| Clyburn: I 'cringed' at Biden 'you ain't black' comment but compare him 'to the alternative, not the Almighty' Posted: 26 May 2020 01:08 PM PDT  "We sometimes say things we do not really mean, they come out a little bit wrong, and that's what happened here. I think all of us know Joe Biden," Clyburn said.
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| Michigan Gov. Whitmer calls husband's boat launch request a 'failed attempt at humor' amid backlash Posted: 26 May 2020 02:19 PM PDT  "He thought it might get a laugh. It didn't," Whitmer said. "And to be honest, I wasn't laughing, either, when it was relayed to me, because I knew how it would be perceived."
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| Trump's senior economic adviser referred to Americans returning to work as 'human capital stock' Posted: 25 May 2020 10:41 PM PDT  States are slowly lifting lockdown measures put in place to curb the coronavirus outbreak, which has killed close to 100,000 people in the US.
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| HHS principal deputy inspector general is asked about $3M contract awarded to company 11 days after it was created by former WH aide Posted: 26 May 2020 11:12 AM PDT  At a House Oversight Committee briefing on the Trump administration's response to the coronavirus, Rep. Gerry Connolly asked Department of Health and Human Services Principal Deputy Inspector General Christi Grimm if she will be looking into a report that a former White House aide, Zach Fuentes, won a contract to provide respirator masks to the Navajo Nation only 11 days after his company was formed.
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| A Florida teacher convicted of multiple sex crimes involving students begged a judge for castration instead of prison time Posted: 26 May 2020 01:49 PM PDT  Mark Lua, 32, pleaded guilty to the sex offenses last year. Last week, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
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| Hong Kong legislature surrounded by riot police ahead of expected protests Posted: 26 May 2020 11:13 AM PDT  Hundreds of riot police took up posts around Hong Kong's legislature overnight, as protests were expected on Wednesday over a bill criminalising disrespect of China's national anthem and against plans by Beijing to impose national security laws. The proposed new national security laws have triggered the first big street unrest in Hong Kong since last year, when violent protests posed Hong Kong's biggest crisis since the return of Chinese rule in 1997 from Britain. Activists say the security laws could bring an end to the autonomy of China's freest city, now guaranteed under a policy known as "one country, two systems".
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| Feinstein cleared by Justice Department in husband's stock trades Posted: 26 May 2020 12:48 PM PDT  The Justice Department on Tuesday informed Sen. Dianne Feinstein that she was not a target of any investigation into stock trades.
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| 50 billion years of animal evolution under threat from human activity, study says Posted: 26 May 2020 06:23 AM PDT  Fifty billion years of evolutionary history is under threat from human activity, according to a new study which suggests some of the most threatened areas contain the most unique animals. Branches of the tree of life will be cut by the loss of animals such as the Mary River turtle, native to Queensland, Australia, recognisable by its punk-like algae 'hair', whose evolution stretches back 40 million years. The turtle, which breathes out of its genitals underwater and doesn't reach sexual maturity for 25 years, is threatened by the pet trade. Other highly evolutionarily distinct species include the Aye-aye lemur, which are found only on the island of Madagascar, where in 1990 Gerald Durrell embarked on a rescue mission to save dwindling numbers of the long-finger and bushy-tailed primate from the effects of deforestation.
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| Russia’s Pushing a Quack COVID Cure All Over Africa Posted: 25 May 2020 01:40 AM PDT  ABUJA, Nigeria—U.S. President Donald Trump is not the only figure threatening the World Health Organization while endorsing dubious coronavirus treatments. In Africa, news outlets and social media posts notorious for spreading Russian-created disinformation and conspiracy theories are leveling all sorts of allegations against the WHO, ranging from incompetence to fraud.At the center of the attacks is what appears to be a coordinated campaign promoting an herbal concoction the Moscow-backed government of Madagascar claims will cure COVID-19. The attacks on the WHO intensified when the agency released a statement on May 4 warning Africans against using untested remedies for treatment of the coronavirus after the Malagasy government began to extoll—and export in large quantities—an untested herbal infusion sometimes bottled like soda that's called Covid-Organics. The main component for the tonic is artemisia annua, known as sweet wormwood, which has been shown to have some therapeutic value against malaria (PDF).Russians Are Using African Troll Factories—and Encrypted Messaging—to Attack the U.S.The WHO announced its support for traditional medicines if they are "scientifically proven" to be effective, but warned pointedly that "the use of products to treat COVID-19, which have not been robustly investigated can put people in danger, giving a false sense of security and distracting them from hand washing and physical distancing which are cardinal in COVID-19 prevention."The herbal remedy's biggest booster is Malagasy President Andry Rajoelina, a 45-year-old media entrepreneur elected in 2018 with help from Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose meddling, as detailed by the New York Times, was blatant even by Kremlin standards. (Rajoelina denies getting any assistance.)Covid-Organics has not gone through clinical trials. An aide to Rajoelina told the BBC the tonic was "tried out" on fewer than 20 people over three weeks before it was launched in April—a "test" that does not even begin to meet scientific or medical standards.Rajoelina's response? He accused the West of condescending behavior toward traditional African therapy, telling French media that the product would have been globally accepted "if it was a European country that had actually discovered this remedy.""[Madagascar] has come up with this formula to save the world," said Rajoelina, who claims the herbal tonic cures COVID-19 patients within 10 days. "No country or organization will keep us from going forward."Rajoelina has gained lots of support in East Africa, especially in Tanzania (another country that has established deep ties with the Kremlin in recent years). Its controversial leader, President John Pombe Magufuli, has openly endorsed Covid-Organics and also insinuated recently that the WHO artificially inflated the number of COVID-19 cases in his country.All this parallels, however weirdly, the kinds of assertions and statements made by the U.S. president about miracle cures—ranging in his case from hydroxychloroquine to household bleach, thought not yet Covid-Organics—as well as the failings of a World Health Organization he says is under China's thumb. And the similarities in the narrative are not entirely coincidental. Many of the African sites spreading these stories also are enthusiastic supporters of Trump. A number of Tanzanian newspapers have criticized the WHO for its refusal to approve Covid-Organics. A pro-government publication, Tanzania Perspective, particularly, reported that Rajoelina accused the WHO of offering him a $20 million bribe to poison the herbal tonic. A spokesperson for the Malagasy president later denied that wild claim, but not until it had gone viral on social media across the continent, including broadcasts on WhatsApp by such groups as One Africa, One Success (OAOS), a platform for African students studying in Russia that has been used to spread disinformation and conspiracy theories targeting the U.S. and defending Trump.Members of the OAOS have also claimed in their messages that Bill Gates has prevented the WHO from approving coronavirus therapies—including hydroxychloroquine—that supposedly have proven to be effective in Africa, a narrative that has been picked up by high-profile politicians in the continent and extended to Covid-Organics."Madagascar claims to have a herbal-based cure for Covid 19," tweeted Femi Fani-Kayode, a former Nigeria aviation minister and a die-hard Trump supporter. "Why is it that the @BillGates-controlled @WHO refuses to take Africans seriously even where some of these 'cures' have yielded appreciable positive results?"Back in Madagascar, numerous media outlets, some of which were used by Russia to publish fawning articles about Rajoelina to help him win the 2018 presidential election, have accused the WHO of ineffectiveness, claiming that the agency is being manipulated by certain high powers to undermine Madagascar's coronavirus treatment discovery."What you see mostly in the papers is that the WHO doesn't care about finding a coronavirus cure," Thierry Pam, a French freelance journalist living in Madagascar, told The Daily Beast. "No one says anything good about the WHO."One social media post that went viral across Africa in late April claimed that Putin actually ordered a million doses of Covid-Organics and called on Africans not to listen to the WHO. Agence France Presse (AFP) reported the story was totally bogus. There was never such an order, Madagascar's authorities denied it, and, officially at least, Russia usually supports WHO efforts to address the pandemic. But disinformation campaigns often are at odds with officially stated policies because their objectives are different. The focus of Russia's activities has been to drive a wedge between Africa and other international players, whether the U.S., European nations, or China. The Covid-Organics controversy is potentially just another tool to create resentment, as reflected in President Rajoelina's assertions that his country's "cure" for the pandemic is being ignored by the West because it is from Africa.Much of the news that people in Madagascar see or listen to is content created by media outlets set up by the operations of Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close ally of Putin who was indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller for allegedly financing the Internet Research Agency that worked to influence the U.S. 2016 presidential election.A leaked document viewed last year by The Guardian revealed that Russia "produced and distributed the island's biggest newspaper, with 2 million copies a month." The Russians also run a French-language news service, Afrique Panorama, based in Madagascar's capital Antananarivo, according to The Guardian's report.Madagascar is one of Africa's poorest nations, with about 80 percent of its 25 million people living on less than $2 per day, but it has managed to ship tens of thousands of doses of Covid-Organics to several countries, including Nigeria, Tanzania, Comoros, Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Chad and Equatorial Guinea. Many of these reportedly have been sent for free, leading to suggestions that Madagascar may have gotten Russia's help to produce large amounts of the drug. Since his election, Rajoelina has promoted closer ties with Moscow. Most notably, he has strengthened his military cooperation and allowed a company owned by Prigozhin, which had acquired a major stake in a government-run firm that mines chromium under Rajoelina's predecessor, to keep control of the operation. This despite protests by workers complaining of canceled benefits and unpaid wages.Meanwhile, in a country where tests have been very limited, and some of those marred by controversy, hundreds of people are now known to be infected with the virus, and the numbers are rising rapidly. The first two confirmed COVID-19 deaths were reported just this week.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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| A member of a North Carolina anti-lockdown group says he's 'willing to kill people' to defend his rights Posted: 26 May 2020 07:10 AM PDT  An anti-lockdown protester, whose partner founded a "peaceful" protest group, said armed violence is not off the table.
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| Oklahoma woman missing since April following Facebook post that indicated she believed she had coronavirus Posted: 25 May 2020 02:38 PM PDT  Talina Galloway, 53, of Wagoner, Oklahoma, was last heard from by her boss on March 27, 2020. Her last Facebook post was dated April 7. In the post, the posted stated she believed she had coronavirus but did not want to go to the hospital. Her purse and wallet were left at home. Her car was still in the driveway. She has a distinct tattoo of a sun symbol on her right wrist. The Wagoner County Sheriff's Office is investigating.
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| The white woman who called 911 after a black bird-watcher asked her to leash her dog has 'voluntarily surrendered' her pet to an animal rescue Posted: 26 May 2020 04:50 PM PDT  When the man said, "You're not going to like what I'm going to do next," Amy Cooper said she assumed "we were being threatened." He was going to record them.
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| Tow truck turf wars: Toronto sees rise in violence likened to organised crime Posted: 25 May 2020 02:00 AM PDT  A fourth murder in two years has shone a light on the danger for drivers in a highly lucrative – and highly cut-throat – industryJust before sunset, a volley of gunshots rang out in the parking lot of a northern Toronto apartment complex.When police arrived, they found a black tow truck pinned between two other vehicles. The driver, Hashim Kinani, 23, was slumped in the front seat, having been shot several times.Despite efforts by the emergency crew, he was pronounced dead at the scene.The brazen murder followed a week of arson attacks which left the burned remains of tow trucks scattered throughout the city.The coronavirus lockdown has quietened Canada's largest city, but there has been little reprieve for an industry rife with violence and intimidation – and some tow-truck owners fear that organized crime has pushed the industry to a breaking point.Two boys, aged 15 and 17, were charged on Thursday with first-degree and attempted murder, and Toronto police told the Guardian they do not believe Kinani's murder was related to an ongoing turf war.But he was the fourth Toronto tow-truck driver to be murdered in less than two years. Several others have been shot – or shot at – including one who was targeted just hours after Kinani's death.In a statement to the Guardian following Kinani's murder, Ontario's ministry of transportation said it was "deeply concerned" by the violence in the towing industry and was working to "deter this behaviour".A recent investigation by the Globe and Mail found at least 30 arson attacks targeting tow-truck businesses, though that figure has now risen since the spike in violence over the last few months.In March, a collision reporting centre in northern Toronto was set on fire. Another was vandalized and an accelerant-doused object found amid the broken glass, say police.That same month, two drivers were shot and numerous vehicles set ablaze, prompting anger and frustration from Ontario's premier, Doug Ford."We're coming for you, and we're going to catch you," Ford warned the attackers. "The party's over."For many drivers, the violence feels unrelenting."I worry about waking up to find my truck on fire outside of my house," one driver, who has worked in the industry for 13 years, told the Guardian.Much of trouble stems from "accident chasing" – where truck operators race their rivals to be the first at the scene of a crash.Some repair garages will pay tow truck drivers a "finder's fee" for damaged vehicles, making "chasing" an incredibly lucrative field.The lure of profits – and the relative lack of oversight – has attracted organized crime. Last June, police conducted a series of raids under the name Project Kraken, charging more than 70 people – including seven drivers – with offenses ranging from firearms possession to conspiracy to commit murder.Police recovered Tasers and body armour, and found that numerous drivers were armed and "prepared to shoot other tow-truck operators over an ongoing battle over territory", said Toronto's police deputy chief, James Ramer.But nearly a year after those high-profile raids, critics say the problems have only got worse."We've got guys racing down the highway to be the first to arrive for a tow, threaten each other, bang into each other and even shoot each other. Things need to change," said John Henderson of the Fair Towing Task Force, a lobby group advocating for industry reform.Henderson and others have called for greater regulation and licensing, as well as the establishment of an oversight body, to rein in what they say is an increasingly saturated industry with few clear standards."Trucks are just popping up every few days with new names and faces, and then they disappear just as fast. Their one motive is to eliminate competition and own the road. It's crazy these days," said the driver.In theory, the towing industry is regulated at a municipal level in Ontario, but according to the Canadian Automobile Association, only 17 of Ontario's 444 municipalities have clear rules, meaning swaths of the province have become a free-for-all for drivers looking to circumvent or exploit exiting loopholes.Companies say they also want clear regulations for truck maintenance and safety – as well as better training standards for drivers.Henderson says a number of "unscrupulous" drivers are using modified trucks – not actual tow trucks. "If an unlicensed, unregulated guy picks up your vehicle, he's never going to see you again. He's going to charge you as much as he thinks you're going to pay."With the government preoccupied by the coronavirus pandemic, businesses worry that legislation that has been repeatedly proposed will once again be forgotten.But Henderson hopes the recent shooting will put lingering crisis back in the spotlight."Because let's be clear: someone was killed," he said. "We need to fix this."
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| U.S. small firms leave $150 billion in coronavirus stimulus untapped Posted: 26 May 2020 03:17 AM PDT  When the U.S. government first rolled out forgivable loans to small businesses in early April under the Paycheck Protection Program, loan officers at Bank of the West in Grapevine, Texas worked nights and weekends to process a tsunami of applications. On May 15 the bank stopped taking applications for PPP loans. All told, the SBA says it had approved $512.2 billion in PPP loans as of May 21.
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| Big Oil loses appeal, climate suits go to California courts Posted: 26 May 2020 11:19 AM PDT  Big Oil lost a pair of court battles Tuesday that could lead to trials in lawsuits by California cities and counties seeking damages for the impact of climate change. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected arguments by energy companies and ruled state courts are the proper forum for lawsuits alleging producers promoted petroleum as environmentally responsible when they knew it was contributing to drought, wildfires, and sea level rise associated with global warming. The lawsuits claim Chevron, Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, BP, Royal Dutch Shell and other companies created a public nuisance and should pay for damage from climate change and help build sea walls and other infrastructure to protect against future impact — construction that could cost tens of billions of dollars.
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| Taiwan was so pandemic-ready that it's had just 7 coronavirus deaths Posted: 26 May 2020 07:02 AM PDT  Small island just off mainland China is home to almost 24 million people, but they'd been bracing for a crisis like COVID-19 for 17 years.
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| Xi Jinping says China strengthening armed forces amid tensions with US over coronavirus Posted: 26 May 2020 11:32 AM PDT  Beijing says it will improve its preparedness for military combat. In the background: heightened U.S. tensions.
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| Ilhan Omar says she believes woman who claims Joe Biden sexually assaulted her Posted: 25 May 2020 11:31 AM PDT  Democrat "squad" member Ilhan Omar says she believes sexual assault allegations against Joe Biden but would vote for him anyway to defeat Donald Trump.In a Tweet defending her support of accuser Tara Reade, the Minnesota congresswoman said that "believing survivors is consistent with my values".
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| Alabama's Easing of Restrictions Has Given 'A False Sense of Security,' Says Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed Posted: 25 May 2020 12:45 PM PDT  Cases of coronavirus are on the rise in Alabama, where Gov. Kay Ivey has allowed summer camps, movie theaters, casinos and more to reopen as…
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| ‘Fox & Friends’ Confronts Kayleigh McEnany With Chris Wallace Criticism Posted: 26 May 2020 08:17 AM PDT  Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace didn't get the chance to confront White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany directly this weekend. So Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade did it for him. About halfway through her appearance on that show Tuesday morning, Kilmeade brought up a comment McEnany made during her Friday press conference. "Boy, it's interesting to be in a room that desperately wants to seem to see these churches and houses of worship stay closed," she told reporters, some of whom objected in the moment to that blatant condescension.As Kilmeade put it, "Some of the press got insulted," before reading McEnany part of what Wallace said about her comments on his Sunday show. "Let me just say, Sam Donaldson and me in the Reagan White House, we were pretty tough on the White House press secretaries and we never had our religious beliefs questioned or were lectured on what we should ask," Wallace said. Kilmeade left out the part where Wallace said that in his six years covering the White House he "never saw a White House press secretary act like that."Kayleigh McEnany: Trump Supports Vote by Mail 'For a Reason'—Just Not a Pandemic"Were you questioning the religious beliefs of the press?" Kilmeade asked her directly. "No, I never questioned the religious beliefs of the press," she insisted, before adding, "Many of our journalists are great men and women of faith." McEnany said her comments were merely trying to draw attention to the fact that "it was a bit peculiar" that she was asked so many questions about why the Trump administration was pushing to reopen churches across the country during a pandemic. "I've never been asked why a liquor store was essential," she added. Of course, while Wallace likely would have thrown a few follow-up questions at McEnany's nonsensical answer, the Fox & Friends hosts moved right along to the next topic. Seth Meyers Exposes New Trump Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany's Breathtakingly Stupid Coronavirus TakeRead 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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| Chinese media says Wuhan had live virus Posted: 25 May 2020 07:21 AM PDT  The Chinese virology institute at the centre of US allegations it may have been the source of the COVID-19 pandemic has three live strains of bat coronavirus on-site, but none match the new global contagion, its director has said.
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| Woman sacked after calling police on black man Posted: 26 May 2020 05:19 PM PDT  The woman, identified as Amy Cooper, called police saying an African-American man was threatening her life.
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| Supreme Court refuses for now to block release of prisoners due to COVID-19 Posted: 26 May 2020 11:46 AM PDT  Supreme Court turned down an appeal from Trump administration to block inmate releases at an Ohio prison due to risk from the coronavirus outbreak.
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| Canada: neglected residents and rotten food found at care homes hit by Covid-19 Posted: 26 May 2020 12:21 PM PDT  Justin Trudeau describes 'deeply disturbing' military report after soldiers visit facilities in Quebec and OntarioCanadian troops deployed to long-term care homes overwhelmed by coronavirus outbreaks found neglected and malnourished residents, rotten food and insect infestations, and a blatant disregard for critical safety protocol, according to a bombshell report from the country's armed forces.Military medics were dispatched to long-term care facilities in Quebec and Ontario in late April, with aim of blunting Covid-19 outbreaks among vulnerable populations. Soldiers deployed to five of Ontario's worst-hit care homes encountered rotten food, cockroaches and residents in soiled diapers, according to the report published on Tuesday.At one facility, residents had not been bathed in weeks. At another, staff made "derogatory or inappropriate comments directed at residents'". Neglect of resident hygiene and health, often leading to infection, was documented at all facilities.At one point, "patients [were] observed crying for help with staff not responding for 30 mins to over two hours," the report said.Justin Trudeau, the prime minister, said: "On reading the deeply disturbing report, I had obviously a range of emotions of anger, of sadness, of frustration, of grief."It is extremely troubling, and as I've said from the very beginning of this, we need to do a better job of supporting our seniors in long-term care right across the country, through this pandemic and beyond."Long-term care homes in Canada, many of which are privately run, have been hit the hardest by the pandemic, with residents making up nearly eight out of 10 Covid-19-related deaths across the country.The damage has been felt most acutely in Ontario and Quebec, which have the vast majority of the country's coronavirus cases and fatalities.An estimated 225 people died at the five homes where the military was assisting in Ontario.The report chronicled widespread "burnout" among staff, a number of whom hadn't seen family in weeks. The military also found numerous examples of staff showing little knowledge of how to properly wear personal protective equipment when dealing with coronavirus cases.As his government released the report to the public on Tuesday, an emotional Ontario premier, Doug Ford, called the findings "gut-wrenching" and "shocking"."Reading these reports was the hardest thing I've done as premier," said Ford. "What we're feeling is little compared to the hardship these residents and their families have had to ensure. There's nothing worse than feeling helpless when it comes to caring for a loved one."Ford's mother-in-law, who lives in a long-term care home, was recently diagnosed with Covid-19.Ford said investigations have been launched following the report, saying his government would pursue "accountability" and "justice". One death has been referred to the coroner for investigation into possible criminal charges.Meanwhile, the Canadian military said today that some 36 members working in long-term care homes in Ontario and Quebec have become sick with Covid-19."This tragedy must serve as a wakeup call to our entire country," said Ford. "It's no secret that Covid-19 has taken a system with deep problems – a system that has been neglected for years – and pushed it to the brink."
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| Afghan government releases hundreds of Taliban prisoners Posted: 26 May 2020 03:50 AM PDT  The Afghan government released hundreds of Taliban prisoners Tuesday, its single largest prisoner release since the U.S. and the Taliban signed a peace deal earlier this year that spells out an exchange of detainees between the warring sides. The government announced it would release 900 Taliban prisoners as a three-day cease-fire with the insurgents draws to an end. The Taliban had called for the truce during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr that marks the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
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| Column: Why Bernie Sanders is dead wrong about what Joe Biden should look for in a running mate Posted: 26 May 2020 03:15 AM PDT  Biden needs a boring running mate, ideally a centrist, wonky, pleasant one.
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| The DOJ is closing its insider trading inquiries into 3 senators but is still investigating GOP Sen. Richard Burr Posted: 26 May 2020 01:02 PM PDT  Burr stepped down as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee last week after it surfaced that the FBI had seized a cell phone belonging to him.
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| Kosovo president rejects EU mediator for talks with Serbia Posted: 26 May 2020 08:08 AM PDT  Kosovo President Hashim Thaci said on Tuesday he would not take part in talks on normalising ties with Serbia led by an European Union special mediator, calling instead for an increased U.S. role in the dialogue. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, almost a decade after a guerrilla uprising by its ethnic Albanian majority, and agreed to an EU-sponsored dialogue with Belgrade in 2013 to resolve all outstanding issues.
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| India detains pigeon on suspicion of spying for Pakistan Posted: 26 May 2020 02:55 AM PDT  An intrepid Pakistani 'spy' pigeon is facing a life behind bars in India. The allegation was made after Geeta Devi, a resident of the Kathua district of Indian-administered Kashmir, reported a bird - painted pink and carrying a coded ring tagged to its foot - flew into her home on Sunday night. The Indian Border Security Force passed the pigeon on to the police, who launched an investigation and logged the animal as a 'Pak Suspected Spy.' Officials in Kathua said the bird had flown across the border and they would try to decipher the message. "The pigeon, suspected to have been trained in Pakistan for spying, has a ring with alphabets and numbers written on it," a police source told the Times of India. "Though birds have no boundaries and many fly across international borders during migration, a coded ring tagged to the captured pigeon's body is a cause for concern as migratory birds don't have such rings."
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| SpaceX readies for blast-off with NASA astronauts aboard Posted: 26 May 2020 11:59 AM PDT  Gray skies loomed over Florida's Atlantic coast Tuesday, just one day before two astronauts were set to blast off aboard a SpaceX capsule on the most dangerous and prestigious mission NASA has ever entrusted to a private company. US astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley have been in strict quarantine for two weeks ahead of their trip on the brand-new Crew Dragon capsule, which will be propelled by a Falcon 9 rocket.
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| Malka Leifer: Rape-accused ex-principal fit for extradition to Australia Posted: 26 May 2020 08:16 AM PDT  An Israeli judge says the suspect accused of 74 sex charges is fit to face extradition to Australia.
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| States are reopening, but many require travelers to self-quarantine. Here's where Posted: 26 May 2020 01:39 PM PDT  States are beginning to open back up, but some require or recommend visitors self-quarantine for two weeks.
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| This NBC Executive Became a Conspiracy King and a Pro-Trump Media Boss Posted: 26 May 2020 12:47 AM PDT  This article was co-published with Responsible Statecraft.A former NBC executive who founded one of the earliest—and more successful—fake news websites quietly assumed a leadership role at The Epoch Times as the news outlet ramped up its pro-Trump messaging after the 2016 election.Epoch's influential role as a Trump-friendly media outlet coincided with access to Trump allies seeking friendly interviews, uncritical coverage of the administration's policies, and a venue to advance the White House's militant anti-Beijing and hyper-nationalist messages.That change in direction—which included a flood of omnipresent YouTube ads costing at least $1 million, and a ban from Facebook for violating the platform's rules about political advertising—appears to have occurred alongside the 2017 arrival of a new vice president at The Epoch Times, Chris Kitze, and huge jumps in the paper's revenue from $3.8 million in 2016 to $8.1 million in 2017 and $12.4 million in 2018. Kitze, who now manages a cryptocurrency hedge fund, was listed as a member of the six-person board of the The Epoch Times Association, the nonprofit that operates The Epoch Times, as a vice president in 2017 and 2018 tax documents. But Kitze's ties to The Epoch Times go back much further than 2017 and point to a mutually beneficial relationship. Since 2010, Kitze's company, BeforeItsNews.com, an early fake news site that promoted conspiracy theories about then-president Barack Obama and offered extensive coverage of Trump's insurgent candidacy in 2016, promoted Falun Gong—a spiritual movement that is persecuted by the Chinese government and has the stated goal of destroying the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)—and The Epoch Times; meanwhile, Falun Gong-linked media properties quietly promoted Kitze's other business ventures, including Unseen, an encrypted messaging platform.Captain Trump Steers America Toward Iceberg of InsanityChris Kitze's career spans countless internet ventures and well-timed exits from companies across two tech bubbles. His LinkedIn profile shows an impressive career starting in 1991 with the founding of Acris Media, a company selling clipart on CD-ROMs, a stint as the VP of Marketing at the early search engine Lycos from 1995 to 1996 ("I led the Lycos marketing team through one of the first internet IPOs," says Kitze on LinkedIn) and founding and serving as chairman of free-website company Xoom.com, leading to a merger with NBC Internet (NBCi).Kitze served as CEO of NBCi, NBC's initiative to create an NBC controlled internet portal and landing page, from 1999 to 2000. Kitze's post-NBC activities include serving as CEO of Yaga, a filesharing network, serving as chairman of Wine.com before pivoting his attention to a number of blockchain- and cryptocurrency-related companies five years ago.Kitze's public resume contains at least two noticeable omissions: the 2008 formation of BeforeItsNews.com and Kitze's appointment as a VP at The Epoch Times and membership on the paper's board starting in 2017.BeforeItsNews.com appears to have begun operations in early 2009, shortly after Obama's inauguration and, at launch, directly attacked the news media's treatment of Obama, referencing then-MSNBC-pundit Chris Matthew's March 2008 comment about how "I felt this thrill going up my leg" when Obama spoke.BeforeItsNews.com's "about" page read:> Something strange happened during the 2008 U.S. election. The news media came down with a bad case of amnesia — they forgot exactly what it was they were supposed to be doing. Instead of asking critical questions of those running for office, they went out of their way to "get a tingle up their leg" for some candidates, or to ignore the constitutional requirements of the political office.> > We wanted to present a point of view that didn't seem to exist in the mainstream media. One that is hopeful, yet realistic, based on the natural law of truth, compassion and tolerance.What that meant in practice was the rapid production of enormous quantities of user contributed news articles, wide dissemination on social media, and no editorial oversight or fact-checking.The website encourages anyone to contribute articles, advertising itself as a "news utility—an internet platform that enables the hosting and distribution of any kind of news, worldwide."It will get out through all the major search engines," says the current "about" page.Conspiracy theories about Obama's birth certificate, UFOs, the New World Order, and imminent economic and societal collapse all made the front page of BeforeItsNews.com.A 2017 Guardian article on Facebook's failures to address the dissemination of fake news on its platform specifically mentioned Kitze and BeforeItsNews.com:> Chris Kitze, who runs BeforeItsNews.com, said that although he allows users to post any content without fact-checking, he hasn't noticed Facebook tagging any of his site's articles as fake news. That includes a recent piece debunked by Snopes claiming to include leaked photos showing how Obama practiced Islam in the White House.> > "A lot of people think Obama is Muslim. That's what it plays on. Is it real? I don't know," he said. "The fact is a lot of people thought it was real or it reflects their sentiment."Alongside publishing a steady flow of factually questionable content, Kitze, BeforeItsNews.com, and Epoch appear to have enjoyed a thriving relationship with over 20,000 Epoch Times articles appearing on the site between 2010 and 2012.Kitze's involvement with Falun Gong was detailed in an Epoch Times article published in June 2012, in which he described coming across Falun Gong practitioners in New York's Times Square in 2005 and, remembering that encounter, educating himself in the movement and practicing its meditation techniques two years later.The group's persecution in China—the Chinese government banned Falun Gong and prohibits practice of the movement's exercises in public and the dissemination of its written material—and freedom of participating in an activity defying the Chinese government clearly resonated with Kitze.The Epoch Times explained that Kitze was drawn to Falun Gong's openness and participants' voluntary decision to practice and study the movement. "Kitze said this may be why the Chinese communist regime was so afraid of Falun Gong that it launched a brutal campaign of hate and persecution against some 100 million practitioners, starting a decade ago in the country where the practice originated" said The Epoch Times. "Because it's in your heart and mind—that's something no government could ever control, that's one reason why a totalitarian regime would oppose it," Kitze told the paper.Matthew Tullar, who served as director of circulation at The Epoch Times from 2012 to 2014 and director of sales and marketing from 2015 to 2016, recalled Kitze speaking to Epoch advertising salespeople at a 2012 San Francisco seminar. "While I was already familiar with the fact that the Chinese Communist Party was officially persecuting Some [sic] 100 million Falun Gong practitioners in China and that the leftist media [...] was strangely ignoring this story, even to this day, that included over 75 Communist government hospitals busy murdering thousands of these people every year since the early two thousands, to harvest and sell their body parts to U.S. and other world customers," wrote Tullar in an email. "Mr. Kitze was the first business guy I had ever met that was dedicating a significant part of his business profits and effort to exposing these facts. He struck me as a kind and genuine person who cared about his fellow man," said Tullar. "While my understanding of and experience with him was limited, I was nonetheless inspired by his effort and compassion. And his presentation turned out to be useful as well."The Hedge Fund Man Behind Pro-Trump Media's New War on ChinaThe Epoch Times has always maintained a hawkish editorial tone towards China but that line took on a more overtly partisan and focused U.S. political message over the course of the Trump presidency, pushing a steady onslaught of articles and videos labeling the novel coronavirus "CCP Virus" and advancing a series of thinly reported or unsubstantiated theories about vast Chinese government cover-ups to hide the origins of COVID-19.Busted: Pentagon Contractors' Report on 'Wuhan Lab' Origins of Virus Is BogusThe paper's editorial board even went so far as to claim, "If someone is unfortunately infected with the CCP virus, we suggest that he or she sincerely says 'down with the CCP.' Maybe a miracle will happen.""Staying away from the CCP and condemning the CCP can help any individual, organization, or country alleviate or even avoid attacks of the CCP virus," the ed board added. "They may then embrace a wonderful future."Over the course of the Trump presidency, Epoch emerged as a prolific pro-Trump media outlet.When Facebook banned the Epoch Media Group from buying ads in August 2019, it later said the news outlet spent over $9 million on ads, including approximately 11,000 pro-Trump Facebook advertisements, more than any other organization other than the Trump campaign.Epoch denied the ads were purchased by The Epoch Times but Facebook said Epoch evaded the company's transparency rules for political advertising and "repeatedly violated a number of our policies, including our policies against coordinated inauthentic behavior, spam and misrepresentation, to name just a few."Epoch's pivot toward Trump appears to have coincided with the ramp up of BeforeItsNews.com's drumbeat of pro-Trump articles, and Kitze's conspiracy theories."[BeforeItsNews] was one of the first news websites to really cover Donald Trump and his candidacy in a serious manner and, you know, we took him seriously," Kitze told a conspiracy oriented podcast, The Common Sense Show, in July 2016. "We didn't think he was just some flash in the pan."In 2017, the alliance between Kitze and Epoch became official, when Kitze joined Epoch's board as a vice president in 2017—an association that is listed nowhere on Epoch's website, Kitze's online social media profiles, or in a 2018 profile on him in the newspaper. His continued promotion of disproven or baseless conspiracy theories is seemingly in contradiction with Epoch's "dedicat[ion] to truthful reporting."Meanwhile, Kitze kept elevating the strangest of right-wing conspiracy theories. In a 2018 appearance on the Common Sense Show, Kitze referenced the alleged "organ harvesting" of Falun Gong practitioners in China, explaining that he believed they were also being used for "satanic" ritual purposes "as we've just seen in the U.S. with all the Pizzagate things."Kitze's reference to Pizzagate is particularly jarring as it came a year and a half after a man with an assault rifle was arrested outside a pizza restaurant in Washington D.C. attempting to investigate online conspiracy claims that a pedophile ring was operating in the restaurant's basement with the help of Bill and Hillary Clinton.Kitze went on to echo a largely debunked assertion made by the Trump administration about child trafficking on the U.S.-Mexico border, saying:> All these kids coming across the border, these ones all the Democrats were up in arms about, you know, 'how can you separate the families?'. Fifty-percent of them aren't even with their family. They're being trafficked and God knows where these poor kids are going to end up.In 2019, Kitze appeared on the same show to discuss, among other topics, a conspiracy theory involving the Clintons selling "all of the U.S. secrets" to China. "The Clintons had asked for $1 trillion but [the Chinese] got a deal and only had to pay the Clintons $900 billion," said Kitze, referencing reporting in The Epoch Times Chinese language edition.Since forming BeforeItsNews, Kitze focused heavily on privacy-related products, including Unseen, a now shuttered secure messaging platform, and founding the cryptocurrency Flashcoin, both of which were featured in a glowing 2018 profile in The Epoch Times that made no reference to his role as an officer in the organization.Kitze also serves as chairman of the Alphabit Fund, a Dubai and Cayman Islands based cryptocurrency fund aiming to raise $300 million that Reuters described in 2018 as "one of the world's largest digital currency funds."Epoch Times Advertiser Deletes Facebook Page After Hacking InquiriesAlphabit's co-founder and managing director, Saeed Al Darmaki, worked for over eight years at Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, raising questions about whether Alphabit has state backing. Kitze did not respond to a request for comment about the investors in Alphabit, his responsibilities as a vice president at Epoch or his current relationship with BeforeItsNews.Epoch, for its part, offered incomplete and contradictory answers about Kitze's role at the news organization.Dr. Dana Cheng, a spokesperson for The Epoch Times, responded to questions about Kitze's involvement, saying, "Mr. Kitze had limited involvement with The Epoch Times more than 7 years ago," adding, "There is no relationship between The Epoch Times and any of Mr. Kitze's endeavors, including beforeitsnews."Cheng appeared to contradict her statement about Kitze's involvement with Epoch more than seven years ago when questioned about his appearance on tax filings in the 2017 and 2018 tax years. "Yes, he was a board member in 2017 and 2018, with minimal involvement," said Cheng, adding, "He is not a board member nor a VP now."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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| Latam Airlines seeks bankruptcy protection as travel slumps Posted: 25 May 2020 10:26 PM PDT  Latam Airlines, South America's biggest carrier, sought U.S. bankruptcy protection Tuesday as it grapples with a sharp downturn in air travel sparked by the coronavirus pandemic. The Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing underscores the severity of the financial challenges facing the travel industry as a result of the lockdowns, quarantines and other measures taken by governments the world over to stem the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19. Passenger and cargo flights will continue to operate during the reorganization, and employees will still be paid, the Santiago, Chile-based airline said.
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| Trump on Twitter mocks Biden for wearing a face mask Posted: 26 May 2020 04:33 PM PDT  "I thought it was very unusual he had one on," the president said when asked about his tweet.
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| Republicans sue California Gov. Newsom over his executive order to allow mail-in voting for the November election Posted: 24 May 2020 09:16 PM PDT  In a lawsuit filed on Sunday, Republican groups called Newsom's executive order to allow mail-in voting a "brazen power grab."
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| Korean prosecutors question Samsung heir in succession-related probe Posted: 25 May 2020 06:15 PM PDT  Samsung Group heir Jay Y. Lee was questioned on Tuesday by prosecutors about a controversial 2015 merger and alleged accounting fraud that they said may have helped him advance his succession-planning agenda at the country's top conglomerate. The questioning brings fresh legal trouble for Lee who is already facing court trial over a charge of bribery aimed at winning support to succeed ailing group patriarch Lee Kun-hee, and which involved former South Korean President Park Geun-hye. Prosecutors have been investigating suspected accounting fraud at drug company Samsung Biologics after the Korean financial watchdog complained the firm's value had been inflated by 4.5 trillion won ($3.64 billion) in 2015.
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| British farmers 'will go out of business' in UK-US trade deal, Theresa Villiers warns Posted: 25 May 2020 06:31 AM PDT  British farmers "will go out of business" as a consequence of a trade deal with the United States, former environment secretary Theresa Villiers has warned. Admitting that she had "great fears" about "unfettered competition between domestic farmers and US imports", she said it would be very difficult for domestic farmers to compete on price. Ms Villiers, who left her Cabinet post in February's reshuffle, said she was concerned about the impact of a deal on the rural economy and the union "because of the significance of livestock farming in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales". International Trade Secretary Liz Truss has insisted that she would not do a trade deal with the US if it "does not benefit every sector of UK agriculture". However, opponents of practices such chlorine-washing chicken and hormone-injected beef fear farming standards may be bargained away in negotiations. The Government is being urged to enshrine guarantees into the Agriculture Bill by the opposition benches and many of its own MPs. Ms Villiers argued that an amendment to the bill would give certainty to farmers "that our negotiators wouldn't be able to give way" on standards.
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| ‘Please, I can’t breathe’: US police officer filmed with knee on neck of motionless man who later died Posted: 26 May 2020 07:12 AM PDT  A man has died after a Minneapolis police officer detained him by putting his knee on his neck, in an arrest captured on camera by a member of the public.The clip, filmed on Monday, showed a black man lying on the ground, motionless, and a white police officer, resting his knee on top of the man's neck.
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| Trafficked Nigerian women rescued from Lebanon Posted: 26 May 2020 03:28 AM PDT  The 50 return home a month after a woman working as a maid in Beirut was put up for sale on Facebook.
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| Editorial: Nearly 100,000 Americans have died from COVID-19. As a nation, it's time to mourn and honor them Posted: 26 May 2020 03:00 AM PDT  100,000 might be just a number, but it's a staggering amount of loss. America needs to find some way to mourn the dead, even as the pandemic still rages.
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| Airbus experts probe plane crash that killed 97 in Pakistan Posted: 26 May 2020 02:22 AM PDT  Pakistan announced Tuesday that Airbus experts have opened a probe into last week's plane crash that killed 97 people when an Airbus A320 went down in a crowded neighborhood near the airport in the port city of Karachi. Initial reports have said the Pakistan International Airlines jet crashed after an apparent engine failure. The Airbus experts and engineers are also to visit the crash site, according to Abdul Hafeez, a spokesman for PIA.
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| America's meat problems are about to get worse Posted: 26 May 2020 11:11 AM PDT  The meat industry is in for a rough road to recovery.It's been nearly a month since President Trump encouraged meat plants to either remain open or reopen, even as many of them became hotspots for coronavirus spread across the U.S. Outbreaks are continuing to mar the plants' reopening plans, leading to industry-wide dilemmas that could create meat shortages for months to come, The Washington Post reports.While it's difficult to put a number on just how many meat plant workers have contracted coronavirus nationwide, North Carolina has provided a good sample. Of the 2,200 workers tested for coronavirus at Tyson Foods' chicken processing plant in Wilkes Country, 570 tested positive last week, Tyson told NPR. Parts of the facility have closed for cleaning, cutting how much meat the plant can turn out. And so, for the first time during the COVID-19 pandemic, North Carolina farmers have had to start euthanizing at least 1.5 million chickens, a state agriculture official told the News & Observer, calling the measure a "last resort."Most meat plants in North Carolina and nationwide won't disclose just how may of their employees have contracted coronavirus, but the close-packed working conditions have turned the facilities into disease hotspots since the early days of the pandemic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated at least 5,000 workers were infected by the end of April, though advocates have suggested there could be more than 17,000. And with plants already slow to respond to outbreaks and some still partially closed, it's likely that shortages may only get worse.More stories from theweek.com Biden responds to Trump mocking face masks: He's an 'absolute fool' Trump shares disturbing meme of Biden's campaign in a coffin Trump says it's safe to reopen schools. I don't believe him.
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| Thousands of USCIS employees could be furloughed without more funds Posted: 26 May 2020 04:50 PM PDT  USCIS, the fee-funded agency that oversees the nation's legal immigration system, is facing a financial crisis during the coronavirus pandemic.
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| 'Our product is used on occasion to kill people': Palantir's CEO claims its tech is used to target and kill terrorists Posted: 26 May 2020 03:40 AM PDT  Palantir CEO Alex Karp said he thinks some of the people protesting against the company make legitimate points.
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| Factbox: Biden wants a woman to be his running mate. Here are some names under consideration Posted: 26 May 2020 01:10 PM PDT  Biden has vowed to choose a woman as his potential vice president. A number of advisers have pressed Biden's campaign to pick Harris, 55, because the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants could help excite black voters, a key Democratic constituency. Harris endorsed Biden after dropping out of the race, but her earlier criticism of him during a Democratic primary debate about his opposition to school busing rankled some people close to Biden.
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