| Top Democrats ask FBI to brief Congress on disinformation threats Posted: 20 Jul 2020 02:12 PM PDT  Democratic leaders on Monday made public a letter they sent a week ago to the FBI requesting the agency brief all members of Congress about efforts by foreign governments to spread disinformation ahead of the 2020 election.
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| Hours after the St. Louis couple who pointed guns at protesters were given felony charges, Missouri's attorney general said he's joining the case to get their charges dismissed Posted: 21 Jul 2020 02:48 AM PDT  Missouri AG Eric Schmitt, a Republican, said in an amicus brief Monday that Mark and Patricia McCloskey had a right to defend their property.
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| Biden wishes schools taught more about Islam Posted: 20 Jul 2020 01:00 PM PDT  Former Vice President Joe Biden received endorsements from several Muslim American leaders before addressing the Million Muslim Votes summit on Monday.Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Rep. Andre Carson (D-Ind.), were among several Muslim American officials who signed a letter endorsing Biden on Monday. Omar's endorsement was especially notable seeing as she was a big supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and continues to be a leading progressive voice in the House.Biden then went on to open his speech with a request: "I wish we were taught more in our schools about the Islamic faith," calling it "one of the great confessional faiths" that "come[s] from the same root" as Christian religions.> Joe Biden speaks to Million Muslim Votes Summit: "I wish we taught more in our schools about the Islamic faith." pic.twitter.com/ZsWfapCyXS> > — The Hill (@thehill) July 20, 2020Later in his video speech, Biden promised viewers he would end President Trump's ban on travel from several Muslim-majority countries "on day one."The Million Muslim Votes Summit is organized by Emgage Action, the U.S.'s largest Muslim American PAC. Hillary Clinton didn't attend any Emgage events during her 2016 run, The Washington Post notes, and former President Barack Obama was "cautious" about doing so.More stories from theweek.com The GOP's rising tide of unpopularity Serena Williams' 2-year-old daughter is now the youngest owner in pro sports Trump officials, top Republicans split over what to put in coronavirus relief bill: 'What in the hell are we doing?'
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| Portland Police Union Head Slams City Officials: They ‘Have Condoned the Destruction and Chaos’ Posted: 20 Jul 2020 06:25 AM PDT  Portland Police Association president Daryl Turner slammed elected officials at a press conference on Sunday, a day after the union's offices were set on fire amid continuing riots in the city.Since the death of George Floyd, an African American man killed during his arrest by Minneapolis police officers, Portland has seen 50 days of protests and riots. Federal law enforcement officers have deployed to the city over the past several weeks, clashing with protesters.Turner alleged that Oregon officials have allowed the violence to continue unabated."The elected officials have condoned the destruction and chaos," Turner said on Sunday, standing with 20 faith and business leaders from Portland. "They have placed their political agenda ahead [of the] safety and welfare of the community. This must stop."Turner continued, "This is no longer about George Floyd, racial equity, social justice reform or the evolution of policing….This is about violence, rioting and destruction. Our city is under siege by rioters."Portland mayor Ted Wheeler on Friday accused the Trump administration of fanning the violence by ordering federal law enforcement to crack down on the riots and protests."Last week, we were seeing the deescalation of the violence. We were seeing things calm down. But the intervention of federal officers reignited tensions," Wheeler said in an online press conference with Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell. "I think we would have seen the end of this nightly engagement by now."Lovell indicated that federal officers and local police were not coordinating with each other."The federal officers have their objectives, and the Portland police has our objectives. We don't direct federal officers' actions, and they do not direct ours," Lovell said.
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| White House press secretary claims the media has 'tried to scare the American people' about the coronavirus, which has killed over 141,000 Americans and infected 3.8 million more Posted: 21 Jul 2020 10:13 AM PDT  McEnany told reporters "You never heard the other side of the health equation" on "what extended lockdowns do to the American people."
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| Chinese hackers charged in theft of trade secrets also probed for coronavirus research, DOJ says Posted: 21 Jul 2020 11:02 AM PDT  The accused hackers, both Chinese citizens, worked for their own benefit and at the direction of Chinese intelligence services, the DOJ said.
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| Hong Kong protesters gather on anniversary of mob attack Posted: 21 Jul 2020 05:47 AM PDT  Small groups of Hong Kong pro-democracy demonstrators gathered on Tuesday to mark the first anniversary of an attack in a train station by an armed crowd wearing white shirts, and demanded justice for victims of the violence and broader freedoms. The Yuen Long attack, and the police's apparent failure to prevent it, exacerbated tensions during protests last year, plunging the global financial hub into its deepest crisis since Hong Kong returned from British to Chinese rule in 1997. Scattered individuals around the Yoho mall and Yuen Long train station chanted slogans including "Hong Kong independence, the only way out".
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| Protecting the innocent – from Bosnia to China Posted: 21 Jul 2020 12:34 PM PDT |
| I took a closer look at the cognitive test Trump claims to have aced Posted: 21 Jul 2020 07:46 AM PDT  The test the president boasted about passing does not measure IQ but is typically used to check for early signs of dementiaLike any smart, down-to-earth person, Donald Trump has been bragging about "acing" a simple cognitive test he took recently. He's been doing it for a while now, but it wasn't until his interview with Fox News's Chris Wallace on Sunday that he was challenged over it.As the president started boasting about his results, Wallace laughed. "I took the test too when I heard that you passed it," the Fox News host told Trump. "It's not – well it's not the hardest test. They have a picture and it says 'what's that' and it's an elephant.'"This, according to Trump, was "misrepresentation". "Yes, the first few questions are easy," he conceded. "But I'll bet you couldn't even answer the last five questions. I'll bet you couldn't, they get very hard, the last five questions." He added: "I guarantee you that Joe Biden could not answer those questions."So what is the test and are the last five questions, as Trump claims, really so difficult?The test is called the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), and was created by the neurologist Dr Ziad Nasreddine in 1996. Talking to MarketWatch on Monday, Nasreddine stressed that the test "is supposed to be easy for someone who has no cognitive impairment", stressing that "this is not an IQ test or the level of how a person is extremely skilled or not. The test is supposed to help physicians detect early signs of Alzheimer's."There are a few different versions of the test with small variations (such as the words to remember or animals to name), but the questions are generally the same. We can't tell for sure which version Trump took, but as he said he did it recently, I've taken the latest MoCA test from their website.Trump is right about the start of the test being easy. But when it comes to the last five questions, his claim that they're "very hard" is unsettling (although not surprising) in what it reveals about his relationship with reality.But before we dive into that, here's what the test involves: Drawing a clock and a cubeThe first few questions are indeed "easy" – although it goes without saying that anyone experiencing cognitive problems is supposed to find it hard, and the point of the test is to help diagnose their condition.First, you have to draw a line between numbers and their equivalent letters (1 to A, A to 2, 2 to B and so on). Then you have to draw a cube, and a clock at 10 past 11. Call it what you will – millennial-itis, lockdown brain – but this was actually a slight challenge as I can't remember the last time I looked at a clock that wasn't on my phone or laptop. So yes, it took me a second to remember that the minutes are all multiples of five – for 10 past the big hand points to two. But I figured it out in the end, and that's all that matters. The 'elephant' questionIf you're lucky enough to not have any cognitive impairment, this part is also easy. There are three drawings – a lion, rhino and camel. As mentioned, there are a few versions of the test with very minor differences – for example, the test Fox News showed during the interview had an elephant on it (you can see it here), but the latest test has a rhino instead. This has led some of Trump's critics to baselessly claim that he can't tell the difference between the two. Repeat after me – and do some mathsBoth of these sections are very simple, and involve repeating a series of numbers forwards and backwards, and remembering a string of five random words. The final part, which Chris Wallace mentioned, asks you to count back from 100 in multiples of seven (100, 93, 86). Like the clock, this took me slightly longer than I would have liked – but nowhere does it say this is a timed test. I did it in the end, slowly but surely. The difficulties beginThis is where things get a little concerning.If you remember, Trump bet Wallace that he "couldn't even answer the last five questions" of the test. But for a mentally healthy person, the last five questions should be as simple as the rest.The fifth-to-last question on the test asks you to repeat a sentence out loud, before naming as many words as you can starting with F. In the following "abstraction" section, you have to spot the similarity between different objects such as trains and bicycles (modes of transport), or a watch and a ruler (measuring devices).Next, you have to recall the random words that were included in the earlier memory section. This may be the part that's easiest to trip over.And finally, for the orientation part of the test, you have to … say what the date is.For Trump to claim these are hard is worrying because for any cognitively healthy person, they shouldn't be. But before we start any armchair diagnosis, you have to weigh up two probabilities against each other. Is it really likely that he found the last five questions hard? Or is it more likely that he's misrepresenting about how hard they were, in order to look "smarter" than Joe Biden?In the same interview, Trump got his team to pass him a chart that he said showed the US had "one of the lowest mortality rates in the world", when it didn't do anything of the sort. This is shocking, but not surprising – Trump has now made more than 20,000 false or misleading claims since he took office.So it seems more likely that Trump's difficulties at the end of the test tell us nothing that we don't know already. His prolific lying and self-aggrandisement, two things we have empirical evidence for, should be what worries us. For, similar to his "stable genius" claims, you've got to ask yourself: how many smart people brag about their supposed intellect so much, and in such a misguided way?
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| Majority of economists say $600 unemployment boost should be extended or increased for rest of the year Posted: 21 Jul 2020 01:34 PM PDT  Republican lawmakers have cast doubt on extending the $600 per week boost to unemployment insurance during ongoing coronavirus relief bill negotiations, but economists think it should remain at least for the rest of year, a new survey shows.The FiveThirtyEight survey, conducted in partnership with the Initiative on Global Markets at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, polled 33 economists on whether the federal benefits should continue at the same rate, increase, decrease, or lapse completely for the rest of year. A plurality think it should stay the same, and a majority support keeping it as is or increasing, while only 7 percent back getting rid of the benefits altogether.> Another IGM survey of economists -- this one, of quantitative macroeconomic economists -- finds that they generally believe best thing for economy would be to continue or *increase* the $600 federal UI top-up https://t.co/yGuukWD51V pic.twitter.com/Ec1hp8Ex00> > — Catherine Rampell (@crampell) July 21, 2020Going forward, though, the most popular idea among the surveyed economists was to tie the unemployment insurance rate to key economic indicators, so that the benefit gradually decreases as the economy improves. Read the full results here and check out more analysis of the study at FiveThirtyEight.More stories from theweek.com The GOP's rising tide of unpopularity Serena Williams' 2-year-old daughter is now the youngest owner in pro sports Trump officials, top Republicans split over what to put in coronavirus relief bill: 'What in the hell are we doing?'
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| American views on race relations have changed dramatically, NBC News/WSJ poll finds Posted: 21 Jul 2020 03:21 AM PDT  Support grows for national anthem protests and removal of Confederate statues in the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.
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| As Eastern Europe shrinks, rural Bulgaria is becoming a ghostland Posted: 21 Jul 2020 05:00 AM PDT  Since the fall of the Eastern Bloc, Bulgaria has lost more than one-fifth of its population — from nearly 9 million to about 7 million.
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| Marine Corps Begins Shutdown of All Tank Battalions Posted: 21 Jul 2020 08:51 AM PDT  The end of the Marine Corps' tank missions has officially begun.
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| Trump administration sued by 23 states over plans to end health protections for transgender people Posted: 21 Jul 2020 10:34 AM PDT  The Trump administration is being sued by a coalition of Democratic state attorneys in response to its announcement that healthcare discrimination protections for transgender people will be overturned next month.The discrimination protections that were included in the Affordable Care Act (ACA), implemented during the Obama administration, stated that people could not be discriminated against because of race, colour, national origin, sex, age or disability.
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| Japan approves dexamethasone as coronavirus treatment Posted: 21 Jul 2020 04:49 PM PDT  Japan's health ministry has approved dexamethasone, a cheap and widely used steroid, as a second treatment of COVID-19 after a trial in Britain showed the drug reduced death rates in hospitalised patients. The ministry included dexamethasone as an option for treatment along with antiviral drug remdesivir in a recent revision to its handbook. In results announced last month, a trial by researchers in the United Kingdom showed dexamethasone as the first drug to save lives of COVID-19 patients in what scientists said was a major breakthrough in the coronavirus pandemic.
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| Biden launches wide battleground push with ads, surrogates Posted: 21 Jul 2020 01:12 PM PDT  Joe Biden's presidential campaign is ramping up its advertising and deploying some of its high-profile surrogates as it tries to solidify a broad battleground map that his advisers see as giving him multiple paths to an Electoral College majority. Biden's Democratic campaign announced Tuesday a $15 million weeklong advertising campaign including television, digital, radio and print in six states: Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. President Donald Trump won all six states four years ago.
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| China’s Monstrous Abuse of Uighur Women Posted: 21 Jul 2020 08:53 AM PDT  Slavery and genocide are ancient bedfellows. I first became aware of this fact as a child while watching the opening number of DreamWorks's 1998 film, The Prince of Egypt. In the first five minutes of the movie, enslaved Hebrew men construct monuments to the Pharaoh as their wives beg for their infant sons' lives. All, save Moses, are ripped from their mothers' arms and tossed into the Nile.Of course, with 21st-century technology, crocodile-infested rivers are no longer needed to get rid of minority children. We have "medicine" for that.Last week, drone footage, verified by Western intelligence agencies, emerged from Northern China. It showed Uighur Muslims bound and blindfolded, with shaven heads, being loaded onto trains that were likely headed for detention camps. In a BBC interview, British journalist Andrew Marr demanded answers from Liu Xiaoming, the Chinese ambassador to the United Kingdom. Xiaoming accused "so-called Western intelligence agencies" of making "false accusations against China." The population of Xinjiang had doubled in 40 years, he said, which clearly proved that "ethnic cleansing" and "so-called forced abortions" had not occurred. Marr, unconvinced, retorted, "According to your own local government statistics, the population growth in Uighur jurisdictions in that area has fallen by 84 percent between 2015 and 2018. 84 percent."How can that be so? A recent report by the Associated Press, compiling "government statistics, state documents and interviews with 30 ex-detainees, family members and a former detention camp instructor" gives an idea.Over the past four years, the Chinese government has spent tens of millions of dollars to violently hijack the functioning reproductive systems of minority women. In 2017, according to official directives uncovered by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, government officials backed by armed law-enforcement officers were instructed to "leave no blind spots," "contain illegal births and lower fertility rates," "test all who need to be tested," and "detect and deal with those who violate policies early."The AP report found that "having too many children" is a "major reason people are sent to detention camps," that "parents of three or more [children] are ripped away from their families unless they can pay huge fines," and that "police raid homes, terrifying parents as they search for hidden children." The report also contains shocking witness testimony: * "Tursunay Ziyawudun said she was injected until she stopped having her period, and kicked repeatedly in the lower stomach during interrogations. She now can't have children and often doubles over in pain, bleeding from her womb." * "Gulbahar Jelilova confirmed that detainees in her camp were forced to abort their children. She also saw a new mother, still leaking breast milk, who did not know what had happened to her infant. And she met doctors and medical students who were detained for helping Uighurs dodge the system and give birth at home." * Gulzia Mogdia was also forced to have an abortion when she became pregnant with her third child. "Medics inserted an electric vacuum into her womb and sucked her fetus out of her body," after which she was "taken home and told to rest, as [officials] planned to take her to a camp."Some survivors recalled being suddenly "force-fed birth control pills" and "injected with fluids." One had to recite her crimes ("I gave birth to too many children") whenever officials came near her cell. Another remembered that a pregnant woman in her camp's "class" had suddenly disappeared.In The Prince of Egypt, when Moses demands an explanation, Pharaoh retorts that the victims were "only slaves." Since slavery doesn't go down so well any more in the West, the Chinese government justifies its actions as a means of preventing terrorism, which is likewise blatant nonsense. These are victims of the state: innocent women and children, the most vulnerable members of an already vulnerable minority. As for the men, one Uighur, Abdushukur Umar, was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment for the crime of having seven children. Umar's cousin, who fled China, said that Umar "spent all his time taking care of his family, he never took part in any political movements."In the past, Westerners have been too squeamish to issue a full-throated condemnation of China's inhumane population policies. During the era of the so-called one-child policy, sex-screening technology meant widespread gendercide, since baby girls were seen as less valuable. The Nobel economist Amartya Sen estimated that the policy resulted in 100 million aborted girls. Where was the feminist outcry then?For that matter, where is the outcry now? China's treatment of the Uighurs is reminiscent of the kind of abuse fictionalized in The Handmaid's Tale, yet even the AP report is replete with Western euphemisms, such as involuntary "birth control" and "population control." Get into the details and what the Egyptians did to the Israelites almost seems tame by comparison. Men and women of conscience in the West have a duty to call this out for what it is -- evil.
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| Powerful Ohio lawmaker arrested for role in 'largest bribery scheme' in state history, officials said Posted: 21 Jul 2020 02:14 PM PDT  FBI agents raided the farm of House Speaker Larry Householder in connection to his support of nuclear power plant bailouts.
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| The gunman suspected of attacking Judge Esther Salas' family was a men's rights advocate and self-identified 'anti-feminist' Posted: 20 Jul 2020 04:01 PM PDT  Roy Den Hollander, who was found dead of an apparent suicide, is suspected of killing Salas' son and critically injuring her husband.
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| 'There's no corona in the water': Floridians are partying on boats to escape COVID-19, but it's only making the outbreak worse Posted: 21 Jul 2020 12:25 PM PDT  Florida is the third worst-hit state by the outbreak and has the most current coronavirus cases. Some reopening guidelines have been largely ignored.
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| With GOP now on board, another coronavirus stimulus check is likely. But for how much? Posted: 21 Jul 2020 02:31 PM PDT  Republicans propose more economic stimulus payments for Americans. Democrats previously called for the same. But still unknown is how much and who will get them.
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| Belarus presidential candidate sends her children abroad after threats Posted: 20 Jul 2020 07:14 AM PDT  The leading opposition presidential candidate in Belarus has sent her children abroad to an undisclosed location in the EU after receiving threats they would be taken away unless she quits the race, an opposition journalist said. Svetlana Tikhanouskaya launched her bid to unseat President Alexander Lukashenko in the Aug. 9 election after her husband, a popular anti-Lukashenko blogger, was arrested in May. On Sunday, she held her first official election campaign rally, attended by thousands of people.
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| Hong Kong is Freer Than You Think Posted: 20 Jul 2020 07:08 PM PDT  Barrister and senior Hong Kong politician Ronny Tong argues that criticism of the national security law is misplaced
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| Former Obama adviser lays out why Biden's VP would likely be the 'most powerful in history' Posted: 20 Jul 2020 01:30 PM PDT  You're probably well aware of the fact that the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden, needs to pick a running mate. As always, voters are watching the process closely, but there's reason to believe his choice could mean even more than usual, The Atlantic reports.That's because some people believe Biden's No. 2 will have more power than any vice president in history should the pair defeat President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence in November. Dan Pfeiffer, a former senior Obama adviser who worked in the administration when Biden himself served as vice president, explained why to The Atlantic."Joe Biden's vice president will most likely be the most powerful vice president in history because the trend is toward more powerful vice presidents, Joe Biden knows the value of having a vice president with lots of responsibility, and Joe Biden is going to inherit an epic disaster," Pfeiffer said.What Pfeiffer didn't mention, but would seemingly add to his argument, is that Biden views himself as a "transition candidate" who wants to help usher in a new era of Democratic political leaders, likely starting with his vice president. Read more at The Atlantic.More stories from theweek.com The GOP's rising tide of unpopularity Serena Williams' 2-year-old daughter is now the youngest owner in pro sports Trump officials, top Republicans split over what to put in coronavirus relief bill: 'What in the hell are we doing?'
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| 'We already have one Mitt Romney': Trump Jr and Rand Paul among conservatives calling for Liz Cheney to be ousted Posted: 21 Jul 2020 09:55 AM PDT  First it was just a handful conservative rabble-rousers calling out House GOP Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney on Tuesday for defying Donald Trump on the coronavirus pandemic, foreign affairs decisions, and other matters.Then Senator Rand Paul piled on, retweeting Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz' message calling for her removal and writing that the Wyoming congresswoman's behaviour was "unacceptable."
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| Judge: Show evidence to Iowa reporter arrested at protest Posted: 21 Jul 2020 05:04 PM PDT |
| Descendant of Robert E. Lee: Black lives matter, statues of the confederate general should be removed Posted: 21 Jul 2020 02:06 PM PDT  A descendant of Robert E. Lee, Rev. Robert Wright Lee, told a House panel on Tuesday that Black lives matter, and that statues and memorials to the general in the Confederate army should be removed.
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| McConnell Calls for Second Round of Direct Coronavirus-Relief Payments Posted: 21 Jul 2020 08:57 AM PDT  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that he is in favor of a second round of direct stimulus payments to Americans after months of uncertainty within about the next coronavirus-relief bill."Speaking of building on what worked in the CARES Act, we want another round of direct payments, direct payments to help American families keep driving our national comeback," McConnell said in a floor speech.The massive $2.2 trillion coronavirus-relief package passed by Congress in March provided funds for a one-time $1,200 check for Americans who make $75,000 or less a year, with smaller payment for those who make more than that but less than $99,000 a year. McConnell said the second round of payments could only apply to Americans who make $40,000 or less a year.The Trump administration has called for a second round of payments since March but in recent weeks has put more emphasis on payroll-tax cuts for workers.The fifth coronavirus stimulus package, for which Republicans have proposed a $1 trillion price tag, will also include more funding for the Paycheck Protection Program, which aims to help small businesses with fewer than 500 employees that are struggling during the pandemic to meet payroll without furloughing or laying off employees."With a majority of businesses expected to exhaust their initial paycheck protection funding this summer, we'll also be proposing a targeted second round of PPP, with a special eye toward hard-hit businesses," McConnell said.Trump said Monday that "good things" were planned for the upcoming Republican coronavirus aid bill and assured that "we've made a lot of progress."The package is also expected to provide $75 billion to help schools reopen, five years of liability protections against lawsuits relating to the coronavirus, and $25 billion more for virus testing and the Centers for Disease Control, a proposal to which the administration voiced objections."We shouldn't lightly add more to the national debt, but I'm predicting that we will have one more rescue package, which we'll begin to debate and discuss next week," McConnell said last week at a press conference in Kentucky.The next round of economic aid comes as many southern and western states are seeing their coronavirus cases and deaths spike, causing governors in several states to reimpose restrictions on businesses, houses of worship, and group events that were allowed to resume operations in recent weeks.
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| U.S. records over 1,000 coronavirus deaths in a single day for first time since early June Posted: 21 Jul 2020 04:14 PM PDT  After weeks of declining fatalities, there were more than 5,200 U.S. COVID-19 deaths in the week ended July 19, up 5% from the previous seven days, a Reuters analysis found. Nearly 142,000 Americans have died from COVID-19, a toll that experts warn will likely surge following recent record spikes in case numbers and an alarming rise in hospitalizations in many states. While some of the increase in new cases can be attributed to more testing, hospitalizations, which are not tied to testing numbers, began to surge in late June as well.
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| Nile dam dispute: Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan agree to resume talks Posted: 21 Jul 2020 04:09 PM PDT  The Grand Renaissance Dam reservoir has been a source of huge diplomatic tension for almost a decade.
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| Report: Joe Biden may end up giving the only major Democratic convention speech from Milwaukee Posted: 20 Jul 2020 06:45 PM PDT  Joe Biden may be the only one at next month's convention who ends up giving a major speech from the host city of Milwaukee, the Daily Beast reported Monday.
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| Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden says Trump sent federal agents to Portland to boost reelection hopes Posted: 21 Jul 2020 05:03 PM PDT  Sen. Ron Wyden told Yahoo News on Tuesday that he believes the Trump administration's crackdown on protesters in Portland is an unconstitutional and divisive effort to boost the president's sagging reelection efforts.
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| China discharges floodwater in Huai River Posted: 20 Jul 2020 12:56 AM PDT 
China on Monday (July 20) opened the sluices at Wangjiaba, a key hydrological station on the Huai River, to release flood pressure as water levels continued to surge in east China's Anhui province. Affected by the recent heavy rainfalls, the water level at Wangjiaba station on the main stream of the Huai River rose rapidly on Monday, exceeding 0.36 metres (1.18 ft.) above the warning level, reported by Xinhua. The surging water prompted local authorities to issue a red alert on Monday morning, the highest in the four-tier colour-coded warning system in China. According to the Huai River Commission of China's Ministry of Water Resources, China has again raised the flood emergency response on Monday in the Huai River region to Level I from Level II, the highest on its four-tier scale, after days of torrential downpours and amid expectations of further heavy rainfall.
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| It's not poachers killing elephants in Botswana. That worries conservationists. Posted: 20 Jul 2020 01:30 AM PDT  "The only thing that kills elephants quickly is people killing elephants," said Keith Lindsay, a conservation biologist.
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| More than 50 Florida hospitals have run out of ICU beds as coronavirus cases soar Posted: 20 Jul 2020 02:16 PM PDT  The Florida Education Association filed a lawsuit against Gov. Ron DeSantis over his order to reopen schools and resume in-person classes in August.
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| China vows 'forceful counter-attack' in escalating row with Britain over Hong Kong Posted: 21 Jul 2020 02:33 AM PDT  China threatened a "forceful counter-attack" on Tuesday in response to Britain's announcement that it would suspend its extradition treaty with Hong Kong following Beijing's introduction of a national security law for the former British colony. On Monday, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told parliament the extradition treaty would be suspended immediately and an arms embargo would be extended to Hong Kong.
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| Mawla the 'Destroyer', brutal new head of IS group Posted: 20 Jul 2020 07:59 PM PDT  With monikers as divergent as the "Professor" and the "Destroyer", the Islamic State group's new head has a reputation for brutality, but otherwise remains largely an enigma. Amir Mohammed Said Abd al-Rahman al-Mawla replaced Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi after his death in a raid by US special forces last October. Mawla was initially presented to the world by the Islamic State (IS) as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi -- a man about whom America and Iraq had little intelligence.
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| Out of Portland tear gas, an apparition emerges, capturing the imagination of protesters Posted: 19 Jul 2020 07:05 PM PDT  An iconic image has emerged on Twitter since early Saturday morning in Portland, when a woman wearing nothing but a mask and cap strode toward federal agents as they fired tear gas at protesters — a surreal image of human vulnerability in the face of an overpowering force.
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| Detroit police officer charged with felony assault after rubber bullets fired at journalists Posted: 21 Jul 2020 11:03 AM PDT  If convicted, 32-year-old corporal Daniel Debono could be sentenced to up to four years in prison.
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