| Trump floats delaying the election, but he can't do that Posted: 30 Jul 2020 07:14 AM PDT  While states have the authority to delay their primary elections, only Congress can change the date of the presidential election.
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| Letters to the Editor: If Joe Biden picks Karen Bass as his VP, L.A.'s major loss would be America's gain Posted: 29 Jul 2020 03:00 AM PDT  Karen Bass is a proactive member of Congress who serves her constituents as well. She would make an excellent vice president.
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| US warns of 'consequences' if Brazil picks Huawei 5G Posted: 29 Jul 2020 12:16 PM PDT  The US ambassador in Brasilia warned of "consequences" if Brazil chooses Chinese telecoms company Huawei to develop its 5G network, in an interview published Wednesday. "I wouldn't say there would be retaliation, but there would be consequences" if Brazil goes against US advice and picks the Chinese firm, Ambassador Todd Chapman told newspaper Globo. Brazil is due to launch a tender next year for the project to develop the next generation of telecommunications technology in Latin America's most populous country, home to 212 million people.
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| 'People were sick to their stomachs with his fake sincerity': Frustrated Amazon sellers slam Bezos for claiming his retail platform empowers small businesses Posted: 30 Jul 2020 02:44 PM PDT  Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos maintained that Amazon elevates small business owners, like its Amazon sellers. Some Amazon sellers don't agree.
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| Police Find Child’s Toy Bucket in Secret Sealed Cellar Being Searched for Madeleine McCann Posted: 30 Jul 2020 02:30 AM PDT  Police and cadaver-hunting dogs are on the scene in a backyard in Hanover, Germany, where a secret sealed cellar has just been unearthed in the hunt for missing Briton Madeleine McCann. The cellar was once under a garden shed on property where German pedophile Christian Brueckner, the latest suspect in the missing-child case, once lived. The shed was torn down years ago, but neighbors said Brueckner once spent hours inside. German Police Dig Up a Backyard in Search of Madeleine McCannPolice were seen Thursday carrying out a number of items from the cellar, including blue bags of forensic evidence and a child's bucket. McCann was just shy of her fourth birthday when she was snatched from her bed while her twin siblings slept nearby at a holiday rental in Portugal in 2007. Her parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, were dining with friends a few hundred yards away when she disappeared.The case, which has been closed and reopened by Portuguese police several times, has now picked up steam after German authorities identified the convicted pedophile, who is also under investigation for raping a 72-year-old woman. British police have never lost faith in finding out what happened, spending millions of pounds over the last 13 years on an investigation called Operation Grange, through which they have translated the Portuguese dossier and interviewed many key witnesses.But it is German police who have so far advanced the search for the truth. Initially they said they were sure McCann was dead, but provided no clues to back up their line of thinking. McCann's parents have not commented on the latest development on the case, but are said to be watching closely in hopes of finally finding out what happened to their missing daughter. 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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| Cruise passengers struggle refunds amid the pandemic; federal agency report recommends changes Posted: 30 Jul 2020 07:09 AM PDT  A Federal Maritime Commission report is recommending amended regulations related to cruise lines' refund policies.
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| China and the U.S. Should Reset Their Relationship Posted: 30 Jul 2020 05:20 AM PDT |
| Royal Meghan and UK tabloid trade blows in court dispute Posted: 29 Jul 2020 05:23 AM PDT  A lawyer for Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, accused a British newspaper publisher in court on Wednesday of commercially exploiting its legal dispute with her by using court documents as the basis for "sensational" coverage. Meghan, wife of Queen Elizabeth's grandson Prince Harry, is suing Associated Newspapers over articles in the Mail on Sunday in February 2019 that included parts of a handwritten letter she sent to her estranged father, Thomas Markle, in August 2018. Increasingly hostile relations between the royal couple and some British newspapers they accused of intrusive, inaccurate and sometimes racist coverage was one of the reasons why Harry and Meghan left Britain for the United States.
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| MSNBC host angers Georgia Democrat with Trump support question Posted: 29 Jul 2020 11:45 AM PDT  Georgia Democrat angered by MSNBC host with Trump support question.
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| Trump claims Biden isn't 'going to do well in Texas' as Democrat leads in election polls Posted: 29 Jul 2020 12:40 PM PDT  Donald Trump declared victory in what he called a Democratic "war" on the American energy industry, defying polls while visiting a Texas oil rig by predicting he will win the state in November as he once again turned an official trip into a mini-campaign rally."As long as I'm president we will never allow anyone to put American energy out of business, which is what they want to do," he said on an oil rig in Midland, Texas. "We unlocked the full energy potential of Texas and New Mexico. ... We have become a net energy exporter."
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| GM will unveil the revived, electric Hummer pickup this fall — and promises the world's first 'super truck' Posted: 29 Jul 2020 09:30 AM PDT  The all-electric pickup will have 1,000 horsepower and be able to sprint from 0-60 mph in 3 seconds. GMC also teased the Hummer SUV.
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| What Pullout? Feds Gas Moms in Fresh Portland Crackdown Posted: 30 Jul 2020 08:31 AM PDT  PORTLAND—With roughly two-dozen federal officers in riot gear marching towards her, Demetria Hester linked arms with two other mothers in yellow shirts. "Hands up!" she chanted. "Don't shoot!" responded the crowd, warily watching a line of federal agents coming towards them from behind a cloud of tear gas and smoke from munition fire. Though the number of protesters in downtown Portland had dwindled to about 100 shortly after midnight Thursday, the number of federal agents out on the streets was larger than ever. Hours after Oregon Governor Kate Brown announced the gradual removal of federal law enforcement officers from Portland, more than 200 of those officers were clashing with protesters outside the federal courthouse, using tear gas to clear the surrounding streets.Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf and President Donald Trump had disputed the governor's announcement, the former tweeting that federal officers would "remain in Portland until the violent activity toward our federal facilities ends." And if the scene in Portland early Thursday morning was any indication, the unrest there isn't close to finished.The line of federal agents, holding shields and riot shotguns, shoved a wall of protesters back from the front of the courthouse. Then came the tear gas, lobbed into the crowd by U.S. Marshals and officers with the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. 'It's Spooky Right Now': Inside the Creepy Federal Crackdown on Portland ProtestersProtesters frantically dodged the flying thick metal canisters and backed away from the rising smoke. With her hands still in the air, Hester pulled down a respirator mask over her mouth. "Hands up!" she kept chanting through her mask, and then slid on a pair of goggles. "Don't shoot!" came the crowd's reply, muffled by the sting of tear gas and the sound of jostled bodies. After tackling and arresting a protester, federal officers continued throwing tear gas into the crowd to clear the area. Her bloodshot eyes tearing up, Hester backed away from the heavy volley of teargas and munitions, coughing into her respirator. "We weren't doing anything wrong," she told The Daily Beast between coughs. "We were just peacefully protesting." Indeed, before officers closed in, Hester and the other demonstrators standing in front of the courthouse had been peacefully chanting. "George Floyd." "Breonna Taylor." "Black Lives Matter." Earlier in the night, however, a small number of protesters had become violent: shining lasers at officer's faces and chucking fireworks at the federal courthouse. Now it appeared police officers were targeting specific people for arrest, and tear gassing anyone else in the way. Another demonstrator dressed in yellow—the designated color of the so-called "Wall of Moms," a group of mothers focused on defending Black lives from police brutality—offered Hester a moist towelette to rub across her stinging eyes. Though Hester came out Wednesday night to protest police brutality alongside other yellow-shirted moms, the 45-year-old mother of two and grandmother of three has been active in the Black Lives Matter movement since May 2017. It was then Hester was assaulted by convicted killer Jeremy Christian the day before he killed two men on a Portland commuter train following a racist tirade. In her testimony, Hester said she interrupted Christian as he was screaming about minorities, after which he hit her in the face with a bottle, badly bruising her right eye. The next day, Christian directed another racist tirade at a small group of young girls, and fatally stabbed two men who interfered. The trial ended late last month with a sentence of life in prison without parole. "It was really after that trial that I started coming down here," Hester said of the protest site, where a final burst of intense clashes were coming to an end. Hester and a few other mothers asked me where my car was and insisted on walking me there, because "that's what moms do." Hester, alongside several other Black activist mothers, has helped take charge of the Wall of Moms alongside a group called Moms United for Black Lives after the former's original founder was accused of "anti-blackness."Amid the chaos on the street, Hester recounted the day she was attacked by Christian, when she approached an officer with the Portland Police Bureau and pointed her attacker out. Christian was not arrested."That white supremacist got special treatment from the police. That's not acceptable," she said, pausing to spit out the taste of tear gas. "And that's what we're here fighting for today." So even if the feds did pull out of her city, it was hard to imagine activists like Hester would be satisfied."It won't make a difference if they leave or stay," Hester said, referring to the federal officers. "It all comes down to white privilege in this country." 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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| FBI says errors discovered in more than two-dozen wiretap applications were mostly minor Posted: 30 Jul 2020 04:59 PM PDT  The agency said its review of 29 applications to obtain wiretaps on U.S. citizens had only minor, mostly typographical errors.
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| Former U.S. Marine sentenced to 9 years in Russian prison for assaulting police officer Posted: 30 Jul 2020 07:23 AM PDT  The U.S. ambassador to Moscow has called the evidence against Reed "flimsy," and the latest example of Russia treating American citizens unfairly.
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| A Black videographer got stabbed at the Portland protests, and he says it is because he is pro-Trump Posted: 30 Jul 2020 03:13 AM PDT  The video was released on Wednesday as Oregon Gov. Kate Brown announced that federal agents would withdraw from Portland.
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| 260 Chinese boats fish near Galapagos; Ecuador on alert Posted: 30 Jul 2020 12:56 PM PDT  Some call it a floating city, a flotilla of 260 mostly Chinese fishing vessels near the Galapagos archipelago that is stirring diplomatic tension and raising worries about the threat to sharks, manta rays and other vulnerable species in waters around the UNESCO world heritage site. The Chinese fleet is "very close" to the edge of the exclusive economic zone around the Galapagos, which extends 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from the archipelago, said its governor, Norman Wray.
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| Chicago Deputy Police Chief Shoots Himself, Latest in Long History of Suicides at the Department Posted: 29 Jul 2020 09:31 AM PDT  The Chicago Police Department's new deputy chief of criminal networks was found dead on Tuesday from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, the latest in a history of suicides at the department.Dion Boyd, 57, was sworn into his new post on July 15 after 30-years on the force. Superintendent David Brown urged officers to keep an eye out for colleagues who could be in distress."Let's always remember to take care of ourselves and each other," Brown said at a press conference.The national suicide rate among police officers is about 18 per 100,000 as of 2017, however the rate in Chicago is 60 percent higher."One of the shocking statistics for me was that cops kill themselves at a higher rate than bad guys kill the police. And when you put it in those numbers, you realize that there's a real problem," Phil Cline, executive director of the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation, told WBBM radio. "And it's not something the just sprung up in the last year or so. It's been a problem for a while."Boyd's body was found at the department's Homan Square facility, a secretive site that houses the anti-gang and bomb and arson squads. Various abuses allegedly occurred at the site, including reports of excessive force used in interrogations uncovered by The Guardian in 2016.Chicago police are currently attempting to clamp down on shootings that have plagued the city since Memorial Day weekend.While shootings typically rise in the city throughout the summer months, this year has seen a particularly sharp uptick. Chicago has recorded about 2,000 shooting victims so far this year, compared to roughly 1,400 over the same period in 2019.The seasonal rise seems to have been exacerbated by the impact of coronavirus lockdowns on inner city neighborhoods, as well as anti-police sentiment stemming from the George Floyd protests roiling the U.S.
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| Spoiler alert? Kamala Harris outed as Biden's VP pick -- maybe Posted: 29 Jul 2020 02:07 PM PDT  Joe Biden's vice presidential pick has been one of Washington's best kept secrets but a supposedly accidental news publication and Biden's own teasingly displayed notes are raising expectations that the winner is Kamala Harris. Speculation over the choice of VP is a parlor game played every four years in Washington, but this time the stakes are unusually high. Biden would be 78 on taking office -- the oldest US president ever -- and he has hinted that he might not seek a second term, making his deputy the prime candidate to take on the party's nomination.
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| U.S. coronavirus deaths rise by nearly 1,300 for first time since May Posted: 28 Jul 2020 06:50 PM PDT  California, Florida and Texas, the three most-populous states, reported one-day record spikes in deaths on Tuesday, together accounting for 584 of the 1,292 new deaths. Tuesday's surge in deaths comes on top of U.S. deaths rising on a weekly basis for three weeks in a row. A spike in infections in Arizona, California, Florida and Texas this month has overwhelmed hospitals.
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| Chicago police chief dies in apparent suicide after promotion Posted: 29 Jul 2020 07:45 AM PDT  A 30-year veteran of the Chicago police force is found dead two weeks after being promoted; Matt Finn reports from Chicago as the city marks another deadly night of violence.
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| Was Belarus’ Arrest of Russian Wagner Soldiers Staged in a Ploy to Postpone Elections? Posted: 30 Jul 2020 04:04 AM PDT  MOSCOW—The videos were certainly not what Russians have come to expect from their country's secret warriors abroad: powerful men in unmarked uniforms imposing Russian influence on Syria, Ukraine, and Africa. These men were caught on camera by Belarusian security officers totally unprepared. Some were naked except for underwear, with documents, propaganda leaflets, and condoms strewn around their hotel rooms. Others wore vaguely marked uniforms. All 33 of them were military-age Russians hunkered down just outside Minsk a few days before Belarus' presidential elections.Belarusian state news agencies reported the soldiers served as Russian security contractors with Wagner, a Russian private military group close to the government. They were in the country for "destabilization" purposes before the elections, Belarusian officials said. Moscow denied any military involvement in Belarus, and some believe the mercenaries were simply using the country as a staging post on their way to or from their latest assignment. By arresting the Wagner soldiers, Belarus' embattled president Alexander Lukashenko is likely to be making many enemies in Russia. The Belarusian Security Council accused the arrested Wagner soldiers of preparing "a terrorist attack," the Russian Interfax news agency reported Thursday. The arrest and subsequent broadcast of the footage, which was aired by a Belarusian state channel, Agency of Television News, was all the more confusing as Belarus and Russia have been allies in an arrangement called the Union State for decades. Some of the men were shown in their underwear with hands twisted behind their backs. They had tattoos on their arms, and one uniform patch read: "Our business is death and the business is good." The state media report said there were more than 200 such soldiers plotting to upset the presidential elections next month. The Russian private security contractor, Wagner, has reportedly been sending combatants to eastern Ukraine, Syria, and African countries, including Libya, on deadly secret missions that give the Kremlin plausible deniability. When the Belarusian state media published the names of the 33 arrested soldiers, 17 of them matched up to a Ukrainian list of "war criminals" who fought on the Russian-backed side in the Ukraine war. Belarusian weekly newspaper Nasha Niva reported that one of the mercenaries, Andrey Bakunovich, was a commander of Wagner's group of snipers. The Belarus-1 channel quoted a source in the Belarusian intelligence agency, still called the KGB, as saying that several of the arrested private soldiers were Russian citizens who tried to avoid punishment by demonstrating their paperwork confirming they were serving in various Russian military forces. A well-known Russian nationalist novelist, Zakhar Prilepin, who fought in Ukraine, also said he recognized several of the arrested soldiers. "Hundreds of these people work in the private military forces and take part in various conflicts," Prilepin told a nationalist website, Russian Spring. The soldiers were merely using Belarus for transit on the way to foreign missions, he said. "It is going to be weird if now the Union State will start some political hysterics because of this story."But later on Wednesday, Russia's Federal Security Service, Russia's successor to the KGB, seemed to accuse Prilepin of talking too much. "I am surprised that some of our idiots confirmed that the arrested men are soldiers of our private military forces," a retired FSB general-major, Alexander Mikhailov, told reporters.The private forces known as Wagner are financed by Russian President Vladimir Putin's close friend Yevgeny Prigozhin, who owns catering companies and is known as "Putin's chef." "Whenever Putin needs to solve an issue abroad, his personal chef and close ally Prigozhin sends his soldiers," Sergey Parkhomenko, a political commentator, told The Daily Beast. "Prigozhin's corporation feeds the Kremlin and fights its wars." Longtime Belarus watchers, familiar with the almost three-decades-long rule of Lukashenko, suggested the arrests were a well-staged "performance" by Lukashenko, to perhaps win support from domestic opponents to Russia before the election on Aug. 9. For nearly 30 years, Lukashenko claimed up to 80 percent of public support, but his popularity has recently faded, along with his loyalty to the Kremlin, to Moscow's frustration.The macho leader, who is known for mocking women—and, recently, those who succumb to coronavirus—as weaklings, is now challenged by three liberal, pro-Western women in the election. For weeks, thousands of people have been protesting in Belarus, demanding to end Lukashenko's dictatorship; his approval rating has melted down to 24 percent, according to some polls. Lukashenko may be losing favor in the Kremlin, but in Putin's eyes, there is no doubt he is a better prospect than any of the liberal pro-Western female candidates.Lukashenko's longtime rival, ex-presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov, is convinced that Lukashenko and Putin had both been aware of the plans to arrest the Wagner mercenaries ahead of time. "Putin gives Lukashenko the license to stay in power and helps him with this Wagner scandal, to pretend the threat is too serious to continue the election race," Sannikov told The Daily Beast. "Putin is making a mistake, Lukashenko is a nutcase."At the meeting with the head of Belarusian KGB, Lukashenko commented on the arrests of Russian soldiers: "I'm looking at the reaction of the Russians. They are already making excuses, saying that we brought them here ourselves. Clearly, they try to, somehow, to justify their dirty intentions."Whether he was in on the plan to bring the soldiers to Belarus or not, Lukashenko is certainly trying to capitalize on the apparent Russian meddling. He could even try to postpone the election or cancel it altogether. "You and I should be worried about destabilization of the situation in our country most of all," he said after the arrests. "The issue of the presidential election is secondary."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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| Buddy, the first dog to test positive for COVID-19 in the US, has died Posted: 30 Jul 2020 11:30 AM PDT  Buddy first showed symptoms in mid-April, right before his 7th birthday. He was struggling to breathe, lost weight and became increasingly lethargic.
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| Protester arrested while opposing removal of Confederate statue in Georgia Posted: 29 Jul 2020 10:04 AM PDT  A protester was arrested and charged with obstruction for refusing to leave as a Confederate statue was removed a public square in the city of McDonagh, Georgia.The monument was taken down overnight on Wednesday by workers who used a crane to winch it from its pedestal in McDonagh Square.
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| Israel says it arrested Hamas militant who fled strip by sea Posted: 30 Jul 2020 07:44 AM PDT |
| Trump attended a fundraiser in Texas without a mask on the day the US hit 150,000 coronavirus deaths Posted: 29 Jul 2020 08:52 PM PDT  Trump was expected to attend the fundraiser with GOP Rep. Louie Gohmert, but the congressman tested positive for the coronavirus.
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| Iran says fires missiles from underground in Gulf war games Posted: 29 Jul 2020 08:19 AM PDT  Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they launched ballistic missiles from "the depths of the Earth" on Wednesday during the last day of military exercises near sensitive Gulf waters. The launches came a day after the Guards struck a mock-up of a US aircraft carrier with volleys of missiles near the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane for a fifth of world oil output. The Iranian manoeuvres were staged amid heightened tensions between Iran and its decades-old arch enemy the United States.
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| Police agencies are withdrawing from security at Democratic Convention after a ban was imposed on pepper spray and tear gas Posted: 29 Jul 2020 03:33 PM PDT  Over 100 police agencies dropped out as security for the Democratic National Convention set to take place in Milwaukee next month, WTMJ-TV reported.
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| Obama Attacks Trump Admin’s Protest Crackdown, Voter Suppression in John Lewis Eulogy Posted: 30 Jul 2020 11:58 AM PDT  The late congressman John Lewis famously encouraged Americans to stir up "good trouble," and former President Barack Obama did just that in his eulogy for the late civil rights pioneer on Thursday. Obama earned multiple standing ovations during a speech littered with political barbs aimed at the Trump administration's crackdown on Black Lives Matter protesters and stymied efforts to address voter suppression.Recounting Lewis' relentless activism, Obama said the country "hasn't yet reached that blessed destination where we are judged by the content of our character."'I Never Became Bitter or Hostile': How John Lewis Fought Until the End"Bull Connor may be gone but today we witness with our own eyes police officers kneeling on the necks of Black Americans," he said. "George Wallace may be gone, but we can witness our federal government sending agents to use tear gas and batons against peaceful demonstrators."Obama said Lewis "spilled blood" for the Voting Rights Act, which was now under threat. He called for filibusters—"another Jim Crow relic"—to be scrapped so voting rights legislation can be passed. He called for Election Day to be a national holiday, for former inmates to be given voting rights, and for partisan gerrymandering to be done away with."Even as we sit here, there are those in power who are doing their darnedest to discourage people from voting by closing polling locations and targeting minorities and students with restrictive ID laws, and attacking our voting rights with surgical precision, even undermining the postal service in the run up to an election that's going to be dependent on mail-in ballots so people don't get sick," he said.Speaking directly to the elected representatives in Ebenezer Baptist Church, Obama continued, "You want to honor John? Let's honor John by revitalizing the law that he was willing to die for."Perhaps foreseeing criticism that he made the eulogy political, Obama said, "I know this is a celebration of John's life, there are some who might say we shouldn't dwell on such things but... John Lewis devoted his time on this earth fighting the very attacks on democracy... that we're seeing circulate right now."In response to Obama's call for the end of the filibuster, Andrew Bates, director of rapid response for Joe Biden's presidential campaign, told The Daily Beast, "Congressional Republicans should turn their praise of Rep. Lewis into action and pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act today by voice vote. No filibuster, no delay."Lewis died on July 17, aged 80, from cancer. Declared a living saint by Time magazine, he spent his life campaigning for racial equality and voting rights after being savagely beaten in a civil rights protest while crossing the Edmund Pettus bridge at Selma, Alabama, on a march to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965. Every living president except Donald Trump played a role in Thursday's memorial, one of several events honoring Lewis' life. George W. Bush and Bill Clinton gave a speech while Jimmy Carter sent a letter that was read aloud.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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| Man fires 'warning shots' in Miami hotel lobby after telling guests 'you all aren't social distancing' Posted: 30 Jul 2020 11:20 AM PDT  A man was arrested in Florida after firing "four warning shots" and telling a mother and her son that they weren't social distancing in a hotel lobby.
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| 'Last Supper' artwork of feasting Netanyahu irks Israeli leader Posted: 29 Jul 2020 06:40 AM PDT  A statue in a Tel Aviv square of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu enjoying a "Last Supper" feast added new bite on Wednesday to mounting protests against his handling of the coronavirus crisis. Netanyahu, whose popularity has plunged in opinion polls amid 21.5% unemployment, said his depiction in a mock tableau of Jesus's final meal before his crucifixion, was tantamount to a death threat. In the installation, Netanyahu sits alone at a grand 10-metre (33 ft) long table, with two candelabras, grabbing at a huge cake resembling an Israeli flag.
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| Minnesota police make arrest in 34-year cold case using DNA, genetic testing Posted: 30 Jul 2020 01:29 PM PDT  "My mom loved to help people," her daughter Gina Haggard wrote in a statement read by police.
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| Chinese long-range bombers join drills over South China Sea Posted: 30 Jul 2020 04:27 AM PDT  China said Thursday that long-range bombers were among the aircraft that took part in recent aerial drills over the South China Sea amid rising tensions between Washington and Beijing over the strategic waterway. The exercises included nighttime takeoffs and landings and simulated long-range attacks, Defense Ministry spokesperson Ren Guoqiang said. Ren's statement appeared to distance the drills from recent accusations exchanged between the sides over China's claim to virtually all of the South China Sea, which it has buttressed in recent years by building man-made islands equipped with runways.
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| Republican says he will take Trump-promoted Covid-19 treatment after implying he contracted coronavirus by wearing a mask Posted: 30 Jul 2020 12:17 PM PDT  A Texas Republican who tested positive for Covid-19 wrongly suggested he may have contracted the novel coronavirus by wearing a face mask — and said he would be taking an unproven treatment touted by Donald Trump.Louie Gohmert (R—Tx) tested positive on Wednesday during a White House procedural screening just before he was set to fly with the president to Texas on Air Force One.
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| The astronauts who flew SpaceX's Crew Dragon to the space station are set to come home on Sunday. Watch their fiery return flight live. Posted: 30 Jul 2020 02:45 PM PDT  On Saturday and Sunday, SpaceX's Crew Dragon spaceship will make its return trip to Earth. Here's how to watch that journey live.
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| Detained Portland protesters have to promise to stop going to rallies if they want to get out of jail, reports say Posted: 30 Jul 2020 04:50 AM PDT  "Defendant may not attend any other protests, rallies, assemblies or public gathering in the state of Oregon," said one order, per ProPublica.
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| Kayleigh McEnany Struggles to Defend Trump’s Demon Sperm Doctor Retweets Posted: 29 Jul 2020 08:46 AM PDT  Kayleigh McEnany had a difficult job even before her boss started retweeting conspiracy theories from a fringe doctor who blames demon sperm and alien DNA for America's health problems. CBS This Morning co-host Anthony Mason wasted no time getting to that particular story when he invited the White House press secretary on his show Wednesday morning. "Why is the president pushing hydroxychloroquine again when his own health experts say it's not effective in treating the virus?" he asked. McEnany began by explaining that, despite science to the contrary, Trump has a "positive outlook" on the drug's potential as a "prophylaxis in the early stages." The president famously told the press he was taking hydroxychloroquine two months into the pandemic because he had "heard a lot of good stories" about it. "He wants to save lives, that is his goal here," she added. "That is why he's promoting this drug as a prophylaxis but only in consultation with your doctor." Kayleigh McEnany Urges Fox News Viewers to 'Follow Trump's Lead' on MasksAfter pointing out that Dr. Anthony Fauci has contradicted the president's "positive outlook" on the drug by citing medical evidence, Mason zeroed in on the video that Trump retweeted of Dr. Stella Immanuel in which she not only promoted hydroxychloroquine as a miracle "cure" for COVID-19 but also declared that people "do not need to wear masks" and that shutdowns are "unnecessary." "This just comes a week after the president said masks are 'patriotic,'" the host continued. "There's a shift in tone here and what appear to be very mixed messages. Why?" McEnany's defense? "That was a three-second remark in a more than five-minute video," she said, arguing that Trump was simply using Dr. Immanuel's video to push the unproven drug he likes. When she started praising Trump for finally wearing a mask in public months into the crisis, Mason pushed back. "But there's a message in there that says it's not necessary and it comes from the president who has 80 million followers!" he replied. "Did he not look at the whole video?" "The president did look at the whole video," McEnany said, perhaps not helping her case. "And the overarching message of the video, more than five minutes from this doctor, was talking about hydroxychloroquine." Trump himself seemed to predict this controversy during an interview last week when he said, "You know what I find? It's not the tweets, it's the retweets that get you in trouble." The president then admitted that when he "sees something that looks good" on Twitter, he doesn't always "investigate" it before hitting the retweet button. Trevor Noah Unloads on Trump for Trusting 'Dr. Demon Sperm'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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| Barbie shuts down Donald Trump Jr.'s snide tweet about new campaign dolls Posted: 30 Jul 2020 07:57 AM PDT  Donald Trump Jr. has a theory about the new Barbie doll collection, featuring a Black female presidential candidate and her all-woman campaign team.
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| Japanese court recognises ‘black rain’ victims of Hiroshima atomic bomb Posted: 30 Jul 2020 08:30 AM PDT  Nearly 75 years after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a Japanese court has ordered that 84 people who were exposed to radioactive "black rain" be made eligible for the same medical benefits as other survivors of the attack. The plaintiffs, the youngest of whom is in their late 70s, were exposed to radioactive rain immediately after the "Little Boy" uranium bomb exploded above the city on August 6, 1945, but were excluded from financial support for medical treatment because they were just outside the zone set by the government in 1976 for victims of the attack. For a few hours after the attack, rain that fell in the city and surrounding areas was black due to debris from the 15 kiloton blast and contaminated with fallout. The plaintiffs argued in court that they developed a range of illnesses, including different types of cancer and cataracts, as a result of their exposure to radiation and from food and water that had been contaminated. Ten of the people who originally filed the suit in 2015 died before Wednesday's ruling.
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| Killer of Rafiki, Uganda's rare silverback mountain gorilla, jailed Posted: 30 Jul 2020 03:27 AM PDT  The Ugandan hunter said that he had killed the animal in self defence when he was attacked.
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| Police chief explains decision to back out of Democrat convention security Posted: 30 Jul 2020 04:42 AM PDT  West Allis Police Department Chief Patrick Mitchell joins 'Fox & Friends' after backing out of a DNC security agreement over a ban on law enforcement's use of chemical irritants during protests.
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| Ex-police officer in George Floyd death asks for charges to be dropped Posted: 30 Jul 2020 05:24 AM PDT  A police officer charged in connection with the death of George Floyd has applied to have his charges dropped, court documents show.Lawyers for Tou Thao, 34, have put forward a motion stating that the former Minneapolis police officer could not have known that Derek Chauvin, who knelt on Floyd's neck for almost nine minutes, was about to commit a crime.
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| Trump floats election delay, lawmakers in both parties reject idea Posted: 30 Jul 2020 06:09 AM PDT  President Donald Trump on Thursday raised the idea of delaying the Nov. 3 U.S. elections, an idea immediately rejected by both Democrats and his fellow Republicans in Congress - the sole branch of government with the authority to make such a change. Critics and even Trump's allies dismissed the notion as an unserious attempt to distract from devastating economic news, but some legal experts warned that his repeated attacks could undermine his supporters' faith in the election process. Trump's statement on Twitter comes as the United States is enduring a multi-pronged, once-in-a-generation crisis: a coronavirus pandemic that has claimed more than 150,000 lives, a crippling recession sparked by the outbreak, and nationwide protests against police violence and racism.
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| Three decades on, Iraq and Kuwait haunted by Saddam's invasion Posted: 29 Jul 2020 09:37 PM PDT  Thirty years have passed since Iraqi tyrant Saddam Hussein invaded neighbouring Kuwait, but despite hints of a diplomatic rapprochement, people in both countries say the wounds have yet to heal. On August 2, 1990, Saddam sent his military, already exhausted by an eight-year conflict with Iran, into Kuwait to seize what he dubbed "Iraq's 19th province." From Baghdad to Basra, Kirkuk to Babylon, Iraqis agree that the incursion "marked the beginning of the end."
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| Congress awards its highest honor to USS Indianapolis crew Posted: 30 Jul 2020 12:00 PM PDT  Congress has awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, its highest honor, to surviving crew members of the USS Indianapolis, the ship that delivered key components of the first nuclear bomb and was later sunk by Japan during World War II. Retired Navy Capt. William Toti, who led a nuclear submarine named in honor of the Indianapolis, said the Gold Medal honors the crew's accomplishments — not the fact that the ship was sunk.
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