87 were conducted in Somalia, four in Libya, LT Christina M. Gibson, a spokesperson for AFRICOM explained to The Daily Beast in an email). Of those 91 airstrikes AFRICOM received "70 allegations of about 27 separate possible civilian casualty incidents with approximately 90 alleged civilian casualties." Of those 27 incidents, one was acknowledged to have caused civilian casualties. Seven incidents are still under review. The rest AFRICOM considered to be "unsubstantiated." The report did not mention any claims of civilian casualties in ground raids. U.S. Special Forces regularly carry out raids with Somali soldiers belonging to the Danab Brigade, who are supposed to be highly trained commandos. AFRICOM told The Daily Beast it does not conduct assessments of civilian casualty claims related to partner forces, although it would investigate if a U.S. service member was directly accused. Airwars has reported 14 incidents with civilian casualty allegations from ground raids. The response to the first installment of AFRICOM's report was less enthusiastic in some quarters. "The report was a disappointment," Sheikh-Ali said. "It fell short of any meaningful engagement with the concerned population." As the congressional letter notes, AFRICOM has not explained how it investigates civilian casualty claims, saying for security concerns it cannot go into detail about its methodology. Amnesty International has found the U.S. military does not speak to witnesses, family members, friends or colleagues of the deceased even when their contact information has been shared.Luke Hartig, the senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council from 2013 to 2017 confirmed that AFRICOM does not speak to witnesses or family members, and said, "This produces a significant gap in their ability to gather local knowledge in support of their assessments." He noted that organizations like Amnesty and Airwars are not privy to the intelligence that underpins AFRICOM's assessments and cautioned, "this is a significant gap for outside investigators." In Somalia there is a history of international actors, including the U.S., being misled by false intelligence reports used to extract revenge in local disputes. The letter suggests that the reports "should include a public accounting of basic questions of methodology and the Command's definitions of combatants and non-combatants." AFRICOM has not explained how it defines "combatant." Without that definition, the military can essentially designate anyone a terrorist. "It is plausible that AFRICOM counts individuals—particularly military aged males in Al-Shabaab controlled locations— as combatants whereas depending on our investigations we could classify such people as civilians, hence the discrepancies," Abdullahi Hassan, the Somalia Researcher at Amnesty International, told The Daily Beast.AFRICOM did not provide an answer when The Daily Beast asked if any or every military aged male in Somalia is considered a combatant. "AFRICOM—and other U.S. military commands—need to be far more transparent about how exactly they are distinguishing between combatants and civilians," says Priyanka Motaparthy, director of the Project on Armed Conflict, Counterterrorism, and Human Rights at Columbia Law School. "For the communities affected by their operations, this is a life or death question."It is not clear if AFRICOM has yet contacted the families of the four civilians it has admitted to killing by mistake. Hartig says this is a particular area of concern, given that ex gratia payments are U.S. policy. He also added, "This is beyond AFRICOM's control, but I think we're still missing a lot of information on the context for U.S. operations in Somalia—the scale of our effort, our objectives, and what policies govern our use of force there. That sort of information should be coming from senior officials at the Pentagon or the White House, but we haven't seen that level of transparency from this administration."Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Feds arrest 2 men in first fraud case involving PPP loan program for small businesses hurt by coronavirus Posted: 05 May 2020 05:02 PM PDT  Congress created the Paycheck Protection Program as part of the federal CARES Act to help small businesses recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
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| Israeli top court throws Netanyahu a lifeline Posted: 06 May 2020 01:51 PM PDT  In a sign of the importance of the decisions, 11 supreme court justices heard the cases in comparison to the usual three- or five-judge panels.
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| Letters to the Editor: Joe Biden's supporters need to explain their treatment of Brett Kavanaugh Posted: 06 May 2020 03:00 AM PDT  You can't explain away your support for Joe Biden despite a sexual assault allegation without talking about Brett Kavanaugh.
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| Palestinians extend coronavirus state of emergency to June 5 Posted: 05 May 2020 01:19 AM PDT |
| Seoul reports panic buying in N Korea amid economic woes Posted: 06 May 2020 01:52 AM PDT  The coronavirus pandemic has likely taken a heavy toll on North Korea, forcing leader Kim Jong Un to avoid public activities and his people into panic buying for daily necessities, South Korea's spy agency told lawmakers Wednesday. Although North Korea has taken intense quarantine measures, it maintains there are no domestic infections.
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| China warns Hong Kong protesters against 'stirring up trouble' Posted: 06 May 2020 12:28 AM PDT  China warned Hong Kong protesters Wednesday it would not tolerate them "stirring up trouble again" in the semi-autonomous territory that was rocked by months of pro-democracy demonstrations last year. Mass arrests of protesters and a ban on large gatherings due to the coronavirus outbreak in the financial hub have stifled the protest movement, but small demonstrations have been held in recent weeks as contagion fears ease. Hong Kong police used pepper spray to disperse protesters last Friday after a largely peaceful public holiday.
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| Reopened restaurant tells workers: Don't wear face masks — or don't work Posted: 06 May 2020 12:49 PM PDT  Restaurant workers in a reopened Dallas eatery say they are being asked to weigh their safety against their jobs.
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| Venezuela TV shows 'US citizens confessing over failed coup' Posted: 06 May 2020 03:52 PM PDT  Venezuelan President Maduro says US-backed "mercenaries" tried to oust him, a claim the US denies.
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| An NYC man tried to forcibly remove Asian-American nurse from the subway, police say Posted: 06 May 2020 12:05 PM PDT  He made anti-Asian statements and tried to remove the nurse from the train by grabbing his wrist and shoulder, police said.
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| A 'shocking' two-thirds of patients recently hospitalized in NY had been staying home Posted: 06 May 2020 03:47 PM PDT  "They're not working; they're not traveling," Cuomo said. "... They were predominantly at home."
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| Iran's Rouhani pledges "crushing response" if U.S. extends arms embargo Posted: 06 May 2020 01:20 AM PDT  Iranian President Hassan Rouhani threatened a "crushing response" on Wednesday if the United States goes ahead with plans to extend an embargo on Iranian trade of conventional arms, which the United Nations is set to lift later this year. Under Iran's deal with world powers to accept limits to its nuclear programme in return for the lifting of sanctions, a U.N. weapons embargo is due to expire in October. The United States, which exited the deal in 2018, says it wants to extend the embargo.
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| Pompeo has no evidence about virus lab leak: China Posted: 06 May 2020 12:51 PM PDT  China hit back Wednesday at US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo over his claims that the coronavirus originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, saying he "doesn't have any" evidence. Washington and Beijing have clashed repeatedly over the virus, which emerged in China late last year but has since spiralled into a global pandemic. Theories that the virus came from a maximum-security virology lab in Wuhan have swirled since earlier this year, but were brought into the mainstream last month by US government officials.
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| Liberals Rewrite History to Justify Their #MeToo Hypocrisy Posted: 05 May 2020 05:08 PM PDT  You can believe whomever you choose in the alleged sexual-misconduct cases of Joe Biden and Brett Kavanaugh, but you can't revise history to erase your partisan double standards.One of the most egregious examples of revisionism can be found in a column by the New York Times' Michelle Goldberg, who employs nearly every attack Americans were warned never to use against alleged sexual-assault victims during the Kavanaugh hearings — questioning their motivations, asking why they didn't file charges, attacking them for not remembering specifics, etc. And yet, even if we adopt Goldberg's new standards, Tara Reade still emerges as a more credible accuser than Christine Blasey Ford.For starters, Ford was unable to offer a time or place or a single contemporaneous corroborating witness. Ford offered no evidence that she even knew Kavanaugh. Reade worked for Joe Biden. Reade has offered a specific time and place for the attack.Goldberg contends that Ford's case against Kavanaugh was bolstered by "four sworn affidavits" from witnesses whom she'd told that she'd been assaulted.This is an especially misleading comparison since the charges against Kavanaugh, unlike the ones against Biden, were investigated by the FBI. The question is how many "affidavits" would there be in support of Reade's allegations if there were an official inquiry into her claims — and one conducted by the authorities, not an "unbiased, apolitical panel, put together by the D.N.C.," as Goldberg's newspaper desires?There are already reportedly at least four people on the record who maintain Reade told them about the Biden incident, including her mother, who reportedly called in to "Larry King Live" in 1993, right after the alleged sexual assault took place, looking for advice; her neighbor, who claims that Reade told her about the assault a few years after it happened; and a friend, who says that Reade told her about the assault in 2007 or 2008.Every witness that Ford claimed had been at the suburban Maryland party where Kavanaugh allegedly attacked her had no recollection of the assault or even the gathering where it supposedly happened. This group included Ford's longtime friend Leland Keyser.If Goldberg's standard of credibility is measured by the number of "sworn affidavits" in existence, then she should be calling for an investigation into Reade's story so that the two allegations can be subjected to the same level of scrutiny.Another reason Ford is a more credible accuser than Reade, argues Goldberg, is that the latter's story has changed. Goldberg even insinuates that Reade's neighbor might be lying because she has trouble recalling if Reade relayed the story to her in 1995 or 1996.That's another new and convenient standard. It should be mentioned that during the Kavanaugh hearings we were told that it's normal for victims not to recall every detail about these unconscionable attacks — which makes a lot of sense.Unlike Ford's story, which had evolved — changing places, years, seasons, and the number of attackers — Reade's story has hardly budged, other than in regards to some hazy recollections about when or how she filed a report about Biden. Then again, if having a consistent story is the new measurement of credibility, Reade is at least as reliable as Ford.Another reason to doubt Reade's allegations, contends New York magazine's Jonathan Chait, is that she coordinated "her statements with Bernie Sanders supporters to maximize their political impact." Others, such as NeverTrumper Charlie Sykes, have insinuated even uglier conspiracies to discredit Reade, pointing out that she once deleted a pro-Putin tweet. Apparently Reade has been working the long con for the Russians since 1993. (Ford, incidentally, deleted her entire social-media history before making her accusations public.)Unlike Reade, Ford didn't mention the alleged assault to anyone for around 25 years, until Kavanaugh's name began appearing in the media as a prospective Supreme Court justice in 2012, and even then, it seems she only specifically cited the judge's name after Donald Trump nominated him. If you want to maximize political impact, coming forward during a contentious Supreme Court nomination hearing after three decades of silence probably qualifies.Both Goldberg and Chait also note that Ford's therapist's notes corroborate her claims. The notes do not exactly bolster her credibility, though. For one thing, Ford refused to turn over those notes to Senate Judiciary Committee investigators, instead handing snippets to a favorable reporter at the Washington Post. As far as we know, those notes conflict with her testimony regarding the number of attackers and the year. Moreover, why do therapist's notes from 2012 speak to the credibility of an alleged victim more than a 1993 call from a mother?It's not a mystery why liberals want Ford to seem more credible. At first the media completely ignored Reade's allegations. But once reporters began responsibly reporting the story — a professionalism that wasn't afforded to Kavanaugh — the same liberals who had demanded we "believe all women" began flailing to rewrite history.In USA Today, Kirsten Powers argued that "there is no 'double standard' in the way Kavanaugh was treated vs. Biden," because Democrats had merely called for the accusations to be investigated. That, too, is revisionism. Almost every Democratic senator had called for Trump to withdraw the nomination over the assault charges — many of those calls, in fact, were based on even flimsier accusations, recklessly spread by the press and politicians.It's possible that Reade's credibility would suffer, as did Ford's, if an investigation took a deeper look. Yet, none of the Democrats who dispensed with due process and embraced Ford's accusations have shown the slightest interest in speaking with Reade. They've simply adopted new guidelines for "believing women" and left liberal pundits with the job of justifying their actions — which they dutifully do.Of course, none of the above is dispositive or unequivocal evidence of sexual assault on its own. We can never really know. But the notion that Ford is a more credible accuser than Reade doesn't stand up to even the most basic examination. It's just a flimsy excuse for hypocrisy.
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| Chris Christie Says U.S. Needs to Reopen and Accept More Deaths Posted: 04 May 2020 07:35 PM PDT  Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said on Monday that the American economy needs to reopen quickly and that tens of thousands of more Americans may die from the novel coronavirus, insisting that Americans are "gonna have to" accept that.Speaking to CNN correspondent Dana Bash on her The Daily DC podcast, Christie—who now works as an ABC News contributor—pushed for the reversal of stay-at-home orders in order to open up businesses and ramp up economic activity.Confronted with recent models that now show that as many as 135,000 Americans will die due to decreased social distancing amid the pandemic, Christie essentially threw up his hands and said there really wasn't a choice."Of course, everybody wants to save every life they can—but the question is, towards what end, ultimately?" Christie said. "Are there ways that we can thread the middle here to allow that there are going to be deaths, and there are going to be deaths no matter what?"Echoing previous comments he's made that the country cannot wait to reopen the economy, the former Trump transition team member asserted that "we're going to destroy the American way of life" if people don't immediately get back to work.Bash then asked the ex-governor if the public could accept reopening following reports that an administration model is now projecting a daily death toll of 3,000 by June 1. "They're gonna have to," Christie bluntly replied. "We're in the midst of a pandemic that we haven't seen in over 100 years. And we're going to have to continue to do things."Asked how he would tell the American public about the need to reopen if he were the president, Christie responded: "The message is that the American people have gone through significant death before.""We sent our young men during World War II over to Europe, out to the Pacific, knowing, knowing that many of them would not come home alive," he said. "And we decided to make that sacrifice because what we were standing up for was the American way of life. In the very same way now, we have to stand up for the American way of life."About half the states have begun to reopen public spaces and their economies in recent days despite cases growing in many areas and the confirmed U.S. death count from coronavirus approaching 70,000. President Donald Trump, who has called for states to "LIBERATE," casually conceded during a Sunday Fox News town hall that the final death toll could reach 100,000 after claiming just a few weeks ago that it would be half that number.Chris Christie Clashes With 'The View' Hosts on ImpeachmentRead more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| The U.S. has entered the 'death handoff' stage of the COVID-19 outbreak Posted: 06 May 2020 04:52 AM PDT  The U.S. COVID-19 death toll passed 71,000 Wednesday morning and the number of cases, currently marked at 1.2 million, keeps rising steadily. Trump administration and outside models both forecast significant upticks in death as states lift coronavirus mitigation measures — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) unexpectedly announced Tuesday that hair salons and public pools can open Friday, for example."For every indication of improvement in controlling the virus, new outbreaks have emerged elsewhere, leaving the nation stuck in a steady, unrelenting march of deaths and infections," The New York Times reports. New York City, the worst-hit area in the U.S., has seen a sizable drop in new cases, but new clusters are appearing in the South, Midwest, and other parts of the country. Taken as a whole, America's coronavirus curve has plateaued, but "the plateau is what I call a death handoff situation," University of Minnesota epidemiologist Michael Osterholm told Politico.> Some U.S. cities show signs of progress against the virus, but a view of the country as a whole shows an unrelenting crush of death and infection https://t.co/R1PnGt4Yii pic.twitter.com/8dLDmLjnUv> > — The New York Times (@nytimes) May 5, 2020"Coronavirus in America now looks like this," the Times summarizes:> More than a month has passed since there was a day with fewer than 1,000 deaths from the virus. Almost every day, at least 25,000 new coronavirus cases are identified, meaning that the total in the United States ... is expanding by between 2 and 4 percent daily. Rural towns that one month ago were unscathed are suddenly hot spots for the virus. It is rampaging through nursing homes, meatpacking plants, and prisons, killing the medically vulnerable and the poor, and new outbreaks keep emerging in grocery stores, Walmarts, or factories, an ominous harbinger of what a full reopening of the economy will bring. [The New York Times]Trump acknowledged the tradeoff between death and opening businesses in an interview with ABC News on Tuesday, but his cost-benefit analysis tilts toward the economy and he is winding down the coronavirus task force without an apparent strategy to mitigate the risks. While Trump says the U.S. has ample tests to monitor the coronavirus and plenty of personal protective equipment to treat it, CDC and FEMA officials privately discuss shortfalls and fret about reopening too fast, Politico reports. Most Americans share their concerns.More stories from theweek.com American individualism is a suicide pact Why even mask skeptics should want to wear them Trump is reportedly back to obsessing over the color of his border wall
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| Where's my check? Answers to common relief payment questions Posted: 05 May 2020 10:12 PM PDT  Where is my payment? Why am I getting error messages? If a deceased relative got a payment, do I have to pay it back? Some answers on the relief payments.
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| Canada bans assault weapons after mass shooting. The contrast with US inaction is painful. Posted: 05 May 2020 03:16 PM PDT  Large capacity magazines are the real culprit on lethality. If Trump could be convinced to turn against his NRA pals, he should limit their size.
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| Israel vows to pursue Syria operations until Iran leaves Posted: 05 May 2020 05:01 PM PDT  Israel will keep up its operations in Syria until its arch enemy Iran leaves, Defence Minister Naftali Bennett said Tuesday after strikes on Iranian-backed militias and their allies killed 14 fighters. Israel has launched hundreds of attacks in Syria since the start of the civil war in 2011, targeting government troops, allied Iranian forces and fighters from Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. The Jewish state rarely confirms details of its operations in Syria but says Iran's presence in support of President Bashar al-Assad is a threat and that it will continue its attacks.
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| 3 Russian doctors fall from hospital windows during pandemic Posted: 06 May 2020 04:09 AM PDT  Two Russian doctors have died and another was seriously injured in falls from hospital windows after they reportedly came under pressure over working conditions in the coronavirus pandemic. The exact circumstances of the separate incidents in the last two weeks remain unclear and they are being investigated by police, but they underscore the enormous strains that Russian doctors and nurses have faced during the outbreak. Reports said two of the doctors had protested their working conditions and the third was being blamed after her colleagues contracted the virus.
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| United workers are suing the airline for cutting their schedules to save cash, which unions say violates federal bailout terms Posted: 06 May 2020 10:27 AM PDT  United is being sued by a union representing 27,000 of its workers after the airline reduced work weeks from 40 hours to 30 due to the pandemic.
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| New Yahoo News/YouGov coronavirus poll: Most Americans deny Trump’s response is a ‘success story’ Posted: 06 May 2020 04:26 PM PDT  Nearly half of Americans believe the United States would be faring better in the current coronavirus pandemic if Barack Obama were president instead of President Trump, according to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll.
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| 'Ahmaud Arbery's life matters': Attorneys, rights leaders demand arrests in slaying of Georgia jogger Posted: 06 May 2020 02:53 PM PDT  Attorneys say they shouldn't have to wait for a grand jury to convene in June and urge police to make arrests in the shooting of Ahmaud Arbery.
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