| Detroit lawyers say fraud allegations based on 'extraordinary failure to understand how elections function' Posted: 11 Nov 2020 04:18 PM PST  The city of Detroit has rejected claims of cheating brought by Trump supporters, stating in a court filing that the allegations made by a handful of election observers and one election worker were based on a lack of understanding the processes they were watching.
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| Louisiana doctor accused of attacking college student and calling her the n-word Posted: 12 Nov 2020 03:19 PM PST  Doctor was released on $10,000 bond
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| Cracker Barrel apologized and removed a noose-like decoration hanging from the ceiling after a customer called the chain out Posted: 12 Nov 2020 10:52 AM PST  The restaurant chain has said the decoration was "an antique soldering iron with an original wrapped cord." The decoration has since been taken down.
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| Biden's White House chief of staff pick calls new role 'the honor of a lifetime' Posted: 11 Nov 2020 05:32 PM PST  President-elect Joe Biden announced Wednesday night that he has chosen Ron Klain as his White House chief of staff, saying Klain has been "invaluable to me over the many years that we have worked together," including during the 2009 economic downturn and 2014 Ebola outbreak.After graduating from Harvard Law, Klain joined Biden's Senate team in 1989. Klain has spent the last several decades active in Democratic politics, and he was "Ebola czar" for former President Barack Obama during his second term.In a statement, Biden said Klain's "deep, varied experience and capacity to work with people all across the political spectrum is precisely what I need in a White House chief of staff as we confront this moment of crisis and bring our country together again."Klain called it an "honor of a lifetime to serve President-elect Biden in this role, and I am humbled by his confidence." On Twitter, he thanked people for their "kind wishes" and said he "will give my all to lead a talented and diverse team in a Biden-Harris" White House.More stories from theweek.com 7 scathingly funny cartoons about Trump's refusal to concede Trump is reportedly 'very aware' he lost the election but is putting up a fight as 'theater' Trump's willing accomplices
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| Pelosi calls on Republicans to 'stop the circus and get to work' on addressing the coronavirus crisis Posted: 12 Nov 2020 08:31 AM PST 
At a press conference on Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi scolded Republicans for "continuing to ignore" the COVID-19 crisis.
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| 'Defying the odds': 51-year-old woman gives birth to her own granddaughter Posted: 12 Nov 2020 12:16 PM PST  Julie Loving, 51, carried her daughter's child through gestational surrogacy. After a Nov. 2 delivery, everyone is doing "fantastic and healthy."
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| Saudi will strike those who threaten its security, crown prince warns Posted: 12 Nov 2020 10:12 AM PST  Saudi Arabia will strike those who threaten the kingdom's security and stability with an "iron fist", the crown prince said on Thursday, one day after an attack on a Remembrance Day ceremony injured two in the kingdom. Islamic State claimed Wednesday's attack on a non-Muslim cemetery in the Saudi Red Sea city of Jeddah during a World War One remembrance ceremony involving French and other embassies. "We will continue to hit with an iron fist against anyone who thinks of threatening our security and stability," Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom's de facto ruler, said in a speech carried by Saudi state news agency SPA.
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| Huge China-backed trade pact to be signed at Southeast Asian summit Posted: 11 Nov 2020 07:39 PM PST  Fifteen Asia-Pacific nations are set to sign an enormous free trade deal at an online summit that started Thursday, with the pact seen as a coup for China in extending its influence across the region.
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| Trump and his followers are on the 'crazy train' with unhinged election conspiracies, Republican congressman says Posted: 12 Nov 2020 01:34 PM PST  President Trump is taking his followers down a path of increasingly unhinged conspiracies about millions of votes being altered by mysterious forces manipulating computer systems and voting machines, said Rep. Denver Riggleman, R-Va.
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| ‘Horrific’: Florida man shoots girlfriend, plus roommate who tried to help, police say Posted: 11 Nov 2020 12:36 PM PST  A woman tried in vain to save her housemate who was killed by her boyfriend in their home Sunday morning in the Central Florida city of Bartow, deputies said.
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| Any hope of keeping Earth habitable now requires sucking carbon back out of the atmosphere, a new study found Posted: 12 Nov 2020 08:00 AM PST  Even if greenhouse-gas emissions stop now, global warming will continue for centuries, a study shows. The solution: removing carbon from the air.
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| Mississippi lawmaker floats break up of union over Biden win Posted: 11 Nov 2020 09:51 PM PST  GOP politician suggested forming 'own country' after president-elect's victory
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| U.S. threatens Beijing with new sanctions over Hong Kong lawmaker suspensions Posted: 12 Nov 2020 05:26 AM PST  "We're quitting the legislature at this juncture, but we're NOT quitting the Hong Kong democracy fight," said opposition lawmaker Claudia Mo.
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| Federal appeals court upholds Harvard University's use of affirmative action policies Posted: 12 Nov 2020 09:25 AM PST  The lawsuit charged that Harvard discriminated against Asian American students in order to boost African American and Hispanic enrollment.
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| Letters to the Editor: Armenians aren't in a 'conflict.' They're fighting for their survival Posted: 12 Nov 2020 03:00 AM PST  Armenians have documented war crimes against them by Azerbaijani forces. The media need to stop portraying this as merely a "conflict."
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| California school board president quits after wife’s racist Kamala Harris comments Posted: 11 Nov 2020 01:59 PM PST  A school board president in the San Francisco Bay Area has resigned after his wife's racist comments about Vice President-elect Kamala Harris raised an outcry. Jon Venverloh announced Sunday that he was stepping down from his position with the Las Lomitas Elementary School District in Menlo Park.
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| Sunken boats. Stolen gear. Fishermen are prey as China conquers a strategic sea Posted: 12 Nov 2020 06:52 AM PST  Beijing's aggressive South China Sea expansion shows its willingness to defy international laws for President Xi Jinping's visions of power.
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| Trump Considers Founding Digital Media Outlet to ‘Wreck’ Fox News: Report Posted: 12 Nov 2020 06:16 AM PST  President Trump is considering founding a digital media company to compete with Fox News, Axios reported on Thursday.Trump has complained vociferously in recent months about Fox polls showing he would lose the presidency, and he was furious after the network projected Joe Biden as the winner of Arizona's electoral votes. Because establishing a cable news alternative to Fox would be expensive and logistically challenging, the president could attempt to found a digital media outlet and try to siphon away Fox subscribers."He plans to wreck Fox. No doubt about it," a source with knowledge of the plans told Axios.The president currently claims that Democrats have "stolen" the election for Joe Biden, and may use rallies to amplify claims of voter fraud. At those rallies, the source said, Trump is "going to spend a lot of time slamming Fox."Trump engaged in a Twitter tirade on Thursday morning that lent credence to the Axios report, retweeting messages in which users renounced their support for Fox over the network's alleged support for Democrats.> The president just went through the replies of a four day old @greggutfeld tweet and retweeted all of these replies slamming Fox News and praising @newsmax and @OANN. pic.twitter.com/Q2O5Z3UKrR> > -- Yashar Ali �� (@yashar) November 12, 2020If it is established, Trump's new media company could be used as one way to retain influence among Republican voters after Biden is inaugurated in January. The Trump campaign confirmed reports that the president is planning to found a leadership PAC, which would allow Trump to funnel donations toward particular political candidates."The president always planned to do this, win or lose, so he can support candidates and issues he cares about, such as combating voter fraud," campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh told the New York Times.Trump has not conceded an election loss to Biden, but is "very aware there is not a path to victory," a top White House aide told NBC reporter Peter Alexander on Thursday. However, the president is continuing to contest the results as a kind of "theater" because he thinks his supporters "deserve a fight," the aide said.
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| LIVE RESULTS: Republicans hold onto Alaska's Senate seat so Democrats' hopes to control the chamber hinge on Georgia runoffs Posted: 11 Nov 2020 06:01 AM PST  Georgia's regular Senate election between David Perdue and Jon Ossoff and a special election between Kelly Loeffler and Raphael Warnock will be in January.
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| Rep. Denver Riggleman: ‘I haven’t made a whole lot of friends in the QAnon community’ Posted: 12 Nov 2020 09:24 AM PST 
Rep. Denver Riggleman, R-Va., joins Yahoo News Senior Political Correspondent Jon Ward to discuss President-elect Joe Biden, QAnon and why some of his fellow Republicans are afraid to publicly denounce baseless conspiracy theories. Riggleman, a former Air Force officer and NSA contractor, tells Yahoo News that there is "no way" he'll stay in the Republican Party if elected officials continue to turn a blind eye to theories he says are based on "anti-Semitic tropes" to appease their base.
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| Mr. Potato Head? Another botched art restoration in Spain gets flak online. Posted: 12 Nov 2020 10:03 AM PST  "Nobody knows who would do such a barbarity," Antonio Capel, the artist who shared the photo, told USA TODAY.
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| Plane crashes into Los Angeles neighbourhood Posted: 12 Nov 2020 02:34 PM PST  The FAA says the plane crash occurred during its final approach to the nearby airport
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| With air bases at risk, Agile Combat Employment must mature Posted: 12 Nov 2020 06:27 AM PST  The U.S. Air Force must evolve from its dependence on well-established airfields, or risk yielding an operational edge.
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| Mexican prosecutors accuse ex-president of directing graft: newspaper Posted: 12 Nov 2020 09:41 AM PST  Ex-Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto ordered aides to bribe lawmakers to enact reforms in the benefit of foreign firms, according to a document from the attorney general's office published Thursday by daily newspaper Reforma. The document, a request for an arrest warrant for an especially powerful former minister in Pena Nieto's 2012-2018 administration, describes the former president as running "a state within a state" that employed "its own system of criminal power" centered on distributing bribes from scandal-plagued Brazilian builder Odebrecht. The arrest warrant request for Luis Videgaray describes more than 121 million pesos ($6 million) in bribe payments allegedly distributed to key members of Congress to ensure passage of a sweeping energy opening to private companies, according to the newspaper.
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| Trump is reportedly 'very aware' he lost the election but is putting up a fight as 'theater' Posted: 12 Nov 2020 06:30 AM PST  President Trump is reportedly challenging the 2020 election results primarily just as "theater," as he puts on a "performance" for his supporters despite knowing he will not begin a second term in January.Trump has still yet to concede the election to President-elect Joe Biden, and by Thursday morning, he was continuing to fire off baseless allegations of widespread voter fraud. But NBC News' Peter Alexander reports, citing a White House aide, that Trump is "very aware there is not a path to victory" for him and is putting up legal challenges as a kind of "theater" for his supporters, believing that they "deserve a fight." > Trump is "very aware there is not a path to victory," but he believes the 72 million who voted for him "deserve a fight" so he's battling as a form of "theater" for them, a top White House aide tells me.> > — Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) November 12, 2020Similarly, The Washington Post reports that Trump's team, which is mounting legal challenges in battleground states, has "no grand strategy to reverse the election results," and The Associated Press writes that Trump has a "greater understanding of his predicament" than you might think but thinks he "needs to keep fighting almost as performance."Looking beyond the legal challenges that Trump evidently understands are doomed, he's reportedly interested in launching a digital media company to rival Fox News, and according to Reuters, he has told allies "he planned to run for president in 2024 and could announce it by the end of the year." The Post is reporting the same, writing, "Rather than talking about a second term, Trump has been matter-of-factly discussing a possible 2024 campaign — an indication that he knows his time as president is coming to an end, at least for now." More stories from theweek.com 7 scathingly funny cartoons about Trump's refusal to concede Trump's willing accomplices With coronavirus cases surging, nurses in North Dakota demand a statewide mask mandate
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| French-Irish teen's mother criticises Malaysian police at inquest Posted: 11 Nov 2020 01:35 AM PST  The mother of a teenager whose body was found in the Malaysian jungle told an inquest Wednesday the police response to her disappearance while on holiday had been slow and ineffective.
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| John McCain's widow says it's time for Trump to 'accept the results and get on with the healing' Posted: 12 Nov 2020 02:06 PM PST  Cindy McCain described Joe Biden as "a man of honor" who would "heal the wounds caused by the outgoing administration."
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| Nurse Charged With Murdering 8 Babies and Trying to Kill 10 More Posted: 12 Nov 2020 07:11 AM PST  A British nurse has been charged with murdering eight babies, as well as the attempted murders of 10 others, after a years-long investigation into an unexplained spike in baby deaths at a hospital's neonatal unit.It's the third time that Lucy Letby, 30, has been arrested. She was previously detained in 2018 and 2019 as authorities probed the string of infant fatalities at the Countess of Chester Hospital in England. Both times, the nurse was released with no further action against her, but she appeared in court Thursday to finally face 18 formal charges.In the courtroom, the nurse learned that she faces eight charges of "murder of a victim under 1 year old," and each infant victim's name was read aloud to her. According to BBC News, five baby boys and three girls died. They were named Cemlyn Bennett, Joseph Johnson, Barney Gee, Joseph Gelder, Eli Gelder, Elsie McNall, Daisy Parkin, and Maddie Freed.Letby did not speak in court other than to confirm her identity, and her representatives have not said whether or not she plans to plead guilty. The media has been ordered not to report the names of the alleged victims of attempted murder, but there are reportedly five boys and five girls.The charges all relate to a string of baby deaths, and non-fatal collapses, at the Countess of Chester Hospital near Liverpool in 2015 and 2016. According to a National Health Service report into the incidents, the hospital launched a probe after resident doctors became concerned about what was described as a "higher-than-usual number of neonatal deaths on the unit, several of them being apparently 'unexplained' and 'unexpected.'"The police became involved a year later. This week, the inquiry's leader, Detective Chief Inspector Paul Hughes, said that Letby's third arrest came after more than three years of investigative work by his team.Susan Gilby, chief executive of the hospital where Letby is accused of committing the crimes, said in a statement that the major development was of "serious concern" and added that the trust that runs the hospital will be "fully supportive and respectful of the judicial processes."Neil Fern, who is representing some of the families in the legal case, told The Guardian, "The families are overwhelmed with the news and there is a mix of emotion. All the families now have hope that they can finally start to learn the truth of what happened in the first days of their children's lives. We have been working with the families for many years on these cases, and they have had to live with the consequences for all that time."Letby is expected to make another court appearance on Friday.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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| 60 years after JFK, Biden as second Catholic president offers a refresh in church's political role Posted: 12 Nov 2020 05:27 AM PST  Running to become the first Catholic president of the United States in 1960, Sen. John F. Kennedy told an audience of wary Protestant ministers that "if the time should come … when my office would require me to violate my conscience or violate the national interest, then I would resign the office."Sixty years later, Joe Biden has become the second Roman Catholic to win the White House, and some prominent Catholics and bishops now appear to believe that the only way a Catholic should hold office is by putting conscience before what the law says about culture war issues like abortion. Five decades of abortion politics have taken a toll.The Roman Catholic Church is more diverse and more divided than it was 60 years ago. American Catholics have just been through an election season that brought accusations of "Catholic in name only" against Catholic Democrats like Biden and a bitter debate about the best way for a "good Catholic" to vote.Having observed and written about Catholics and American politics for 30 years, I believe this moment provides an opportunity to promote the diversity of Catholic social teaching rather than seeing it through the preeminent, singular lens of abortion. In Joe Biden, Americans have a president who seemingly views policy through his Catholic faith, but in a less divisive way. American Catholics have a chance to follow this example into a new engagement with American politics. 'Be not afraid'For five decades, conservative Catholics and Republican leaders in the U.S. have tried to win over Catholic voters to an agenda that serves the interests of the GOP, especially on abortion.Despite these overtures in our national politics, that agenda never really has found any success at the federal level. Roe v. Wade is the law today as much as it was in 1973.The Catholic Church today is very different from the one to which JFK belonged. The church is more diverse, but it is also shrinking rapidly. And, increasingly, the Catholic Church is a body at war with itself. Biden is a different sort of Catholic for this moment.Biden has worn his Catholicism on his sleeve throughout his career – but especially during this campaign. In September, he quoted Pope John Paul II when he when he called on Americans to "be not afraid." And quoting from a familiar Catholic hymn in his first address as president-elect, Biden has sent strong signals he sees his faith as a way to heal, and to lead. From FDR to Pope FrancisA week before Election Day, Biden went to Warm Springs, Georgia, a place best known for its association with Franklin D. Roosevelt, who returned many times to recuperate from illness before dying there in 1945. In that sense, the appearance by Biden signaled an administration that hopes for New Deal-level reform and transformation. Yet Biden's inspiration was not limited to FDR. He quoted at length in Warm Springs from the most recent papal encyclical, "Fratelli Tutti."An encyclical letter is an authoritative way that popes teach Catholic doctrine, and Pope Francis released a new encyclical in October. In part, "Fratelli Tutti" said, "Politics is something more noble than posturing, marketing and media spin." Overall, the passages Biden chose to quote suggest that he may be thinking about how his own Catholic faith should guide his approach to leading a nation made up of Catholics and even more non-Catholics."For those who seek to lead," Biden said, quoting Pope Francis, "we do well to ask ourselves, why am I doing this? What is my real aim?"The message of "Fratelli Tutti" can be summed up in the phrase "we are all in the same boat." Beyond abortionThe social teachings of the Catholic Church offer a place to begin crafting a policy agenda that could enjoy broad support among Democrats while also enlarging Catholic political engagement in a way that goes beyond the abortion question.For example, in "Fratelli Tutti" Pope Francis described how Catholics believe in a just distribution of wealth. He quotes John Paul II, who said, "God gave the Earth to the whole human race for the sustenance of all its members, without excluding or favoring anyone." "Fratelli Tutti" called for "defense of the environment," attention to unemployment and the creation of jobs that help people "earn a living by their own efforts and creativity." Pope Francis said he hopes society can learn from the pandemic and reverse the "dismantling" of health care systems.Meanwhile, the Catholic Church condemns racism in the same terms as it condemns abortion – it is an intrinsic evil. Pope Francis does not name police violence in "Fratelli Tutti," but he speaks passionately for racial justice, and he calls for "solidarity" against "new forms of violence threatening the fabric of society."Hundreds of thousands of young people demonstrated in American streets during this past summer. Whether Catholic or not, they share these values with Pope Francis and Joe Biden. False dilemmaThat agreement holds potential for a new sort of moment in the Democratic Party, in the Catholic Church and in the United States.Besides President-elect Biden, there are other rising leaders in the Democratic Party who are Catholics – such as Julián Castro, Ted Lieu and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Leadership that summons Americans to recognize "we are all in the same boat" could heal divisions by bringing voices together over an agenda Catholics and non-Catholics can embrace. Catholics have been prominent in American politics for almost a century. Since abortion came to dominate our politics in the 1970s, the choice between Catholic conscience and public service has been framed as a one-way street toward just one destination.There is great diversity within Catholicism. A Biden administration offers a chance to unleash that diversity both as an expression of faith and by embracing all Americans, Catholic or not.Catholic Theological Union is a member of the Association of Theological Schools.The ATS is a funding partner of The Conversation US.[Deep knowledge, daily. Sign up for The Conversation's newsletter.]This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Steven P. Millies, Catholic Theological Union.Read more: * Pope Francis' support for civil unions is a call to justice – and nothing new * Biden wins – experts on what it means for race relations, US foreign policy and the Supreme CourtSteven P. Millies was affiliated with the Biden/Harris campaign as a member of its National Catholic Advisory Council.
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| Here's what the CDC suggests for Thanksgiving amid the pandemic Posted: 12 Nov 2020 09:18 AM PST  Some may hold Thanksgiving meals outdoors – others may foregoing celebrating completely.
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| Disgraced MP who flouted Covid rules 'shows brass neck' with Commons return Posted: 12 Nov 2020 07:03 AM PST  A disgraced MP who broke Covid-19 rules by making a return trip from Glasgow to London with the virus has made her first appearance in the Commons since testing positive. Margaret Ferrier, who has continued to defy calls to stand down from her £82,000-per-year job and is sitting as an independent after being stripped of the SNP whip, asked a question by video link about Hong Kong. Opposition parties said the 60-year-old's appearance was a "gross insult to her constituents" and accused her of "brazenly trying to retain her Westminster privileges at the taxpayers' expense". When she initially refused demands to stand down, including from within the SNP, Nicola Sturgeon suggested the delay may have been due to Ms Ferrier being ill with coronavirus.
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| Russian city to demolish derided 'Robot' building Posted: 12 Nov 2020 07:48 AM PST  A hulking, never-occupied building sardonically likened to a robot's head that has loomed over the Russian city of Kaliningrad for decades is to be demolished next year, the region's governor says. The building, which later was assessed to be structurally unsound, and became one of the city's most widely known emblems, particularly when the fan zone for the 2018 World Cup matches in Kaliningrad was set up in a vast square next to it. The Brutalist building's protruding covered balconies resembling two eyes and a mouth led to it being nicknamed "The Buried Robot."
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| Hundreds of disillusioned doctors leave Lebanon, in blow to healthcare Posted: 12 Nov 2020 01:06 AM PST  Fouad Boulos returned to Beirut in 2007 from the United States having trained there in pathology and laboratory medicine. Fourteen years later he is leaving his homeland with his wife and five children and returning to the United States to try his luck starting from scratch. In the past year, Lebanon has been through a popular uprising against its political leaders, the bankruptcy of the state and banking system, a COVID-19 pandemic and, in August, a huge explosion at the port that destroyed swathes of Beirut.
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| Texas tops 1 million COVID-19 cases as surge continues Posted: 12 Nov 2020 10:07 AM PST  Texas on Wednesday became the first state with more than 1 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, and California closed in on that mark as a surge of coronavirus infections engulfs the country.
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| Barack Obama: 'Americans spooked by black man in White House' led to Trump presidency Posted: 12 Nov 2020 08:28 AM PST  Former president writes in memoir, A Promised Land, 'my very presence in the White House triggered a deep-seated panic' * Biden advised against Bin Laden raid, Barack Obama writesDonald Trump "promised an elixir for the racial anxiety" of "millions of Americans spooked by a black man in the White House", Barack Obama writes in his eagerly awaited memoir.Those Americans, Obama writes, were prey to "the dark spirits that had long been lurking on the edges of the modern Republican party – xenophobia, anti-intellectualism, paranoid conspiracy theories, an antipathy toward black and brown folks".In A Promised Land, which comes out on Tuesday, Obama continues: "It was as if my very presence in the White House had triggered a deep-seated panic, a sense that the natural order had been disrupted. Which is exactly what Donald Trump understood when he started peddling assertions that I had not been born in the United States and was thus an illegitimate president."Penguin Random House reportedly paid the former president and his wife, Michelle Obama, $65m for books about their time in the White House. The former first lady's memoir, Becoming, came out in 2018 to widespread acclaim.Excerpts of Obama's book have run in the press – the remarks above were reported by CNN – and the former president is due to speak to CBS in two interviews on Sunday. The New York Times has also run a lengthy review. The 768-page volume is the first of two, covering Obama's rise to the US Senate and then the White House as the 44th president, from 2009 to 2017. It has been a struggle to write."I figured I could do all that in maybe 500 pages," Obama wrote in an excerpt published by the Atlantic on Thursday. "I expected to be done in a year. It's fair to say that the writing process didn't go exactly as I'd planned."Obama also says he is "painfully aware that a more gifted writer could have found a way to tell the same story with greater brevity (after all, my home office in the White House sat right next to the Lincoln Bedroom, where a signed copy of the 272-word Gettysburg Address rests inside a glass case)".A Promised Land heads for the shelves as Trump refuses to concede a clear electoral defeat by Joe Biden, Obama's vice-president, deepening dangerous political divides.Obama considers Trump's rise, from reality TV host and political gadfly, champion of the "birther" lie which held that Obama was not born in the US, to outsider candidate, GOP nominee and norm-shattering president.Obama recalls his first presidential election and the storm over his healthcare reform, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), two years later. He echoes many observers in detecting the roots of Trumpism in the surprise rise of Sarah Palin, the Alaska governor who became John McCain's running mate in 2008 and two years later fanned the flames of the Tea Party, the rightwing movement which railed against the ACA."Through Palin," Obama writes, "it seemed as if the dark spirits that had long been lurking on the edges of the modern Republican party – xenophobia, anti intellectualism, paranoid conspiracy theories, an antipathy toward black and brown folks – were finding their way to centre stage."Obama wonders whether McCain would have picked Palin had he suspected that "her spectacular rise and her validation as a candidate would provide a template for future politicians, shifting his party's center and the country's politics overall in a direction he abhorred."I'd like to think that given the chance to do it over again, he might have chosen differently. I believe he really did put his country first. We're better than this."Reviewing Trump's rise to power, Obama considers how Trump seized on a growing inclination among Republicans to dispense with evidence and polite political convention, in the name of simply opposing the first black president."In that sense," Obama writes, "there wasn't much difference between Trump and [House speaker John] Boehner or [Senate majority leader Mitch] McConnell. They, too, understood that it didn't matter whether what they said was true … in fact, the only difference between Trump's style of politics and theirs was Trump's lack of inhibition."As the Biden presidency approaches, Republicans seem likely to hold the Senate. Among Democrats, much hope of legislative progress rests with how the new president will be able to deal with the notoriously hardline Senate leader.Obama writes that he chose Biden as his emissary to McConnell in part because of his own "awareness that in McConnell's mind, negotiations with the vice-president didn't inflame the Republican base in quite the same way that any appearance of co-operation with (black, Muslim socialist) Obama was bound to do".Obama discusses his famous roast of Trump at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner in 2011, on the same night a Navy Seal team was preparing to find and kill Osama bin Laden. He also details two surprising offers of help from Trump – to plug the Deepwater Horizon oil well, in 2010, and to build a pavilion on the White House lawn. Both were turned down.In the Atlantic excerpt, an adaptation of the preface to A Promised Land, the former president comments on the 2020 election, during which he campaigned for Biden."I'm encouraged by the record-setting number of Americans who turned out to vote," he writes, "and have an abiding trust in Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, in their character and capacity to do what is right."But I also know that no single election will settle the matter. Our divisions run deep; our challenges are daunting."But at the end of a year marked by national protests for racial justice, Obama's thoughts and comments about race and his presidency will no doubt earn particular attention. At one point, CNN reported, he writes of watching television with his wife Michelle, and catching "a glimpse of a Tea Party rally"."She seized the remote and turned off the set," Obama writes, "her expression hovering somewhere between rage and resignation. 'It's a trip, isn't it?' she said … 'That they're scared of you. Scared of us.'"
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| Beto O’Rourke says Democrats lost the social media war in election analysis endorsed by AOC Posted: 12 Nov 2020 02:15 PM PST  Former lawmaker lists GOP's 'ferocious' digital campaign and Dems' centralised message as takeaways from election
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| Tropical Storm Eta barrels toward Gulf Coast with heavy rain, wind Posted: 12 Nov 2020 05:27 AM PST  "This is an unpredictable storm in a very unpredictable year," an official said.
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| Police response to Washington, D.C., stabbing another sign law enforcement favors Proud Boys Posted: 12 Nov 2020 01:57 PM PST  The far-right Proud Boys brag they're close with police. Last week, Washington, D.C., police echoed their claim about a stabbing, only to retract it.
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| Elizabeth Warren calls on Biden to cancel billions of dollars in student debt without help from Congress to aid the struggling US economy Posted: 12 Nov 2020 10:59 AM PST  "This is the single most effective executive action available for a massive economic stimulus," Warren wrote in a tweet.
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| Coronavirus: New York imposes measures in 'last chance' against new wave Posted: 12 Nov 2020 02:08 AM PST  US hospital admissions hit record levels as New York City warns it is on the cusp of a second wave.
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| After backlash, Alton Brown apologizes for 'flippant' Holocaust tweets Posted: 11 Nov 2020 02:10 PM PST  His followers were quick to call him out for the insensitivity of the comparison he made.
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| Exclusive: Europe to pay less than U.S. for Pfizer vaccine under initial deal - source Posted: 11 Nov 2020 04:02 AM PST  The European Union has struck a deal to initially pay less for Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine candidate than the United States, an EU official told Reuters as the bloc announced on Wednesday it had secured an agreement for up to 300 million doses. The experimental drug, developed in conjunction with Germany's BioNTech, is the frontrunner in a global race to produce a vaccine, with interim data released on Monday showing it was more than 90% effective at protecting people from COVID-19 in a large-scale clinical trial.. Under the EU deal, 27 European countries could buy 200 million doses, and have an option to purchase another 100 million.
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| Portland City Commissioner Who Campaigned to Defund Police Called 911 on Lyft Driver Posted: 11 Nov 2020 02:29 PM PST  Portland's city commissioner, who campaigned to defund the police, called 911 last week on a Lyft driver who refused to close his window.Jo Ann Hardesty, who serves as Portland's city commissioner and has been a prominent voice advocating for defunding the police department in the wake of calls for police reform, has claimed that most 911 calls don't involve a real emergency, the Oregonian reported.As recently as last week, Hardesty expressed support for slashing the police department budget by another $18 million, a proposal that was voted down by the Portland City Council.The confrontation over the Lyft ride began with confusion between Hardesty and the Lyft driver about the pickup point, about which Hardesty expressed her frustration once she entered the vehicle. Shortly afterwards, she demanded that the driver roll up his windows, two of which were cracked to allow circulation as recommend by Lyft's new safety rules for the coronavirus pandemic. The driver explained this to Hardesty and rolled the windows up slightly, at which she became "ballistic," according to the driver, and ask that the windows be closed completely."So I made a decision, it would be in the best interest for both of us to cancel the ride," the Lyft driver, Richmond Frost, said.He pulled off the highway and attempted to drop Hardesty off at a brightly-lit Chevron off an exit. Hardesty, however, refused to exit his car, arguing that she did not want to be left at a gas station alone as a woman at night and in the cold.The driver threatened to call 911, after which Hardesty called 911 herself. Police informed her that a crime had not been committed. The driver then called 911 himself to file a complaint. He said he was unaware Hardesty was the city commissioner until after the incident."It is totally inappropriate to expect a woman to get out of a vehicle in the dead of night because any angry person demands it," Hardesty wrote in a complaint to Lyft."She was not a pleasant person," the driver said. "That has nothing to do with her political position as a Portland council person. I'm out here doing my job. She was very disrespectful to me, made me uncomfortable. I don't feel like I have to sit in a car for anyone to have to argue unrelentingly and be rude and abusive, telling me what I have to do in my own vehicle."
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| Letters to the Editor: The L.A. Times' disdain for Trump turns off readers and strengthens his support Posted: 11 Nov 2020 03:00 AM PST  Readers who support the president explain why they do not trust media sources like the L.A. Times when it comes to reporting on Trump.
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| GOP using ‘shadow candidates’ in crucial Florida districts, report claims Posted: 12 Nov 2020 11:33 AM PST  Dark money funded campaigns to draw votes away from Democrats running for state Senate
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| Police, county attorney's office hide 738,000 records in Kentucky sex abuse case Posted: 12 Nov 2020 09:24 AM PST  Louisville police and the county attorney's office claimed sexual abuse records were turned over to the FBI. But an email indicates that's not true.
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