| Trump's terrible, no good, very bad stretch on the campaign trail Posted: 09 Jul 2020 05:53 PM PDT  President Trump's reelection bid has had a rough few weeks, with challenges coming from both his stewardship of the presidency and past controversies that may be catching up with him.
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| New Flynn Notes: ‘FBI Leadership’ Decided Not to Provide Russian Call Transcripts to Flynn in Interview Posted: 10 Jul 2020 03:30 PM PDT  Newly released documents in the Michael Flynn case include a January 2017 DOJ draft memo that states "FBI leadership" decided against showing Flynn transcripts of his calls with the Russian ambassador in the White House interview that led to his guilty plea.The DOJ document, dated January 30, 2017, along with a batch of handwritten notes from DOJ and FBI officials describing Flynn's White House interview with former FBI agent Peter Strzok and FBI agent Joseph Pientka on January 24, 2017, shed further light on the FBI's spontaneous interview with Flynn, who had just begun his role as national security adviser for President Trump."FBI advised that based on this interview, they did not believe General Flynn was acting as an age of Russia," the DOJ draft document, which is heavily redacted, states. "FBI also advised that although they recognized the statements were inconsistent with the FISA collection, they believed that Flynn believed what he was telling them. FBI did not confront Flynn with the communications during the interview."The document explains that while the Bureau "prompted Flynn with language used during the call," Flynn was not shown his actual words because of a decision "made by FBI leadership not to confront Flynn with the actual tech cuts."The mentioning of "tech cuts" about the interview's subject matter — Flynn's December 2016 conversations with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak — adds further context to the questions over how Flynn's calls were monitored in the first place. "Tech cuts" are commonly referred to as internal FBI documents that contain and describe FISA intelligence, suggesting that the FBI picked up Flynn's calls through FISA surveillance. DOJ inspector general Michael Horowitz has said his office found no evidence of a FISA application on Flynn, raising the possibility that Flynn's calls with Kislyak were picked up through FISA surveillance of the Russians.In texts between Strzok and then-DOJ lawyer Lisa Page, with whom he was having an affair, Strzok references the cuts that the Bureau had obtained of Flynn's calls, saying that then-FBI Assistant Director Bill Priestap was concerned with "sharing" information on Flynn — dubbed Crossfire Razor, or "CR" for short — with the Obama White House."He, like us, is concerned with over sharing," Strzok texted Page on January 3, 2017, according to a transcript obtained by John Solomon. "Doesn't want Clapper giving CR cuts to WH. All political, just shows our hand and potentially makes enemies."In April, unsealed documents from the Flynn investigation showed that Flynn was investigated in a case predicated by the FBI's "Crossfire Hurricane" probe of the 2016 Trump campaign, but the Bureau moved to close the investigation on January 4, 2017 after an "absence of any derogatory information" about Flynn's Russian contacts. Strzok then intervened to keep the case open, explaining that "7th floor involved" — referencing the floor in Bureau headquarters that houses senior FBI leadership.Transcripts of Flynn's calls with Kislyak were released in May, showing that Flynn never mentioned "sanctions" and asked Russia not to "escalate" after the Obama administration sanctioned the Kremlin for election interference.Flynn released the documents in a Friday court filing after they were handed over to his defense team by the Justice Department this week. Flynn is currently locked in a battle with U.S. District Court judge Emmet Sullivan, who has so far refused to drop Flynn's guilty plea despite the DOJ's move to withdraw its case, citing previously undisclosed exculpatory information."In short, there was no crime for many reasons," Flynn's lawyer Sidney Powell wrote of the new information. "These documents were known to exist at the highest levels of the Justice Department and by Special Counsel, yet they were hidden from the defense for three years."On Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ordered Powell and the DOJ to respond within 10 days to Judge Sullivan's Thursday "en banc" petition for Flynn's case to be heard by the full appeals court. A panel for the D.C. Circuit has already ruled that Sullivan must dismiss the case.
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| Police identify bodies found in suitcases on Seattle beach by teens recording TikTok Posted: 10 Jul 2020 01:26 PM PDT  The bodies were found by a group of teenagers who were led to the beach by the Randonautic app.
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| Seoul mayor's death prompts sympathy, questions of his acts Posted: 09 Jul 2020 08:05 PM PDT  The sudden death of Seoul's mayor, reportedly implicated in a sexual harassment complaint, has prompted an outpouring of public sympathy even as it has raised questions about a man who built his career as a reform-minded politician and self-described feminist. Park Won-soon was found dead on a wooded hill in northern Seoul early Friday, about seven hours after his daughter reported to police he had left her a "will-like" verbal message and then left their home. Authorities launched a massive search for the 64-year-old Park before rescue dogs found his body.
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| Letters to the Editor: Joe Biden is probably picking the 2024 Democratic nominee. Choose wisely Posted: 10 Jul 2020 03:00 AM PDT  Biden's pick for vice president could be the Democratic nominee in four years. That person must be able to win then.
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| Thomas Lane, former Minneapolis police officer who held George Floyd's legs, seeks dismissal of charges Posted: 08 Jul 2020 08:18 PM PDT  An attorney for former Minneapolis officer Thomas Lane said in a court filing that Lane twice asked if George Floyd should be rolled on his side.
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| United and American Airlines are cancelling flights to Hong Kong over a requirement that crew members get tested for COVID-19 on arrival Posted: 09 Jul 2020 09:22 AM PDT  American and United Airlines were both set to resume limited flying to Hong Kong this week, but postponed it due to COVID-19 test requirements.
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| Fox News host Tucker Carlson accused of echoing white supremacist slogan on air Posted: 09 Jul 2020 02:07 PM PDT  Fox News host Tucker Carlson has been accused of echoing a 14-word white supremacist phrase during one of his on-air segments.During a segment on his Monday evening show, Mr Carlson showed side-by-side images of Representative Ilhan Omar and Senator Tammy Duckworth, both of whom are Democrats on Capitol Hill and were born overseas.
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| Bear Opens Front Door, Attacks Homeowner In Aspen Posted: 10 Jul 2020 09:11 AM PDT  A black bear entered an Aspen home through the front door early Friday and severely injured the homeowner, officials with Colorado Parks and Wildlife said.
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| De Blasio: Black Lives Matter Protests Exempt from Large-Event Ban Posted: 10 Jul 2020 04:55 AM PDT  Mayor Bill de Blasio has canceled all large events in New York City through September, but will continue to allow Black Lives Matter protests in the city, he said."This is a historic moment of change. We have to respect that but also say to people the kinds of gatherings we're used to, the parades, the fairs — we just can't have that while we're focusing on health right now," de Blasio said during a CNN appearance Thursday night.While other areas, including Los Angeles, Seattle, and Miami-Dade County, Fla., have said protests in their cities may have contributed to the spread of the virus, New York has denied experiencing any surge in cases after weeks of protests sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody. "Based on our health indicators, which measure hospital admissions, number of people in ICU and percentage of New Yorkers testing positive, we have seen no indication of an uptick in cases," Avery Cohen, de Blasio's deputy press secretary, told Fox News.Coronavirus cases in the city have been declining for weeks after spiking in mid-April. There have been 32,283 deaths in New York, more than any other state. The rule cancels street fairs, outdoor concerts, parades, and other big events, including the West Indian American Day Carnival in Brooklyn Labor Day weekend, the Dominican Day Parade in midtown Manhattan, and the San Gennaro festival in Little Italy.While religious events and press conferences will also be exempt from the ban, the city will deny all permits for street fairs, events stretching larger than one block or requiring a sound system and events in parks it believes will "unreasonably diminish public use.""As New York has begun its reopening process, accessible open spaces are more important than ever," said de Blasio in a statement. "While it pains me to call off some of the city's beloved events, our focus now must be the prioritization of city space for public use and the continuation of social distancing."
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| Lawyer: Over 150 Minneapolis officers seeking disability Posted: 10 Jul 2020 12:11 PM PDT  More than 150 Minneapolis police officers are filing work-related disability claims after the death of George Floyd and ensuing unrest, with about three-quarters citing post-traumatic stress disorder as the reason for their planned departures, according to an attorney representing the officers. While Floyd's death in May and the unrest that followed are not the direct cause of many of the disability requests, attorney Ron Meuser said, those events and what Meuser called a lack of support from city leadership were a breaking point for many who had been struggling with PTSD from years on the job. "Following the George Floyd incident, unfortunately it became too much and as a result they were unable to, and are unable to, continue on and move forward," Meuser said.
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| Outdoor Dinging Decor That's Sure to Bring Joy to Any Table Posted: 10 Jul 2020 05:00 AM PDT |
| Gun violence disproportionately affects minorities. Data shows it's getting worse. Posted: 09 Jul 2020 06:51 AM PDT  Communities of color have endured the weight of COVID-19, the recession and social unrest. They're also bearing the brunt of a surge in gun violence.
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| This aviator just became the US Navy's first Black female fighter pilot Posted: 10 Jul 2020 08:54 AM PDT  "Very proud of LTJG [Madeline] Swegle," a senior Navy official wrote. "Go forth and kick butt."
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| Trump: Doctors Were ‘Very Surprised’ I ‘Aced’ Cognitive Test Posted: 09 Jul 2020 08:20 PM PDT  President Donald Trump boasted on Thursday night about a cognitive test he took during a Walter Reed physical, telling Fox News host Sean Hannity that doctors were "very surprised" that he "aced" it while calling on former Vice President Joe Biden to take the same test.Calling in to close confidant Hannity's primetime program, both the president and the Fox News star began openly questioning Biden's mental fitness and suggesting he is suffering from cognitive decline.After Hannity aired a montage of selectively edited clips to characterize Biden as senile, and Trump described the former vice president as "brainwashed," the conservative host brought up Biden's recent claim that he "can hardly wait" to test his cognitive capability against Trump's."Now he apparently says that he has many cognitive tests," Hannity said. "He's tested all the time, cognitively. Maybe he'll release those records and maybe he'll release his medical records."(For the record, Biden said he's "been tested and I'm constantly tested," and that all anyone has to do is "watch me," suggesting he means that the real world tests him.)Hannity wondered aloud if Biden has been trying to figure out a way to avoid debating the president, a recent right-wing talking point that has gained steam recently, prompting Trump to say "yes" before going on a tangent."But he meant the COVID tests. He didn't mean cognitive. He meant COVID," Trump declared.After Hannity insisted Biden said "cognitive," Trump continued to argue that the ex-veep meant coronavirus tests—Biden has said he hadn't taken a COVID-19 test yet—but that Biden was "confused by the question and the words and everything else but he didn't take a cognitive test because he couldn't pass one."The president went on to say that he took a cognitive test "very recently" in order to prove to those questioning his mental acuity that he was "all there." (It appears Trump is talking about the Montreal Cognitive Assessment he took during his 2018 physical exam, which he passed.)"I proved I was all there because I aced it," Trump bellowed. "I aced the test and he should take the same exact test. A very standard test.""I took it at Walter Reed, a medical center, in front of doctors, and they were very surprised," he continued. "They said, that's an unbelievable thing. Rarely does anybody do what you just did. But he should take that same test."The president would go on to say that Biden "has been totally taken over" and it's "because he doesn't understand what's going on" before once again claiming that Biden "wants to get out of the debates."Last month, the Biden campaign announced that the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee would be participating in the three scheduled presidential debates this fall.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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| Texas carries out its first execution during pandemic after Supreme Court gives go-ahead Posted: 09 Jul 2020 04:52 AM PDT  Texas has executed its first death row inmate since it first confirmed a case of coronavirus after a Supreme Court ruling allowed his execution to go ahead.Billy Joe Wardlow, 45, was sentenced to death in 1993 for a robbery and murder in which he and his girlfriend tried to rob 82-year-old Carl Cole of his truck using a .45-calibre gun. Mr Wardlow fired the gun in a struggle, and Cole was killed; the couple were arrested two days later.
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| The Best Smart Technology for Your Socially Distanced Summer Posted: 10 Jul 2020 10:04 AM PDT |
| WHO advance team heads to China to set up probe into coronavirus origin Posted: 10 Jul 2020 02:58 AM PDT  A two-member advance team of World Health Organization (WHO) experts has left for China to organise an investigation into the origins of the novel coronavirus behind a pandemic that has killed more than 550,000 people globally, the U.N. agency said on Friday. The virus is believed to have emerged in a wholesale market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year after jumping the species barrier from the animal kingdom to infect humans. The two WHO experts, specialists in animal health and epidemiology, will work with Chinese scientists to determine the scope and itinerary of the investigation, WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said, declining to name them.
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| Netherlands takes Russia to European Court of Human Rights over MH17 downing in Ukraine Posted: 10 Jul 2020 07:03 AM PDT  The Dutch government will sue Russia in the European Court of Human Rights for its role in the crash of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17, shot down over eastern Ukraine in 2014. "Achieving justice for 298 victims of the downing of Flight MH17 is and will remain the government's highest priority," Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok said in a statement. "By taking this step today – bringing a case before the ECHR and thus supporting the applications of the next of kin as much as we can – we are moving closer to this goal." Russian officials had no immediate reaction to the announcement. Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was shot down by a missile on July 17, 2014, over rebel-controlled eastern Ukraine, in what came to be one of the most tragic episodes in the bloody separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine. Russia has stubbornly denied any role in supporting the rebels with troops or weapons. The Dutch-led joint investigative team has insisted that it was the Russian military that deployed a Buk missile launcher to eastern Ukraine that shot down the plane, a claim that the Kremlin has denied. The case is separate to the ongoing trial that opened in the Netherlands in March after Ukraine's Leonid Kharchenko and Russian separatist commanders, Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinskiy and Oleg Pulatov, were charged with destroying the aircraft and murdering all people on board. None of the men, who are in Russia or separatist-held eastern Ukraine, are attending the trial, and only Mr Pulatov has appointed counsel to defend him in court. Lawsuits by one country against another are extremely rare for the European Court of Human Rights, which typically deals with claims lodged by individuals against their country, and Friday's announcement highlights the Netherlands' frustration with Russia which has refused to cooperate with the Dutch investigation.
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| Pompeo slams UN report on deadly US drone strike on Iranian Posted: 10 Jul 2020 07:41 AM PDT  U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has criticized an independent U.N. human rights expert's report insisting a American drone strike that killed a top Iranian general in January was a "watershed" event in the use of drones and amounted to a violation of international law. The report presented by Agnes Callamard to the U.N.-backed Human Rights Council on Thursday chronicled events around the death of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani and the legal implications of his killing as part of a broader look on the use of drone strikes.
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| No regrets: wounded Hong Kong police vow to keep enforcing law Posted: 09 Jul 2020 10:02 PM PDT  Nine months ago he was burned by corrosive liquid hurled during anti-government protests, but Hong Kong police officer Ling says he has no regrets and remains devoted to being a law enforcer. Officers like Ling have formed the spear tip of Beijing's pushback against huge and often violent pro-democracy protests in the restless finance hub. Now the police have been given expanded powers under a sweeping new national security law imposed by Beijing that aims to crush the democracy movement once and for all.
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| 1986 cold case on ‘Dateline’ now has arrest in teen’s disappearance, Indiana cops say Posted: 09 Jul 2020 11:33 AM PDT  The missing teen mystery was featured by "Dateline" in March.
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| Twitter billionaire Jack Dorsey just announced he will be funding a universal basic income experiment that could affect up to 7 million people Posted: 09 Jul 2020 02:58 PM PDT  Jack Dorsey's fellow Silicon Valley billionaires Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg think a universal basic income could help poor Americans, too.
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| 'I would be very careful in the middle of the street': Drivers have hit protesters 66 times since May 27 Posted: 09 Jul 2020 11:56 AM PDT  There have been at least 66 incidents of cars driving into protesters from May 27 to July 6, according to Ari Weil, a terrorism researcher.
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| Gilead analysis shows remdesivir reduced coronavirus death risk, more studies needed Posted: 10 Jul 2020 06:02 AM PDT  Remdesivir has been at the forefront of the global battle against COVID-19 after the intravenously administered medicine helped shorten hospital recovery times, according to data in April from a separate U.S. government trial. In the latest analysis, Gilead said it analyzed data from 312 patients treated in its late-stage study and a separate real-world retrospective cohort of 818 patients with similar characteristics and disease severity. Gilead's late-stage study evaluated the safety and efficacy of five-day and 10-day dosing durations of remdesivir in hospitalized patients.
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| Coronavirus Whistleblower: Exclusive Fox News Interview Posted: 10 Jul 2020 05:57 AM PDT  Dr. Li-Meng Yan, a virologist from Hong Kong, tells Fox News in an exclusive interview about the early research she says she conducted into COVID-19, and why she believes that research was withheld from the world.
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| Want to know why we need the police? The battle in Seattle is the reason | Opinion Posted: 10 Jul 2020 12:46 PM PDT  Let's get rid of cops, defund them, at least make them less active, deplete their ranks and agree they suffer from systemic racism bred into their modes of behavior, always acting as if to be Black is to be guilty.
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| Jared Kushner said the US would be 'really rocking again' by July. 7 states are shutting back down, and new COVID-19 cases have set records 6 times in July's first 10 days. Posted: 10 Jul 2020 01:59 PM PDT  In Kushner's confident Fox & Friends appearance back in April, he also proclaimed the US was "on the other side of the medical aspect" of the virus.
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| Botswana gets first test results on elephant deaths Posted: 10 Jul 2020 06:58 AM PDT 
Botswana received its first test results on Friday (July 10) to find out why hundreds of elephants have died mysteriously. Authorities said they will share their findings next week, when they get more results from samples sent to South Africa. Wildlife officials want to determine what has killed the elephants about two months after the first bodies were found. They have ruled out poaching and anthrax. Officials said Thursday (July 9) they had found 281 elephant carcasses. They were discovered in an area of 8,000 square km that is home to about 18,000 of the animals. While the dead only make up a small fraction of Botswana's estimated 130,000 elephants, there are fears more could die if authorities can't establish the cause of death soon.
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| Australia offers safe haven to Hong Kongers, sparking China fury Posted: 09 Jul 2020 04:42 AM PDT  Australia offered pathways to permanent residency for thousands of people from Hong Kong on Thursday in response to China's crackdown on dissent, drawing a furious reply from Beijing. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said his government was suspending its extradition agreement with the city and, in addition to extending the visas of 10,000 Hong Kongers already in the country, threw open the door to thousands more wanting to start a new life Down Under. Morrison said the decisions were taken in response to China's imposition last week of a tough new security law in Hong Kong, which he said "constitutes a fundamental change of circumstances" for the semi-autonomous territory.
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| Hundreds gather for funeral of Palestinian shot by Israeli troops Posted: 10 Jul 2020 05:29 AM PDT  Hundreds of people gathered in the occupied West Bank on Friday for the funeral of a Palestinian man shot by Israeli soldiers a day earlier. Israel's army said troops opened fire after the Palestinian and another man started throwing fire bombs at a guard post near the town of Nablus. Palestinian officials dismissed the report and said the man had been walking with friends when he was shot dead.
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| UC Berkeley reopening in doubt after 47 coronavirus cases tied to fraternity parties Posted: 09 Jul 2020 12:12 PM PDT  Cases make it 'harder to imagine bringing our campus community back' as planned, university saysPlans for the fall semester at the University of California, Berkeley, are in question after 47 new Covid-19 cases tied to fraternity parties emerged in the past week. University officials warn the outbreak could jeopardize the ability to move forward with in-person classes in the months ahead."We have seen the number of University Health Services positive cases increase from a running total of 23 since the start of the pandemic, to 47 new cases in just one week," university officials wrote in a letter."At the rate we are seeing increases in cases, it's becoming harder to imagine bringing our campus community back in the way we are envisioning," the letter adds.Officials said the infections were related to social events where students failed to physically distance, wear face masks, limit event size and gather outside.In recent weeks, as new coronavirus cases reached record highs across California, the governor, Gavin Newsom, has linked outbreaks to gatherings of friends and families, as well as to the "young and invincible" who haven't taken safety precautions.The state on Wednesday recorded its deadliest day of the pandemic as fatalities topped 150, surpassing the previous single-day record of 122 deaths, set on 19 May. Across the state, hospitalizations, admissions to ICUs and the rate of people testing positive have all seen a jump.University officials said keeping Covid-19 cases low would allow them to move forward with plans for the fall semester, which include a combination of online lectures and small in-person classes.Officials say they are exploring ways to isolate students living on campus in small "bubbles" of 10 to 12 students that could "increase social interaction while keeping overall exposure dramatically reduced". It would also restrict class sizes and eliminate "high-touch" areas to the extent possible.The university reminded the campus community to take basic safety measures such as wearing face masks, keeping 6ft apart and monitoring temperature daily."The fall semester will look and be very different. Everyone – students, faculty and staff – will be wearing a mask unless they are completely alone in their room or office. There will be distancing measures in every conceivable area across campus," said the university.
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| The Best Beach Towels That Aren’t Totally Boring Posted: 10 Jul 2020 07:58 AM PDT |
| Iranian official issues denial after another mysterious blast reported in Tehran Posted: 10 Jul 2020 06:59 AM PDT  Iranian state media reported a blast in western Tehran early Friday, the latest in a string of mysterious incidents to shake the country in recent weeks. However, a senior official in that part of the city later denied there had been an explosion. State broadcaster IRIB said power was cut in several western suburbs near where online reports said an explosion occurred. It gave no further information about the cause of the blast or whether there were casualties. The governor of Qod city, Leila Vaseghi, told semi-official Fars news agency there had been no explosion but acknowledged a power cut that lasted about five minutes. It was not immediately clear if the reported incident had taken place in Qod or in a different area of western Tehran, and residents contacted by Reuters in other parts of the city said they had heard no explosion. There are reportedly several military facilities in the area which could have been the target of sabotage. A series of fires and blasts have been reported near Iranian military, nuclear and industrial facilities in recent weeks. Iranian officials have said many were caused by industrial accidents. A bright flash lit up the night sky over Tehran early on June 26, apparently coming from near the near Parchin military site. Fars news agency later said the fire was caused by "an industrial gas tank explosion" near a facility belonging to the defence ministry. A defence ministry spokesman told state TV that the fire was quickly controlled and there were no casualties. But after a similar unexplained fire at the Natanz nuclear plant in central Isfahan province on July 2, officials were forced to admit there had been significant damage to the country's primary uranium enrichment facility. A spokesman for the Supreme National Security Council of Iran said the "cause of the accident" at the centrifuge assembly plant had been identified, saying more information would be released at a later date "due to security considerations". The New York Times reported a Middle Eastern intelligence official and an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander saying the Natanz incident was caused by an explosive. The head of Israeli intelligence, Yossi Cohen, was later accused of leaking information that Mossad planted a bomb that caused the damage. On Friday, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Seyed Abbas Mousavi said Iran would retaliate if it were shown an international sabotage operation had caused the explosion in Natanz. "It is still too early to make any judgment on the main cause of the blast [in Natanz], and relevant security bodies are probing into every detail of the incident," Fars reported him as saying.
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| The Fall of Florida’s Biggest Sham ‘Church’ Peddling Bleach as a ‘Sacrament’ Posted: 09 Jul 2020 04:03 PM PDT  The leader of Florida's biggest sham "church" network peddling bleach as a miracle drug says he's camped out in Colombia while his sons face arrest for allegedly selling a fake COVID-19 cure and threatening a judge with a "Waco"-style standoff.For years, the Genesis II Church of Health and Healing has been at the center of a lucrative, world-wide network that claims—falsely—that drinking glorified Clorox can cure you of virtually any illness. The "church" (which is not religious, by its own admission) has raked in the cash promoting "Miracle Mineral Solution," a bleach solution first popularized in 2006 by an ex-Scientologist who claimed to be an alien god. Ludicrous as the scheme sounds, it's seen a recent surge in visibility, gaining endorsements from conspiracy theorists and well-known conservatives. Now, four members of the family behind Genesis II are facing criminal charges for allegedly flouting an order to stop marketing MMS as a COVID-19 cure. Two have been arrested, while the family patriarch says he's out of the country.Genesis II isn't a real church. You can't worship at a physical location, and its leader, "Archbishop" Mark Grenon, is not actually ordained. Instead, it's a network of people peddling sodium chlorite, a bleach compound that the Food and Drug Administration warned in 2019 "can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and symptoms of severe dehydration." Nevertheless, Genesis II has thrived in recent years. The church's founder, Jim Humble, is a former Scientologist who claims to be a billion-year-old space god from another galaxy. Humble worked with Genesis II for years, before appearing to back away from the church after an ABC News investigation. QAnon-ers' Magic Cure for Coronavirus: Just Drink Bleach!"There are certainly times I have said some things that I probably should have said differently," he wrote in a 2016 blog post. "For lack of a better way to express things at the time— or because others put words in my mouth, in the past I have stated that MMS cures most of all diseases. Today, I say that MMS cures nothing!"The revelation didn't stop Mark Grenon and his sons Joseph, Jordan, and Jonathan from peddling bleach. The family and their "church" raked it in for years, media investigations and criminal charges show. In one investigation, an undercover news crew attended one of Grenon's $450 MMS seminars in a California hotel. There, Grenon hinted at the church's lack of real religious convictions."Everybody start a church and do it from there. You can sell them anything! Tell them Jesus heals you while you drink this," Grenon said.Federal investigators apparently pursued those claims as the basis of a fraud charge. In a February 2020 interview, cited in the criminal complaint, Grenon told investigators he'd started a church in order to sell MMS."Everything you do commercially is under the Universal Commercial code, okay?" Grenon said, according to the complaint. "A church is completely separate from that code, statutes, and laws. That's why a priest can give a kid wine in church publicly and not get arrested. Because it's a sacrament.[…] I knew this because . . . they tried to arrest us for proclaiming stuff on the street in Boston. They threw it out of court because we're a church. You can't arrest us from doing one of our sacraments, and I knew this. So that's why . . . I said let's do a church. We could have done temple. We could have done synagogue. We could have done mosque." "So [the founding of Genesis] wasn't really about religion?" the investigator asked. "It was in order to – to in a way, legalize the use of MMS?""Right," Grenon replied. "It wasn't at all religious." (On its website, Genesis II claims to be "non-religious but spiritual.")Although the criminal complaint indicates Genesis II and the Grenons were under investigation by at least October 2019 (when they allegedly gave an undercover FDA investigator terrible cancer treatment advice), federal scrutiny on the church intensified when it started promoting MMS as a coronavirus cure. The FDA sent Genesis II an injunction, telling them to please stop doing that. But the church allegedly continued, advertising "testimonials" that promoted potentially virus-spreading activity. One reviewer, featured in a Genesis II newsletter, claimed to have "traveled to the Philippines and had to pass through Seoul, Korea and Tokyo, Japan airports where just about everyone was wearing the masks for coronavirus. We had no fear (and no masks) because we had MMS protection. We are back home and everyone is still healthy."The Grenons also allegedly made violent threats against the judge who signed the injunction. In an April podcast, Mark Grenon and his son Joseph stated that they would not obey the restraining order."You've got the 2nd [Amendment]. Right? When Congress does immoral things, passes immoral laws, that's when you pick up guns, right?," one said. "You want a Waco? Do they want a Waco?" In a later podcast, Grenon accused the judge of "treason," and in a third podcast warned that the judge "could be taken out."Grenon and his three sons were charged with "conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to violate the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, and criminal contempt." Their Bradenton, Florida headquarters were raided on Wednesday, and Jordan and Johnathan arrested. It was not immediately clear whether either had lawyers.Mark Grenon, meanwhile, was at large as of Thursday morning. Genesis II has associates worldwide, particularly in Africa and South America. (Genesis II and other bleach sellers have faced particular scrutiny for giving bleach to African children.) None of the seven Genesis II chapters in the U.S., Canada, or Colombia that listed their phone numbers online answered the phone or returned The Daily Beast's calls.In an "emergency" interview with the founder of a conspiracy theory-laden "health news" site after the raid, Grenon revealed that he was in Colombia, where he expected to be arrested and extradited.Questioned by an interviewer who called the FDA a "terrorist organization," Grenon stuck to his old argument that Genesis II was a legitimate religious organization."The FDA says we should stop giving our sacraments to the world. We just basically said no, we have the First Amendment," he said. "It says we have free exercise of our religious beliefs."Asked about his bleach's medical validity, Grenon described MMS as "so real. I had projectile vomiting from bad sushi. I took it and within a couple of minutes, gone."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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| Satanic Temple threatens lawsuit over Mississippi’s ‘in God we trust’ flag plan Posted: 09 Jul 2020 06:53 AM PDT  The Satanic Temple has threatened to sue Mississippi over plans to include the phrase "In God We Trust" on its flag.In a letter addressed to state attorney general Lynn Fitch the Temple argued that not all Mississippians were represented by the phrase, which is the US national motto.
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| Ford CEO dismisses employees' call for company to stop making, selling custom police vehicles and products Posted: 09 Jul 2020 07:43 AM PDT  Ford claims it accounts for almost two-thirds of police vehicle sales in the US, and employees are raising their voice internally.
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| Trump rally in New Hampshire postponed, White House cites tropical storm Posted: 10 Jul 2020 09:30 AM PDT  A campaign rally for President Donald Trump set for Saturday in New Hampshire has been postponed by a "week or two" because of a tropical storm off the East Coast, White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany told reporters on Friday. The rally had been set for Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on Saturday. Tropical Storm Fay was expected to sweep across the heavily populated northeastern United States on Friday, bringing moderate to heavy rains and the potential for some flooding, the National Weather Service said.
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| Environmental Injustice Is Another Form of 'Assault on Black Bodies,' Says Sen. Cory Booker Posted: 09 Jul 2020 11:29 AM PDT  'The biggest determining factor of whether you live around toxicity is the color of your skin'
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| Syrians alarmed at Russia push to limit cross-border aid Posted: 09 Jul 2020 01:02 PM PDT  Displaced Syrians relying on humanitarian assistance voiced alarm Thursday after regime ally Russia tried to reduce cross-border aid to millions in the northwest of the war-torn country. The Russian motion at the UN Security Council was voted down, but a council resolution authorising aid deliveries through the Turkish border expires Friday.
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