| End the coronavirus lockdowns, skeptical experts tell Congress Posted: 06 May 2020 04:25 PM PDT  Billed as a roundtable of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Wednesday's hearing included some of the nation's most prominent dissenters on mainstream measures like business closures, stay-at-home orders and calls for widespread testing.
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| Coronavirus is coming for the red states too Posted: 06 May 2020 09:43 AM PDT  The New York metro area's seven-day average has been declining for weeks. For the national daily case count to stay the same, other areas must be making up the difference. In other words, the virus isn't receding. It's relocating.
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| Supreme Court struggles to find balance between religious freedom, reproductive rights Posted: 06 May 2020 10:50 AM PDT  Chief Justice John Roberts emerged as the potential swing vote in a battle that has stretched for nearly a decade.
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| Ahmaud Arbery and the racist history of loitering laws Posted: 07 May 2020 02:45 AM PDT  Ahmaud Arbery went for a jog in a neighborhood of Brunswick, Georgia, a coastal town south of Savannah, in late February. He paused to look around a construction site of a new house. Then, in the middle of his run, a newly public video reveals, he was confronted by Gregory and Travis McMichael, a father-son duo — the father, Gregory, a retired police officer — who'd seen Arbery and decided he looked like a local burglary suspect.Arming themselves with a .357 magnum and a shotgun, the McMichaels, who are white, chased Arbery, who was black, with a pick-up truck. The video doesn't always keep the three men in frame, but we see Arbery attempt to go around the pick-up only to be intercepted by Travis McMichael with the shotgun. There's a shot, then the two men tussle for the weapon, then another shot at point-blank range, after which Arbery stumbles away, attempting to run before collapsing dead on the pavement. The McMichaels claimed they were attempting a citizen's arrest and shot Arbery, an unarmed runner they'd chased and cut off, in self-defense. No charges have been filed.The video's release prompted protests, plans for a grand jury, and a statement from Georgia's attorney general calling for swift justice. It's a welcome call, but swift justice wouldn't have required a viral video. And this case is all too familiar: It calls to mind the spate of nationally reported killings of unarmed black men and boys, often by white police officers, over the last six years. But it's also reminiscent of a longer American history of doing violence to black men for the "crime" of being out in public. Arbery's death resembles nothing so much as lynchings conducted in the name of vagrancy laws, Jim Crow-era legislation crafted to create an endless supply of excuses to harass African Americans and even arrest them, jail them, and profit from their labor."We have the power to pass stringent laws to govern Negroes — this is a blessing — for they must be controlled in some way or white people cannot live among them," said one Alabama planter in the post-Civil War era. The Jim Crow "black codes" were indeed stringent. "Nine Southern states adopted vagrancy laws," writes Michelle Alexander in The New Jim Crow, "which selectively made it a criminal offense not to work and were applied selectively to blacks."The black codes also worked hand-in-hand with convict leasing laws, Alexander notes, which "allow[ed] for the hiring out of county prisoners to plantation owners and private companies. Prisoners were forced to work for little or no pay," supplying the plantations with cheap labor and the county governments with an income stream. It wasn't antebellum slavery, but neither was it an entirely different creature — and indeed court decisions of the time, like 1871's Ruffin vs. Commonwealth, decided by the Virginia Supreme Court, held that a prisoner is a "slave of the state" who has forfeited "all his personal rights except those which the law in its humanity accords him."While the classic vagrancy law required proof of employment, some of these measures also included "loitering" as an offense. An 1866 Georgia law banned "wandering or strolling about in idleness." Kentucky enacted "laws which allowed persons guilty of 'keeping a disorderly house, loitering, or rambling without a job' to be arrested and bound out to the highest bidder for a year's service."And like most vagrancy laws more broadly, anti-loitering laws were race-neutral on paper. In practice, they gave police a reason to arrest black people, especially black men, simply for their public presence as opposed to any specific criminal act. The concept of vagrancy, including loitering, as a criminal offense was also used by racist vigilantes to justify lynching.By 1949, vagrancy was criminalized in every state, but most of the laws have been withered under court scrutiny in the years since. A Jacksonville, Florida, law was struck down by a landmark 7-0 Supreme Court decision in 1972. It permitted arrest of "[r]ogues and vagabonds, or dissolute persons who go about begging, common gamblers, persons who use juggling or unlawful games or plays, common drunkards, common night walkers, ... persons wandering or strolling around from place to place without any lawful purpose or object, habitual loafers," and many more. (The court deemed the Jacksonville law unconstitutionally vague; absurdly, a defendant in a related case was charged with loitering "because he was standing in the driveway, an act which the officers admitted was done only at their command.")Many anti-loitering laws have been rewritten for greater specificity in the last 50 years, ostensibly to address issues like gang violence and prostitution, but they remain on the books and subject to tremendous abuse. More importantly for Arbery's case, the idea of loitering as a threatening act by African-American men remains embedded in our culture.Thus do black parents teach their children to take extra precautions and black children worry about their parents. "My wife often cautions me against going out at night," tweeted black Michigan pastor Mika Edmondson in response to Arbery's killing, "because she knows that when some people see me out at night, they don't see a Presbyterian pastor or a PhD in systematic theology. All they can see is a threat."That seems to be all the McMichaels saw, too, when they killed Ahmaud Arbery after hunting him in the street.Want more essential commentary and analysis like this delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for The Week's "Today's best articles" newsletter here.More stories from theweek.com Did we just witness one of the nuttiest foreign policy blunders in American history? Trump reportedly got 'lava level mad' over potential exposure to coronavirus Trump cryptically tells reporters 'a lot of things' might happen soon following call with Putin
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| Russia overtakes Germany, France after record rise in coronavirus cases Posted: 07 May 2020 12:58 AM PDT  Russia's coronavirus cases overtook France and Germany on Thursday to become the fifth highest number in the world after a record daily rise, and Moscow's mayor said the real figure, not captured by official statistics, was much higher. The official tally surged to 177,160, meaning Russia now has more registered cases than Germany or France, as the number of new cases of the novel coronavirus jumped by 11,231 in the past 24 hours.
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| More than 700 released from immigration detention centres as coronavirus prevents deportation Posted: 07 May 2020 10:11 AM PDT  More than 700 detainees including convicted criminals have been released by the Home Office from immigration detention centres because the coronavirus pandemic means they cannot be deported. The Home Office was forced to release at least 50 of them by judicial tribunals despite warning that they could pose a risk to the public. The Government has had to free them because by law they can only detain them if they can remove them from the UK "within a reasonable time." More than 40 countries to which the Home Office planned to remove them have either closed their borders or imposed travel restrictions, making deportation impossible and requiring the detainees to be released. A further 370 - described as largely convicted foreign offenders by the Home Office - are still being held in immigration detention centres The release follows legal action begun in March by Detention Action, which claimed a "significant proportion" of the 1,500 held in immigration detention centres had serious underlying health conditions which left them facing a "significant risk of serious harm or death" from coronavirus. It warned their continued detention was unlawful given the lack of flights in which to remove them within a "reasonable period of time." The Government challenged the release of 58 of the immigrants who had appealed their detention, saying it was reasonable "in light of their particular situation, the likelihood of their absconding if released, and the level of risk they pose to the public." The 700 include those who have overstayed their visas, asylum seekers, illegal migrants and people with convictions. Detention Action is now considering further legal action to force the release of the remaining 370 to protect them from the deadly coronavirus. Bella Sankey, director of Detention Action, said any foreign offenders released would have served their time and be subject to the same conditions as British offenders including probation and licence restrictions. "We are thinking about options that I think will involve some future litigation because we don't think the response so far is adequate," she said. Meanwhile, Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, said a spike in migrant boats making the dangerous crossing of the English Channel is linked to lockdown restrictions on road and train crossings.
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| Satellite images reveal North Korea is building a giant facility which could hold nuclear missiles capable of hitting the United States Posted: 07 May 2020 05:10 AM PDT  Satellite images suggest North Korea has almost built a facility large enough to store all of its nuclear missiles.
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| In a hurry to reopen state, Arizona governor disbands scientific panel that modeled outbreak Posted: 06 May 2020 11:07 AM PDT  Arizona's Republican Gov. Doug Ducey's administration disbanded a panel of university scientists who had warned that reopening the state now would be dangerous.
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| New York state Dems file appeal to stop presidential primary Posted: 06 May 2020 07:32 PM PDT  Democratic members of the state's Board of Elections filed an appeal Wednesday of a federal judge's reinstatement of the New York presidential primary. The appeal by board Commissioner Andrew Spano and other members comes a day after the June 23 primary was reinstated by U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres in Manhattan, who said canceling it would be unconstitutional and deprive withdrawn presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Andrew Yang of proper representation at the Democratic convention.
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| Michigan man in now-famous Capitol protest photo: 'I didn't scream in anybody's face' Posted: 06 May 2020 03:30 AM PDT  As photographs of protesters in Michigan's Capitol building made their rounds nationally, one has emerged as a defining image.
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| Tennessee Authorities Have Identified a ‘Person of Interest’ in Case of Baby Evelyn Boswell Posted: 06 May 2020 11:19 AM PDT  Three months after 15-month-old Evelyn Boswell was first reported missing, Tennessee investigators say they've identified a "person of interest" in her widely-watched case.The Sullivan County Sheriff's Office said Wednesday they have identified a person of interest in Evelyn's case but refused to name the suspected individual due to the ongoing investigation. To date, no one has been charged with Evelyn's death. The infant was reported missing on Feb. 18 but "was last seen by certain family members near the end of November 2019 and the first of December 2019," authorities said.After an extensive, multi-agency search, the toddler's remains were found in March on a property belonging to a "family member of Evelyn's mother," according to Sullivan County Sheriff Jeff Cassidy. An autopsy report is still pending. Detectives Find Remains of Missing Tennessee Baby Evelyn Boswell"We will never ever forget Evelyn Boswell," Sullivan County Sheriff's Office Captain Joey Strickler told News Channel 11 on Wednesday, stating that several officers are still working diligently on the case. Amid the investigation, Boswell's mother, 18-year-old Megan Boswell, was charged on Feb. 25 with making false reports for allegedly giving authorities "conflicting, inaccurate statements" that "impeded" the investigation. "Every time we've talked to her, her story changed. Every single time," Cassidy said after the arrest, calling Boswell's actions "frustrating."Authorities say Evelyn was first reported missing by her grandfather on Feb. 18 after he hadn't seen the baby in several months. According to court documents obtained by WCYB, Boswell initially told authorities that Evelyn's father, Ethan Perry, had the baby and she was supposed to meet him at a store in Colonial Heights. But Perry, an active-duty military officer stationed in Louisiana, did not have the child.Boswell then allegedly claimed the girl's grandmother had taken Evelyn camping "in a silver camper," and promised, "I'm going to go find her myself." The 18-year-old also told authorities that she was newly pregnant and could not take a polygraph test—which investigators later determined was false. Minnesota Man Killed Wife, Buried Her Under Home Then Faked Her Disappearance: Court DocsMegan Boswell's mother, Angela Boswell, and her boyfriend, 33-year-old William McCloud, were separately arrested in February in North Carolina after investigators found them riding in a stolen gray BMW. They have since been released on bond. Despite the challenges the coronavirus pandemic has presented amid the investigation, Strickler said the sheriff's office is glad to be working through the evidence slowly to ensure they do not make a mistake. Boswell, who has not spoken to authorities about her daughter's case since her arrest, is currently in the Sullivan County Jail and is scheduled to appear in court on Friday morning.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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| ‘It’s Wrong’: Biden Vows to Overturn DeVos’s Due Process Protections for Students Accused of Sexual Assault Posted: 07 May 2020 06:25 AM PDT  Former vice president Joe Biden promised on Wednesday that as president he would reverse new due process protections that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos put in place to protect university students accused of sexual assault, saying they "shame and silence survivors, and take away parents' peace of mind."Biden, who has recently been accused of sexual assault in 1993 by a woman who worked for him, said the new rules give colleges and universities a "green light to ignore sexual violence and strip survivors of their rights."The Title IX rule, issued on Wednesday, is intended to enhance due process for accused individuals on college campuses as well as in elementary and high schools. One part of the reforms ensures the right of the accused to "submit, cross-examine and challenge evidence at a live hearing." The rule protects alleged victims from having to physically face the person they say assaulted them or answer questions written personally by the accused, but it does allow the accused to ask questions through a surrogate as well as question other witnesses."Survivors deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, and when they step forward they should be heard, not silenced." Biden's campaign said in a statement."It's wrong," Biden continued. "And, it will be put to a quick end in January 2021, because as president, I'll be right where I always have been throughout my career — on the side of survivors, who deserve to have their voices heard, their claims taken seriously and investigated, and their rights upheld."Tara Reade claims that Biden sexually assaulted her in 1993 when she worked for him as a Senate staffer. She alleges that she was told by a top staffer to bring Biden a duffel bag in a Senate building, and when she met with him he pinned her against a wall and penetrated her with his fingers while forcibly kissing her.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has also condemned the Education Department due process rules, said last month that she is "satisfied" with how Biden has responded to the allegation.
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| 'There's absolutely nothing': locked-down Mexico grapples with national beer shortage Posted: 07 May 2020 02:00 AM PDT  Deemed 'non-essential', brewing was halted more than a month ago, leading to a thriving black marketMexicans sheltering in place during the Covid-19 crisis have endured crowded quarters and rising temperatures. Now they're enduring another challenge: a nationwide beer drought.Beer production in Mexico was halted more than a month ago as health officials declared brewing a "non-essential" activity.Since then, the country's stockpile has dwindled, fueling a robust black market in which speculators are demanding more than twice the pre-pandemic price."We're not producing a single beer," Karla Siquieiros, president of Cerverceros de México, told the newspaper el Universal.But some beer-makers have continued their operations. The country is the largest beer exporter in the world, and Constellation Brands – which produces Modelo, Corona and Pacifico in Mexico for US markets – is still brewing for export.Oxxo, Mexico's ubiquitous corner store chain, warned in late April that its beer supply would last just 10 days, prompting panic buying and long lines outside stores.Mexicans have greeted the domestic beer shortage with more bemusement than anger. Hashtags like LaÚltimaChela (the last beer) trended on Twitter, while users posted pictures of empty fridges.But retailers say the loss of sales is seriously harming their livelihoods in an economy that is already tough."Mexicans like to drink beer," said Cuauhtémoc Rivera, director the National Alliance of Small Merchants, Anpec, which represents thousands of mom-and-pop stores.Most such businesses are run by families, and during hot weather, beer sales make up about 40% of sales, Rivera said."This is a big money-maker for small stores," said Rivera.Anpec had lobbied for brewing to be declared an essential activity, arguing that it would help people cope with coronavirus lockdowns."States of anxiety, desperation and fears that could end in episodes of irascibility and intolerance" were inevitable during quarantine, the organisation argued, adding: "The consumption of beer at home operates as relaxant, which helps with enduring a difficult trial."Many municipalities have banned the sale of alcohol for the duration of Covid-19 quarantines. Some analysts say that such measures can help reduce domestic violence – at a time when domestic abuse under lockdown is on rise around the world.But others said such laws conform to a familiar pattern in which Mexican authorities feel the need to take action – any action – in times of crisis."Lots of authority figures love it," said Xavier Tello, a healthcare consultant. "The authorities can show that they're acting like authorities by imposing dry laws … as if it solved anything."As temperatures climb, some beer drinkers continue to hunt for Mexico's last few beers. But it can be a frustrating pursuit.Last weekend, Johnny, an engineer in the border city of Reynosa, visited eight stores in three neighbourhoods but came away empty-handed."There is absolutely nothing," he said of the stores in Reynosa. "There's liquor, but not everybody wants that. And it's dwindling too."He did find beer for sale on the black market, but the asking price was triple the normal.In the end, Johnny crossed the border to buy a six-pack of Corona in Texas.
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| Tesla worldwide production suspended after China shutdown, reports say Posted: 07 May 2020 08:13 AM PDT  Tesla production has come to a worldwide standstill after the sudden shutdown of its China plant as US workers, meanwhile, prepare to reopen its California factory in the next week, according to reports.Citing people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg News reported that the electric car manufacturer informed workers at its Gigafactory near Shanghai on Wednesday that their five-day Labor Day holiday would be extended.
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| Black and Asian People Are 2 to 3 Times More Likely to Die of COVID-19, U.K. Study Finds Posted: 06 May 2020 04:01 PM PDT  A new U.K. analysis found that black, Asian and ethnic minority groups were two to three times more likely to die of COVID-19.
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| New evidence suggests the coronavirus was likely spreading in the US and France as early as December Posted: 07 May 2020 08:45 AM PDT  The coronavirus seems to have been spreading through Florida by January. A December patient who coughed up blood in France later tested positive.
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| Sen. Chris Murphy calls Trump comments about Democrats "disgusting" Posted: 06 May 2020 08:28 AM PDT  "The House is a bunch of Trump haters. They frankly want our situation to be unsuccessful, which means death. They want us to fail so they can win an election," Trump said Tuesday of House Democrats.
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| US northern border illegal crossings rise; many are Mexicans Posted: 07 May 2020 11:16 AM PDT  The number of people apprehended for illegally crossing from Canada into the United States along its northern border has nearly tripled over the past three years, and a growing portion are Mexican citizens, according to federal data. One Mexican man who crossed illegally to work on a Vermont dairy farm said it was easier than trying the southern border. U.S. Customs and Border Protection statistics obtained by The Associated Press after a public records request provide new detail on what was apparent anecdotally: Along the border from Maine to Washington, 446 of the 1,586 illegal crossers apprehended in the 2019 fiscal year were Mexican, or 28%.
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| Salon owner who illegally reopened out of jail on Texas Supreme Court’s order Posted: 07 May 2020 02:49 PM PDT  Shelley Luther was sentenced to a week in jail after violating an order to close her salon. The Texas Supreme Court ordered her release.
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| Over 500 Employees at Trump’s Las Vegas Hotel Have Been Laid Off Amid Coronavirus Posted: 07 May 2020 12:09 PM PDT  Over 500 workers at the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas have temporarily lost their jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic.The resort, which is part-owned by the Trump Organization, broke the news to employees last month in a letter to the Nevada Department of Employment, Training, and Rehabilitation."Based on the fluid and rapidly evolving nature of this situation, however, at this time we are unable to provide a specific date at which we will be able to recommence regular hotel operations and return affected employees to work," Human Resources Director LaDawndre Stinson wrote in the letter posted to the agency's website.The April 3 letter added that because of the "sudden, dramatic, and unexpected nature of this unforeseen emergency" and the demands of Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak's decision to shut down non-essential businesses amid the pandemic, the hotel would be "unable to provide employees with additional notice of these temporary layoffs." Cuomo Blasts Trump: Your Bailout Strategy Will Doom Us AllAs first reported by The Washington Post, the president's properties in New York, D.C., Miami, Chicago, Las Vegas, Vancouver, and Honolulu have all laid-off workers amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has gutted the hospitality industry. To date, 1,500 employees at hotels owned by the Trump Organization have been laid off or furloughed."You can't have many hundreds of employees standing around doing nothing," Trump said at the White House on April 21, addressing job cuts. "There's no customer. You're not allowed to have a customer."During the same press conference—which took place two weeks after the Las Vegas employees learned they were out of a job—Trump expressed his support for Sisolak's decision to lock down Sin City, despite its cold reception from other elected officials and the Las Vegas mayor, who called it "total insanity.""They closed a big hotel down in Nevada that I have in Las Vegas. It's a very severe step he took. I'm OK with it," Trump said. "But you could call that one either way."Bethany Khan, the communications director for the Culinary Union in Las Vegas—which represents nearly all of the Trump employees who were laid off—told The Daily Beast on Thursday that 98 percent of their members are currently furloughed or laid off. The Culinary Union is Nevada's most powerful labor organization, representing about 60,000 hotel-casino workers.In addition to Las Vegas, more than 200 employees were laid off at the president's hotel in Vancouver, and over 75 percent of his Chicago hotel was placed on leave. "In an effort to conserve energy, most common areas...are illuminated and heated at a minimum level," the Chicago hotel told its investors in a letter, stating that the "heartbreaking decision" to lay off two-thirds of its staff also included suspending 401(k) contributions. Trump Shakes Everyone's Hands at Coronavirus Press Conference—Ignoring CDC GuidelinesAccording to the Post, the combined closed properties used to generate about $650,000 every day for the Trump Organization. The family business, which is now managed by the president's two sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, racked up a property-tax bill in April of more than $1.8 million.The group reportedly reached out to the Deutsche Bank in March to ask about delaying payments on at least some of its hundreds of millions of dollars in loans and other financial obligations.According to The New York Times, a Florida-based company executive also emailed and called Palm Beach County officials to talk about whether they had planned to keep asking for payments on land the Trump Organization rents from the county for a 27-hole golf club."These days everybody is working together," Eric Trump told the Times. "Tenants are working with landlords, landlords are working with banks. The whole world is working together as we fight through this pandemic."Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., which sits just blocks away from the White House, is also looking for a government break on its rent payments. On April 21, the Times also reported the hotel has asked to delay its monthly rent payments of about $268,000 a month in an effort to curtail their ongoing money troubles. The hotel is housed in the Old Post Office Building, a federally-owned property.The Trump Organization did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast's request for comment.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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| EU envoy says removal of phrase in op-ed in China newspaper 'regrettable' Posted: 07 May 2020 03:04 AM PDT  The European Union ambassador to China said on Thursday it was "regrettable" that part of an opinion piece co-authored by 27 European ambassadors and published in the official China Daily had been removed before publication. A comparison between the original op-ed uploaded onto the EU embassy website and the one published on Tuesday by the China Daily showed that in a sentence beginning, "But the outbreak of the coronavirus", the words that followed - "in China, and its subsequent spread to the rest of the world over the past three months" - were removed. "It is regrettable that part of the sentence about the spread of the virus has been edited," EU Ambassador to China Nicolas Chapuis told reporters at a briefing.
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| They're not really called 'murder hornets.' And they're probably not as bad as you think Posted: 06 May 2020 04:43 PM PDT  Asian giant hornets in Pacific Northwest are unlikely to attack humans
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| No Income. Major Medical Bills. What Life Is Like for Millions of Americans Facing Financial Ruin Because of the Pandemic Posted: 07 May 2020 03:21 AM PDT  The coronavirus has exposed the fragility of America's safety net
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| 77 cell phone towers have been set on fire so far due to a weird coronavirus 5G conspiracy theory Posted: 06 May 2020 07:26 AM PDT  Engineers have also had cars driven at them, and one was stabbed and hospitalised per the CEO of BT.
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| Astronomers locate black hole close to Earth Posted: 06 May 2020 09:04 AM PDT  European astronomers have found the closest black hole to Earth yet, so near that the two stars dancing with it can be seen by the naked eye.
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| Ahmaud Arbery killing: man called 911 to report 'black male running' prior to shooting Posted: 07 May 2020 05:17 PM PDT  Recordings of 911 calls obtained by the Guardian provide details on the moments before a man was shot while jogging in GeorgiaAudio recordings of two 911 calls have shed further light on the final moments before Ahmaud Arbery was shot dead by two white men while jogging through a neighborhood just outside Brunswick, Georgia.The full recordings, obtained by the Guardian, come after new video footage showing Arbery's killing in February was released this week, prompting widespread outrage and raising questions over why no arrests have been made. Transcripts of the 911 calls have been previously reported by local media.Arbery had gone for a jog in Satilla Shores, near the Georgia coast, on the afternoon of Sunday 23 February. The 25-year-old was known around the neighborhood, and would sometimes wave to residents as he ran. But that day, a series of events unfolded that ended in his killing at the hands of Gregory McMichael, 64, and his 34-year-old son, Travis McMichael.Lawyers for Arbery's family have said his death was a "lynching" and requested it be investigated as a hate crime.In one call, made at 1.14pm, the dispatcher asks for the address and the reason for the call. An unidentified man's voice can be heard responding, "Uh, I'm out here at Satilla Shores. There's a black male running down the street," in an apparent reference Arbery.In an earlier call at 1.08pm, a different unidentified caller reports "a guy in a house right now, a house under construction". The dispatcher asks if the man is breaking into the property, to which the caller responds: "No, it's all open, it's under construction."The caller then says, "He's running right now, and there he goes right now," referring to Arbery, who was taking his usual jog around the neighborhood. The dispatcher asks: "OK, what is he doing?" The caller replies: "He's running down the street."A few second later, the dispatcher says: "I just need to know what he was doing wrong. Was he just on the premises and not supposed to be?"The beginning of his response is garbled, but when the background noise clears, there is no clear answer to the question. The dispatcher ends the calls shortly after, and says she will send someone by to check.At 1.14 pm, the second call is answered at the call center. Following the first exchange between the caller and the dispatcher, the caller again did not respond to the dispatcher, instead yelling: "Stop. Stop that. Dammit. Stop."A moment later he shouts "Travis!" apparently addressing Travis McMichael.The dispatcher attempts to redirect the man's attention 27 seconds into the call, saying, "Sir, hello, sir," but does not receive an answer. The 911 call continues to record for nearly five minutes.Authorities have not released the identities of the callers. No one has been charged in the case.Two prosecutors have recused themselves, citing professional connections to Gregory McMichael. Documents and state records show the elder McMichael is a former police detective and district attorney investigator in Glynn county.The Guardian has contacted Gregory and Travis McMichael for comment.An outside prosecutor in charge of the case said he wants a grand jury to decide whether criminal charges are warranted. But that will not happen until at least mid-June, since Georgia courts remain largely closed because of the coronavirus.According to a police report from that day, the two men grabbed their weapons, a .357 Magnum revolver and a shotgun, jumped into a truck and began following Arbery after seeing him running.Gregory McMichael told police he and his adult son thought Arbery matched the description of someone caught on a security camera committing a recent break-in in the neighborhood. Arbery was not considered a suspect in any burglary.Gregory McMichael told police Arbery violently attacked his son. The video footage filmed by an anonymous individual and released this week contradicts that claim.Georgia law says a person can kill in self-defense "only if he or she reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent death or great bodily injury … or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony." The law also says a person who provokes an attack or acts as "the aggressor" can't claim self-defense.Arbery's family has called for immediate arrests after the video was released this week."I saw my son come into the world," Arbery's mother, Wanda Cooper Jones, said. "And seeing him leave the world, it's not something that I'll want to see ever."The civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Arbery's father, said the video calls into question the claims made by the McMichaels in the police report."They are heartbroken," Crump said of the family. Of Arbery's father, he added: "It's just heart-wrenching for him that he has to look at his other son and daughter and try to make sense of it. He really thinks that his son was lynched."Crump said Arbery's parents, who are separated, want the public to see the video, even they cannot bring themselves to watch it themselves.Lee Merritt, an attorney for Arbery's mother, said the justice department should investigate the death as a hate crime."The FBI has said it's assisting," said Department of Justice spokesman Matt Lloyd, "and as is standard protocol we look forward to working with them should information come to light of a potential federal violation."Republican governor Brian Kemp late Tuesday threw his support behind that inquiry. He tweeted: "Georgians deserve answers. State law enforcement stands ready to ensure justice is served." He added on Thursday that the killing was "absolutely horrific".Also on Thursday afternoon, Donald Trump said: "I'm getting a full report on it this evening. My heart goes out to the parents and to the loved ones of the young gentleman. It's a very sad thing."The chairman of the House judiciary committee, Jerry Nadler, cited "clear probable cause for first-degree murder charges".> Nadler: "The cell phone footage of the shooting of Ahmaud Arbery would appear to present clear probable cause for first degree murder charges. Justice for Ahmaud requires a full investigation ... beginning with the arrest of all assailants ... [DOJ] must immediately investigate."> > — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 7, 2020Georgia attorney general Chris Carr said he was deeply concerned, adding: "I expect justice to be carried out as swiftly as possible."
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| Fact check: Does COVID-19 have a mortality rate of 1%-2%? Posted: 06 May 2020 11:03 AM PDT  There are too many factors that affect the outcome if people are infected with the new coronavirus to make a blanket statement about mortality rates.
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| Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s Successor Accused of Using Social Distancing ‘Snitch Line’ Posted: 06 May 2020 01:27 AM PDT  President Trump might have been welcomed to Arizona on Tuesday by the fellow truther once known as his political soul mate.But Joe Arpaio had trouble explaining misspent millions and hundreds of uninvestigated sex crime cases, and numerous civil rights violations during his long tenure as Maricopa County sheirff.Arpaio was voted out the same day Trump was voted in. The new Maricopa sheriff is Paul Penzone, who seeks to live up to his sworn duty to enforce the laws of Arizona as well as defend the U.S. Constitution. That includes a situation where, in Penzone's words "the governor, acting under his authority in a constitutional manner, executes an executive order.""You can't pick and choose which laws to enforce when you're in law enforcement," Penzone told The Daily Beast.He is not one of the Arizona sheriffs who declared they would not enforce Gov. Doug Ducey's "stay home, stay safe" emergency COVID-19 restrictions. Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb and Mohave County Sheriff Douglas Schuster are among at least a half-dozen sheriffs in other states who have made similar declarations, deeming stay-at-home and business shutdown orders unconstitutional. The so-called constitutionalist stance is embraced by Gerard "Jerry" Sheridan, Arpaio's former chief deputy. Sheridan is seeking to unseat Penzone in November. "The Sheriff of a county is elected by and reports only to the citizens in the county," Sheridan tweeted. "No governor or mayor can tell him how to do his job. Sheriff Penzone of MCSO drop your snitch line to catch law abiding citizens doing Constitutional things."What Sheridan calls a "snitch line" is an online system that Penzone set up that allows people to report violations of the pandemic restrictions. Snitch is a pejorative used by criminals to describe people who cooperate with law enforcement. One longtime street rhyme is "snitches get stitches." And here is someone using the word in an effort to get elected a county's top lawman. Initially, reports of violations of the governor's stay-at-home, business shutdown order were handled via 911. Deputies were dispatched to the scene with instructions to begin by educating violators about the danger they were creating. Deputies were to summon a supervisor before taking any further actions. And citations were to be issued only where there was what Penzone terms "aggressive and repeated behavior" that left the deputies with no other choice."You have to find that balance, not to criminalize but also to promote health and safety, to save lives," Penzone said.The situation became more nuanced when the governor began to relax some business restrictions. Penzone had already become worried that the use of 911 tied up police resources when crime had remained essentially constant. Under the present system, citizens who call 911 with a COVID-19 restriction complaint are directed to file a report online. Some people just went directly to the sheriff's website."If you wish to contact MCSO with questions or concerns regarding the emergency order..." reads a line at the top.A click on "Contact Us" brings the person to a "Tips" page. A civilian investigator will then respond to confirm there is a violation before any further action is taken. Penzone reports that only a minority of the people visiting the page report violations. "The majority of that traffic has been the people who are complaining about the site," Penzone said.He added, "We've allowed politics to become divisive, even more so during a pandemic."He also said, "If we want to see the economy come back and also be safe, we can't let politics decide how we behave." Penzone has emailed the county attorney to confirm that the governor's order is indeed constitutional. The county attorney has not yet responded.The issue is likely to come up in court May 30, when Mertia Kraya, proprietor of Euro Pizza Cafe in Fountain Hills, contests a citation she received on April 5. Deputies visited her establishment on several occasions regarding patrons eating at outdoor tables and drinking beers from a bucket of ice marked "To Go." She insisted that nobody was "dining in" as prohibited by the restrictions."[Kraya] told me that my interpretation and her interpretation were different and that if I had to cite her for this, a judge would have to decide whose interpretation was right," a sheriff's captain wrote in a report. Kraya was issued summons 0700033420009801 charging her with violation of Section 26-317 of the Arizona Revised Statutes. "A violation of an order, rule, or regulation issued pursuant to a State of Emergency is a Class 1 misdemeanor," the law reads.That was the lone such summons issued by the sheriff, so Kraya had no trouble figuring out who Penzone was talking about when he accused an unnamed restaurant owner who violated the order of being "selfish." She faces a maximum $2,500 fine. She told The Daily Beast she intends to fight it. "I'll see my day in court," she said. "We'll see what happens."She noted that she has a medical condition that leaves her immunocompromised, with particular reason to fear COVID-19. She added that she would never want to endanger her customers or her employees or her family at home, who include an EMT in the Air Force Reserve. She reported that her cause has been taken up by those who oppose the restrictions."They took my case and ran with it," she said. "The Rosa Parks that stand up to the police."The anti-shutdown folks who are seeking to capitalize on the case will have reason to wish that the evidence did not include body camera footage that shows the deputies being only reasonable. Meanwhile, Sheridan is denouncing Penzone's "snitch line." He may be hoping to make voters forget his former boss' many transgressions."It is typical of his liberal mentality to have people snitch each other out for going to get something to eat or go for a walk in the park," Sheirdan told The Daily Beast.Sheridan said that "when I get elected," he will tutor his deputies on "what the Founding Fathers meant when giving the people freedom and liberty."Sheridan said he would oppose a shutdown even in his native Queens, New York, where his father was an NYPD lieutenant and where thousands have died in the pandemic. Sheridan said it is up to people to take their own precautions.NYC Is Taking Hundreds of Body Bags Out of Houses—and Soon They Will Be Counted"There is a degree of personal responsibility that people have," he said.Lest anyone think Penzone is anti-business, the establishments that will soon reopen include a beauty parlor owned and operated by Penzone's wife. He has been helping her install safety additions. He reports that her customers are clamoring to come back."There are a lot of roots out there," he said.As his wife goes back to work, the man who unseated Trump's political soulmate will be out enforcing the law in accordance with this oath. 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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| Asian American woman harassed by self-identified Trump supporter thanks bystanders Posted: 06 May 2020 02:08 PM PDT  "Americans said we don't want you here," the harasser said in a video. "That's why we elected President Trump."
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| Life of luxury: Dubai's huge service sector faces unsure future Posted: 06 May 2020 08:05 PM PDT  In Dubai's ritzy Marina district, white yachts are tethered to docks, standing idle -- like many companies behind a luxury lifestyle industry battered by the coronavirus crisis. "Nearly 95 percent, if not 100 percent, of turnover has been lost," the manager of a yacht charter company told AFP. When the United Arab Emirates halted all commercial flights and enforced a strict curfew to stem the spread of the disease, fishing trips and sightseeing excursions dried up "without warning", the young Frenchman said.
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| Top U.S. House Republican calls for pause in coronavirus legislation Posted: 07 May 2020 08:01 AM PDT  The top Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives called for a pause in coronavirus legislation on Thursday, saying Congress should first assess the impact of earlier relief bills and then take a slower path forward through committee hearings. "Before we move to the next bill, let's make sure the $3 trillion that we had legislated and appropriated gets implemented and gets implemented correctly," House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters.
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| Wildfires spread across the Florida Panhandle Posted: 07 May 2020 04:32 AM PDT  Hundreds have been evacuated as wildfires continue to rage across the Florida Panhandle, authorities said.
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| Schiff: Trump Admin. Using Coronavirus Lab-Origin Story to ‘Deflect Attention’ from U.S. Failures Posted: 06 May 2020 07:58 AM PDT  Representative Adam Schiff said Tuesday that President Trump has embraced the "false narrative" that the coronavirus escaped from a Chinese lab in order to deflect from the administration's "terrible mishandling" of the pandemic."We are told that we are currently informed on the latest intelligence, so I don't know where they're getting this apart from expressing their desire, or they're withholding information from Congress," Schiff, who serves as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said during an MSNBC appearance.President Trump said Thursday that he has seen evidence that the virus escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China.When pressed for details, Trump responded, "I can't tell you that. I'm not allowed to tell you that."U.S. intelligence agencies have not made a determination as to whether the virus was naturally occurring and escaped from the lab, which advertised its research on coronaviruses in the months leading up the pandemic, but the intelligence community has concluded that the pathogen was not manmade.The intelligence community "concurs with the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not manmade or genetically modified," the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a statement Thursday.Secretary of State Mike Pompeo agreed Sunday that there is "enormous evidence" but agreed with the intelligence community's assessment that the virus was not engineered."I think what they're clearly trying to do is deflect attention away from the administration's terrible mishandling of this virus," said Schiff, a California Democrat.Schiff added that after espousing a "false narrative" early on that the virus is not worse than the common flu, the administration has "chosen to go after China.""Look, there's a lot to criticize China about," he added. "They should have been far more transparent about the human to human transmission, and they did conceal things."However "there's a danger in the administration either putting out theories that cannot be substantiated or deliberately provoking a fight during the middle of a pandemic," Schiff said.In December, local and national officials issued a gag order to labs in Wuhan after scientists there identified a new viral pneumonia, ordering them to halt tests, destroy samples, and conceal the news.Schiff added that the president is doing a "tremendous disservice" to the American public by preventing Dr. Fauci, the chief medical advisor to the Trump administration's coronavirus task force, from testifying to Congress about the virus.Trump said Tuesday that his administration blocked Fauci from testifying before House lawmakers about the virus due to "Trump haters" in the Democrat-led chamber."Apart and away from the glare of the president, he's concerned that Dr. Fauci will be even more candid with the country about the dangers of this virus and feel more free to contradict the false claims that the president has been making. That's a very poor reason to keep someone from Congress during a pandemic," Schiff said.
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| Texas governor amends lockdown and orders salon owner freed from jail Posted: 07 May 2020 05:44 PM PDT  The governor's order names the Dallas hairdresser who was jailed on Tuesday for staying open.
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| A Kansas farmer who donated one of his only N95 masks to New York was given a bachelor's degree by the same university he dropped out of in 1971 Posted: 06 May 2020 01:10 PM PDT  Farmer Dennis Ruhnke wrote New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo a letter and urged him to pass along the unused N95 mask to a worker who needed it.
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| Regulators waive $200M fine on PG&E for causing deadly fires Posted: 07 May 2020 01:58 PM PDT  California regulators on Thursday suspended a $200 million fine against Pacific Gas & Electric as punishment for the utility's neglect of electrical equipment that ignited a series of deadly wildfires in Northern California. The waiver approved in a unanimous vote by California's Public Utilities Commission will deprive the state coffers of money to help offset losses income and sales taxes as the coronavirus pandemic pushes the state into a $54 billion budget deficit. PG&E resisted the fine on the grounds that it would threaten its ability to raise the tens of billions of dollars needed to finance its complex plan to emerge from bankruptcy by a June 30 deadline.
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| Researcher 'on verge of very significant' coronavirus findings shot to death Posted: 05 May 2020 06:56 PM PDT  The Pennsylvania researcher "was on the verge of making very significant findings toward understanding the cellular mechanisms that underlie" COVID-19, his university said.
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| Don't forget past, Jewish leader warns Germans on eve of WW2 anniversary Posted: 07 May 2020 09:43 AM PDT  Many young Germans have failed to learn the lessons of history, and anti-Semitism is becoming entrenched in the land responsible for the Holocaust, a Jewish leader warned, a day before the 75th anniversary of the end of World War Two in Europe. As Germany's leaders prepare to lay wreaths to mark the "Day of Liberation" on May 8 - the day in 1945 when German generals signed an unconditional surrender - many Jews are worried about the popularity of the far right. "Germany's government knows its enduring responsibility for the Nazi era," Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, told the Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung paper.
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| GOP Sen. Richard Burr's brother-in-law, a Trump appointee, dumped up to $280,000 in stocks the same day Burr did before the market plunged Posted: 06 May 2020 05:27 PM PDT  Burr is the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which has access to the federal government's most classified and sensitive information.
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| EU’s pivot to China falls foul of Beijing’s censors Posted: 06 May 2020 08:16 PM PDT  Europe learns the risks of courting China as a letter by its envoys is censored in an official newspaper.
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| Meghan McCain Goes Off on Kayleigh McEnany for ‘Spinning Propaganda’ Posted: 07 May 2020 08:56 AM PDT  Meghan McCain, The View's resident conservative host, tore into Kayleigh McEnany for "spinning propaganda" on Thursday morning after the new White House press secretary dismissed the need for increased coronavirus testing as the economy reopens.During her press briefing on Wednesday, McEnany said it was "nonsensical" to think that every American should be able to get tested for coronavirus, even though President Donald Trump said two months earlier that "anybody that wants a test can get a test." The hosts of The View took the press secretary to task over those remarks.Co-host Sunny Hostin said she found it "shocking" that the White House spokesperson would say that considering recent news that one of the president's personal valets just tested positive for the virus."So it's obviously important enough for everyone in the White House and surrounding the president to be tested for the coronavirus, but it's not important to the press secretary and to the administration for Americans to be tested for the coronavirus," she declared. "And so that tells me that she is just spinning lies to the American people rather than being honest with the American people."After first saying there has been "mixed messaging" coming not just from the White House but from medical experts since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, McCain went on to blast McEnany as a propagandist."I think in regards to Kayleigh McEnany, she was hired for this job because she's good at spinning propaganda, and she was good spinning propaganda before she got hired," she exclaimed. "And you can make the argument that's the role of any press secretaries but it's probably a little more egregious with this particular president."The conservative co-host then worried aloud that we were reaching a tipping point on saving the economy, criticizing the Trump administration for not taking the necessary steps to safely reopen the country."If we don't start getting a plan to get testing, to somehow pull ourselves out of this and get America back to work," she proclaimed. "This is going to be far more egregious than any crisis any of us have seen in all of our lifetimes." "If the tests aren't important, why is the White House, and everybody else getting tested before they go before the president?" McCain concluded. "I would like to go back to work. I know you would, and I would be comfortable doing that if we all had the capacity to get tested."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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| Indianapolis police fatally shoot man after a chase possibly broadcast on Facebook Live Posted: 07 May 2020 10:25 AM PDT  An Indianapolis police officer fatally shot a man on the north side following a pursuit that seemingly was captured in part on Facebook Live.
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| Constitutional scholar argues Trump should be impeached over Dr. Bright whistleblower complaint Posted: 07 May 2020 09:51 AM PDT  After Dr. Rick Bright's whistleblower complaint, one law professor is arguing for impeaching President Trump a second time.Bright was recently removed as the director of the Department of Health and Human Services' Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority while leading vaccine development, a move he alleged was taken because he wouldn't put "politics and cronyism" above science, insisting congressional funding not go toward "drugs, vaccines, and other technologies that lack scientific merit" and limiting the "broad use" of the Trump-touted hydroxychloroquine. He filed an official whistleblower complaint this week alleging "cronyism" at HHS.Kim Wehle, a constitutional scholar and professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law, on Thursday wrote in a piece for The Bulwark that Bright's story must "not be treated as just another Trump administration scandal," arguing it's evidence of Trump's "unabashed corruption" and is a "good reason to once again impeach the president."Wehle acknowledges that the Republican-controlled Senate again wouldn't remove Trump from office after acquitting him in the Ukraine scandal but argues that "the pandemic creates new reasons to remove the president" and "at least the effort again to remove this singularly unfit president would be a worthy historical act of devotion to the Constitution."Asked to comment on Bright's complaint this week, Trump dismissed him as "a disgruntled employee that's trying to help the Democrats win an election." Read Wehle's full piece at The Bulwark.More stories from theweek.com Did we just witness one of the nuttiest foreign policy blunders in American history? Trump reportedly got 'lava level mad' over potential exposure to coronavirus Trump cryptically tells reporters 'a lot of things' might happen soon following call with Putin
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| An entire town in New York is being put on a diet to prevent obesity-related coronavirus complications Posted: 07 May 2020 08:47 AM PDT  A New York town has launched a diet and exercise program to help residents lose weight to prevent reported risks of obesity and coronavirus outcomes.
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