| Dem convention shows Biden wants to reassemble Obama's coalition — not build a new one Posted: 20 Aug 2020 12:21 PM PDT  When former President Barack Obama spoke Wednesday night at the Democratic National Convention, it was striking, and telling, to hear which voters he was trying to reach: his voters — the voters he thinks can carry his former running mate, Joe Biden, to victory.
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| Chief: Tennessee officers broke down door of innocent family Posted: 20 Aug 2020 07:57 AM PDT  Three white Tennessee police officers have had their police powers suspended after they broke down the door of an innocent Black family early Tuesday morning. Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake ordered a full investigation of the incident by the department's Office of Professional Accountability. "No innocent family in Nashville, anywhere, should be subjected to what the mother and her two children went through on Tuesday morning," Drake said in a news release.
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| Suspect in Portland Beating Turns Himself in Posted: 21 Aug 2020 01:21 PM PDT  The suspect in the beating of a truck driver in downtown Portland turned himself in Friday morning, police said.Marquise Love, 25, turned himself into police and is being held on $260,000 bail at Multnomah County Detention Center. He is accused of felony assault, coercion, and rioting."I am pleased the suspect in this case turned himself in and appreciate all of the efforts to facilitate this safe resolution," Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell said in a statement on Friday.A crowd of rioters in downtown Portland beat a man unconscious Sunday night after dragging him from his truck, video footage of the incident shows. Police on Tuesday identified Love as the man who delivered a running kick to the head from behind to the man, identified by his family as Adam Haner, as he sat in the street already beaten by the rioters.The crowd surrounded Haner's white truck around 10:30 p.m. near where he crashed into a light pole downtown. At least one individual punched him as he sat inside before he was pulled out of the vehicle. The rioters forced him to sit in the street as he tried to answer a call from his wife.One man in the crowd wearing a "security" vest, allegedly Love, delivered a kick to his head that appeared to knock him out cold and caused his head to bleed after it hit the street. Haner was transported to the hospital.Video clips on social media appear to show the moments just before the attack, when the man attempted to help a person the crowd had previously robbed and beaten.Later, police deployed a large law enforcement response and encountered "a hostile crowd."Police called on Love to turn himself in. Haner has since been released from the hospital and is recovering from multiple serious injuries at home.The incident, which has attracted international attention, has prompted harsh criticism of Portland government officials, including Democratic Mayor Ted Wheeler.By Friday afternoon, more than 3,800 people had donated over $137,000 to a fundraiser for Haner set up by his brother.
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| Kim Jong-un gives sister Yo-jong 'more responsibilities' Posted: 20 Aug 2020 04:57 AM PDT  Kim Yo-jong has reportedly been given responsibility for North Korean policy towards the US.
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| Michigan Gov. Whitmer says state will continue to show support for Flint residents with proposed $600M water deal Posted: 20 Aug 2020 11:29 AM PDT  A proposed $600 million deal between the state of Michigan and residents of the impoverished, majority-Black city of Flint who were harmed by lead-tainted water is a step toward making amends for a disaster that upended life in the city, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Thursday.
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| Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny given permission to leave Russia for emergency treatment Posted: 21 Aug 2020 01:33 AM PDT  Russian doctors on Friday allowed opposition leader Alexei Navalny to travel to Germany for treatment for an apparent poisoning, after his wife accused them of "playing for time" to hinder an investigation. Mr Navalny, the country's most outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin, was hospitalised on Thursday and remained unconscious after suddenly falling ill during a flight to Moscow from Siberia. His wife Yulia personally appealed to Mr Putin to allow him to travel after doctors refused her request for most of the day, saying his condition was unstable, before reversing their decision. Several of Mr Navalny's aides said the doctors deliberately delayed so that foreign medics would be unable to discover any toxins in his system, and were taking instruction from Russian officials. Spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh called the delay "an attempt on his life". Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and Emmanuel Macron, the French president, have expressed concern over the apparent poisoning, while US Democratic candidate Joe Biden called it "unacceptable".
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| California wildfires: At least five dead as thousands more evacuated from their homes Posted: 21 Aug 2020 02:24 AM PDT  Five people have died, two are still missing and tens of thousands more are at risk of losing their homes as dozens of wildfires rip through Northern California.A further 33 civilians and firefighters have been injured during across several counties in the state, as fire services have struggled to contain more than 20 separate blazes sparked by lightning strikes during a heatwave.
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| US Army’s future missile defense command system nearly simultaneously defeats cruise, ballistic missile threats Posted: 21 Aug 2020 08:26 AM PDT  Find out how the Army's most recent IBCS live-fire test went, and see footage a Black Dagger target missile launch.
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| Michael Bloomberg robbed the DNC Posted: 20 Aug 2020 08:14 PM PDT  We now know how much the going rate is for a spot at the Democratic National Convention. Michael Bloomberg spoke for five minutes on Thursday night not long before the nominee itself, a role arguably more prominent than that of Bernie Sanders, the much-abused runner-up.The former New York mayor's remarks were exactly what you would expect. He began by pointing out that he is not a Democrat. He gloated about the vast amounts of money he has given to buy politicians in all parties. He quoted a children's book. He talked about the importance of experts, like the ones he deferred to when he doubled down on the brutal policing tactics that have been the subject of protests across the country. He even said "hell" twice.The best part is that he didn't even have to pay for it. Bloomberg reneged on his promise back in March to keep the thousands of paid staff members who carried him to his towering victory in the 2020 American Samoa Democratic primary onboard until the general election. He has given a whopping $18 million to the party itself and just over $4 million to other grassroots organizations this year. He also offered them some useless free office space during the lockdown.At least President Trump was watching. > After the worst debate performance in the history of politics, Michael Bloomberg, commonly known as Mini Mike, is trying to make a comeback by begging the Democrats for relevance. They treated him like a dog - and always will. Before politics, he said GREAT things about me!> > -- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 21, 2020More stories from theweek.com The DNC's stirring eulogy for Joe Biden Lori Loughlin sentenced to 2 months in prison for role in college admissions scandal Trump initially responds to Biden's acceptance speech with brevity and correct grammar
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| Obama Finally Gives Up ‘Hope’ for Something Far More Urgent Posted: 20 Aug 2020 07:58 AM PDT  Barack Obama likes to talk about the bending arc of history. His own story is a testament to it. Not just the well-known biographical portions, but the political parts as well. In 2004, as an unknown state senator from Illinois, he delivered the keynote address at the Democratic convention that is remembered for its lofty oratory and themes of unappreciated national unity. As president for eight years, he re-committed to that ethos by vowing repeatedly that the "fever" of Republican opposition would eventually "break."On Wednesday night, he addressed the Democrats' convention once again, this time as a party luminary and validator of his one-time vice president, Joe Biden. But there was no talk of the divide between red states and blue states being merely artificial. There was no insistence that rationality would eventually prevail among the Republican Party. Instead, his address, like much of the night's programming, was a cold, hard wake up call to those listening at home. Trump was irredeemable. Some political divides were unbridgeable. Hope was still there. But the world had gotten dark and time was running out. Biden was on the ballot, but he was more of a vessel than a protagonist in this election. It was, instead, democracy and the people protesting for it versus Trumpism and those willfully enabling it."You can give our democracy new meaning. You can take it to a better place. You're the missing ingredient–the ones who will decide whether or not America becomes the country that fully lives up to its creed," Obama said, addressing young voters. "That work will continue long after this election. But any chance of success depends entirely on the outcome of this election."Those who know Obama say the last three years have been filled with two senses: liberation that he's no longer in the political spotlight, and alarm at what's been happening in it. He did not have even modest hopes for Trump. But the trajectory the Trump presidency has taken has still disturbed him, and not just because almost all of his signature achievements have been dismantled. "The fever broke," is how Ben Labolt, Obama's 2012 campaign press secretary put it, "but it broke in the other direction."Through it all, Obama stayed quiet, committed to a proposition that past presidents don't comment on current ones and cognizant that anything he said would be weaponized by Trump. One aide noted that when Obama himself was serving, his team found opportunities in all the instances when Dick Cheney would speak out against him. Dems Deliver Apocalyptic Message: Vote or DieBut Obama has also undertaken some ventures that gave insight into his increasingly despondent view of American politics. There was a deal to produce films and shows for Netflix that would serve as longer-form, substance heavy alternatives to cable news driven conversations; and an effort to help fight redistricting by investing in down ballot races—a manifestly important political function that he had not prioritized while in office. Former and current aides say that Obama long ago recognized that the incentives built into the political system—from gerrymandered districts to a balkanized media ecosystem—were more powerful than pleas for better angels, moving oratory, or basic rationality. He spoke about the Republican fever breaking after Mitt Romney's 2012 loss. But by 2013, when the government was shut down in an attempt to kill Obamacare, everyone in the White House knew it would never happen. Trump's election may have crystalized the idea that Republicanism was not venturing towards some more blissfully post-partisan direction. And that had to have been particularly true for Obama, who had mercilessly mocked Trump during a now infamous White House Correspondents dinner—an affair that initially was hailed as the end of Trump's political ambitions but, in reality, just convinced him all the more to run for president. But Trump was the symptom, not the cause. "He's just a dumber, crasser, more explicitly racist version of Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan," Obama's longtime aide Dan Pfeiffer said. "He is cut from the same cloth. They cooked him up in a lab and then ultimately lost control." On Wednesday night, Obama seemed to acknowledge as much. He may have directed his daggers at the president, for abandoning lower case "d" democratic principles, for squandering America's global standing, for botching a pandemic, and so on. But, subtly, his most biting line was saved for those in the Republican Party who had allowed it all to transpire. "These shouldn't be Republican principles or Democratic principles. They're American principles," he said. "But at this moment, this president and those who enable him have shown they don't believe in these things."It was, for lack of a better word, stark, made even more so by the setting: Obama standing alone at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, the words of the Constitution behind him—as if to symbolize just how little there was between Trump and the destruction of the American experiment.After the address was over, Obama's aides made the case that the ex-president hadn't changed but that, rather, the world around him had. And maybe so. Talk of "hope and change" doesn't particularly work when you are articulating your belief the country is under threat from within. But they also acknowledged that what he had done on Wednesday night was historically unique. Ex-presidents don't issue clarion calls about the direction their successors are taking. The arc of history, Obama was warning, was bending in the wrong direction. "That's how a democracy withers," he said, "until it's no democracy at all."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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| Chicago mayor defends beefed-up police presence near home Posted: 20 Aug 2020 02:53 PM PDT |
| Under arrest for corruption, Mexico's former oil boss takes aim at three ex-presidents Posted: 20 Aug 2020 06:12 PM PDT  Former Pemex chief Emilio Lozoya accuses former presidents and others of payoffs, bribery, extortion and vote-buying.
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| Coronavirus: Youthful Pakistan appears to avoid worst of pandemic Posted: 20 Aug 2020 04:06 PM PDT  Testing in Pakistan has been low, but the country seems to have suffered less than its neighbours.
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| Fact check: If the vice president becomes president, House speaker doesn't become new VP Posted: 20 Aug 2020 11:20 AM PDT  If Joe Biden is elected but unable to serve a full term, Kamala Harris would become president. Nancy Pelosi, as speaker, wouldn't automatically be VP.
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| Tropical storm forecast to form soon, could approach Florida as Cat 1 hurricane Posted: 19 Aug 2020 08:09 PM PDT  A tropical depression in the Atlantic may approach South Florida as a Category 1 hurricane early next week, according to the National Hurricane Center.
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| "It doesn’t look good": Fox News Judge Andrew Napolitano breaks down the case against Steve Bannon Posted: 20 Aug 2020 10:54 AM PDT  "It doesn't look good for him right now," Napolitano says on Fox News
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| Op-Ed: The Belarus crisis is a problem for Moscow. Here's how Putin might respond Posted: 21 Aug 2020 04:00 AM PDT  Short of using military force, Moscow can shape events in Belarus through networks developed by its security forces, economic levers and media sabotage.
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| Minneapolis police officer Thomas Lane didn’t check George Floyd’s ‘counterfeit’ $20 note Posted: 21 Aug 2020 10:59 AM PDT  The alleged counterfeit $20 bill used by George Floyd wasn't inspected or collected before his fatal arrest in Minneapolis, according to one of the first officers at the scene.Former police officer Thomas Lane said in newly-released audio that he didn't obtain the bill before, during or after the incident that led to Mr Floyd's death on 25 May.
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| 5 killed in California wildfires that continue to destroy homes Posted: 21 Aug 2020 03:42 AM PDT  At least five people have died in dozens of wildfires that are raging throughout Northern California.
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| Sen. Cassidy tests positive for virus, has COVID-19 symptoms Posted: 20 Aug 2020 11:57 AM PDT  U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy announced Thursday that he has tested positive for the coronavirus and is experiencing some COVID-19 symptoms. The Republican senator, 62, who is running for reelection on Nov. 3, is experiencing "mild symptoms that began this morning," from COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus, his spokesperson Cole Avery said. Cassidy is at least the 13th member of Congress known to have tested positive for the coronavirus and only the second senator.
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| Neilia Hunter Biden, the brains behind Joe Biden's first political victories Posted: 20 Aug 2020 05:02 AM PDT  Neilia Hunter Biden is known more for her tragic death, but she was "the brains" behind Biden's first Senate race.
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| California fires spread, fouling air and spurring evacuations Posted: 21 Aug 2020 01:49 PM PDT  Thick smoke blanketed large areas of central and northern California on Friday as more people fled some of the biggest fires in the state's history which have raged largely uncontrolled through the week.
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| Thousands evacuated as record flooding tests massive Chinese dam Posted: 20 Aug 2020 07:58 AM PDT  The Yangtze River has been swollen by record rainfall, and the biggest hydroelectric dam on the planet has never faced such a test.
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| It turns out Mitch McConnell will appear at the RNC after all Posted: 20 Aug 2020 10:16 PM PDT  After some back and forth, it's been confirmed that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) will make an appearance at next week's Republican National Convention.McConnell is up for re-election in November, and his campaign spokeswoman, Katharine Cooksey, said in a statement on Thursday that he would not be part of the convention. Instead, he planned on "traveling across all corners of Kentucky next week to speak with families, workers, and job creators about their needs." A few hours later, Cooksey changed course, saying there was a "miscommunication" and McConnell will be recording a message for the convention, The Hill reports. Like the Democratic National Convention this week, the RNC will be mostly virtual. President Trump will give his address from the White House, and told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Thursday night that he wants to have more live parts than the DNC did, because otherwise the event will be "boring."More stories from theweek.com The DNC's stirring eulogy for Joe Biden Lori Loughlin sentenced to 2 months in prison for role in college admissions scandal Trump initially responds to Biden's acceptance speech with brevity and correct grammar
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| 'They're not needed, sir': Postmaster General Louis DeJoy says USPS won't replace removed mail-sorting machines Posted: 21 Aug 2020 07:56 AM PDT  The USPS has been quietly destroying mail-sorting machines across the US, though it's not clear how many.
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| Mexican president defends brother hit by cash scandal Posted: 21 Aug 2020 06:05 AM PDT  President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Friday said footage showing his brother receiving cash was not corruption because the money was for legitimate election funds, but that the prosecutor's office should investigate the videos. The fallout from the videos threatens to damage Lopez Obrador and his government at a time when Mexico is convulsed by a corruption trial of a former state-oil company boss who has alleged graft against previous Mexican presidents. Lopez Obrador said the money given in the videos to his brother, Pio Lopez Obrador, was "contributed" by supporters to pay for things like gasoline and there was no corruption.
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| France's most notorious serial killer raped and murdered 'French Maddie' says ex-wife Posted: 21 Aug 2020 07:26 AM PDT  The ex-wife of France's most notorious living serial killer has accused him of raping and murdering a nine-year old school girl whose case has gripped the country for almost two decades. Estelle Mouzin disappeared in Guermantes, 18 miles east of Paris, on January 9, 2003 while walking home from her school. Her body was never found. Reported sightings fuelled speculation she was kidnapped and taken abroad, sparking parallels with Madeleine McCann, the British three-year-old who went missing in Portugal in 2007. Michel Fourniret, 77, already jailed for life in May 2008 for the murder of seven girls and young women, was charged over her disappearance late last year after his wife came forward to contradict his alibi. In March, Fourniret, dubbed the "Ogre of the Ardennes", then made a cryptic statement to police saying he admitted that "a being is no longer there by my fault" and that the body may be in the Ardennes, northeastern France. That sparked a search of his former properties, to no avail.
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| Colombia calls on US to extradite warlord over fears he will escape justice Posted: 20 Aug 2020 10:33 AM PDT  Salvatore Mancuso, free after a 12-year drug sentence, is wanted for gross human rights violations but is seeking to be deported to ItalyColombia has requested the extradition of a notorious paramilitary warlord jailed in the US on drug charges, amid fears that he may be deported to Italy – and escape justice for human rights crimes in the Andean nation.Salvatore Mancuso, 56, led a rightwing paramilitary group which carried out some of the worst violence against civilians during Colombia's decades-long civil war.He was convicted in Colombia of more than 1,500 murders and forced disappearances, and confessed to participating in a string of horrific crimes. But in 2008 was extradited to the US where he served 12 years of a 15-year sentence on drug trafficking charges.When was released in March, his lawyers claimed that he would be killed if he returns to Colombia, and argued that he should instead be deported to Italy, where he also holds citizenship.From there it is unlikely that he will answer for his crimes in Colombia, as the two countries do not share an extradition treaty."Salvatore Mancuso has serious outstanding debts with Colombian justice and for that I reason I have requested his extradition," Colombia's president, Iván Duque, tweeted on Thursday morning amid growing outcry over the case. "His crimes will not continue to be met with impunity."Mancuso, the well-educated son of an Italian immigrant from Colombia's cattle-ranching north-west, is the highest-ranking former commander of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia still alive. He signed off on countless atrocities during a three-way conflict between leftwing rebels and state forces often acting in collusion with the paramilitaries.In February 2000, militiamen under his command tortured and dismembered more than 60 peasant farmers in the rural village of El Salado, in one of the worst single acts of violence in the five-decade war. Victims – including a six-year-old girl and an elderly woman – were stabbed, beaten and strangled to death.Yirley Velasco, now 34, was 14 when four of Mancuso's men pinned her down in front of the village and sexually abused her after killing her neighbours."We're still wearing the scars of what he and his men did to us, every day we are tortured by it, so how could it be fair that he gets to live comfortably in Italy?" she said on Thursday.The conflict between the Colombian state and leftist rebel groups including the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (or Farc) left 260,000 dead and displaced over 7 million.A peace deal was signed with the Farc in 2016, which brought with it a truth and justice tribunal. Campaigners say that Mancuso, who has already implicated high-profile politicians in his crimes, must answer to it."He must come to Colombia to tell the truth about the political and business leaders that were involved," said Iván Cepeda, a prominent leftist senator whose father, a congressman, was murdered by paramilitaries in 1994.Rosario Montoya, 62, an afro-indigenous organiser from Mancuso's home-province of Córdoba, was forced to run from one of his death squads in 1987 after many of her neighbours and fellow activists had been murdered."They exterminated us and they stole our land and yet only Mancuso knows the truth of what happened," Montoya said. "We're not hoping that he gets punished, we're just hoping to hear who gave him the orders."
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| Commission rejects Trump camp’s request to help broker a fourth debate with Biden Posted: 21 Aug 2020 08:56 AM PDT  Biden's campaign long ago agreed to three debates.
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| U.S. could see two tropical systems make landfall on same day Posted: 21 Aug 2020 01:02 PM PDT  On record, there have never been two hurricanes at the same time in the Gulf of Mexico, and that could happen this Monday or Tuesday.
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| Bolivia probes alleged Morales affair with minor Posted: 20 Aug 2020 05:47 PM PDT  Bolivia's justice ministry has filed a criminal complaint against 60-year-old former president Evo Morales over an alleged sexual relationship with a minor, Deputy Minister Guido Melgar said Thursday.
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| Republican senator Bill Cassidy tests positive for coronavirus Posted: 20 Aug 2020 02:10 PM PDT  Republican senator Bill Cassidy has tested positive for Covid-19, after he was exposed to someone infected with the virus.On Thursday, Mr Cassidy's office announced that he had become just the second senator to have contracted coronavirus, after Republican Rand Paul tested positive for Covid-19 in April, according to CNBC.
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| Pence calls QAnon 'conspiracy theory' after Trump gives it praise Posted: 21 Aug 2020 08:31 AM PDT  Vice President Mike Pence denounced QAnon as a "conspiracy theory," drawing a line of distinction between himself and President Trump, who earlier this week suggested he appreciated supporters of the theory.
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| Putin is counting on your vote in November. Are you in with ‘Vova?’ | Opinion Posted: 20 Aug 2020 01:50 PM PDT  Vladimir Putin is on the ballot this November.
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| Pakistani who killed American in court says he was given gun Posted: 20 Aug 2020 09:52 AM PDT  A Pakistani man charged with the killing of a U.S. citizen inside a court in the country's restive northwest has claimed he had an accomplice, a lawyer who managed to sneak the gun into the building and give it to him, the police said Thursday. The American, Tahir Naseem, was gunned down in public last month in the city of Peshawar where he was on trial for blasphemy following his arrest two years ago after he had allegedly declared himself Islam's prophet. The U.S. State Department said Naseem had been "lured to Pakistan" from his home in Illinois and entrapped by the country's controversial blasphemy law, which international rights groups have sought to have repealed.
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| Southwest is turning down $2.8 billion in CARES Act aid to avoid the federal government's 'onerous' conditions Posted: 21 Aug 2020 01:45 PM PDT  Even as bookings stay low, Southwest said it can raise enough cash to endure the crisis — and avoid dealing with the strings attached to federal help.
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| Dear Joe Biden: The filibuster will stop all your ideas Posted: 19 Aug 2020 06:58 PM PDT  On the third night of the Democratic National Convention, a couple rather neglected topics came first in the proceedings — namely, gun control and climate change. Gabby Giffords, a former Democratic member of Congress from Arizona who was shot in the head in 2011, spoke movingly about her long and difficult recovery, and the need for reasonable gun control laws. Several scientists and activists similarly spoke about the stark need for aggressive climate policy to protect America from climate change.It's nice to see the Democratic Party making room for these issues alongside newsier problems like the coronavirus pandemic and the economic collapse. A future President Biden will have more crises on his plate than any president since Franklin Roosevelt in 1933.However, we should remember that unless the Democrats get rid of the Senate filibuster, there will be little or no progress on any of these issues, big or small. Republicans will almost certainly retain more than 40 seats in the Senate and, if the filibuster remains, be able to bottle up almost all legislation there as Mitch McConnell did for nearly the entirety of the Obama presidency. Moderate Democratic senators have long expressed reluctance about getting rid of the filibuster, but the truth is that unless it is abolished, America will remain nearly impossible to govern.More stories from theweek.com 5 bitingly funny cartoons about the Democratic National Convention A confused Kirsten Dunst asks Kanye West why he put her on his campaign poster Joe Biden's incomparable presidential odyssey
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| MSC Cruises says family denied reboarding after they broke COVID-19 'social bubble' Posted: 20 Aug 2020 01:30 PM PDT  MSC Cruises cracked down on passengers who broke newly implemented health and safety protocols during a shore excursion.
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| Exclusive: Manchester teen who joined Islamic State with twin sister being held with young son in controversial Syrian detention camp Posted: 21 Aug 2020 07:10 AM PDT  A woman from Manchester who joined Islamic State (IS) as a teenager alongside her twin sister is alive and being held with her young son in a controversial camp run by Syrian Kurdish forces, sources in northeast Syria have confirmed to The Telegraph. Salma and Zahra Halane were 16 when they fled their home in Chorlton in June 2014 to travel to Syria, but their fate has not been known since IS lost the last of its territory in fighting against Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in March 2019. Zahra was recently caught trying to escape from the sprawling Al Hol camp, where she had lived for 16 months, and was transferred last week from a women's prison to a new high-security extension to Roj camp, where humanitarians worry the most dangerous IS supporters are being moved, sources in the camps said. Salma's whereabouts is unknown but she is also believed to be alive. Dubbed the "terror twins" in the media, Zahra and Salma remain committed IS supporters, according to women in Al Hol. The fact that their presence went unreported and that at least one of them attempted to escape illustrates the danger of leaving tens of thousands of jihadists under the guard of a militia in a war-torn country, experts say. The Halane twins, who moved to Manchester at a young age from Denmark, crossed into Syria in July 2014, shortly after IS declared a caliphate. The twins, whose elder brother had reportedly travelled to Syria the year before, moved to Raqqa, the caliphate's capital, and soon married Islamic State fighters. Their youth and apparent enthusiasm for life under IS attracted widespread attention, and their journey to jihad was later copied by the Bethnal Green trio - teenage girls from an academy in London of whom only Shamima Begum is known to have survived.
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| Northern Cyprus set to reopen Cypriot ghost town on ceasefire lines Posted: 21 Aug 2020 04:24 AM PDT  Northern Cyprus is almost ready to begin reopening the town of Varosha, the breakaway state's premier said on Friday, a former resort area fenced off and abandoned in no-man's land since a 1974 Turkish invasion that split the island. Turkish Cypriot Prime Minister Ersin Tatar said the revival of Varosha, now an eerie collection of derelict hotels, churches and residences, would bring trade and tourism benefits. The move is likely to anger Greek Cypriots, 39,000 of whom once lived in Varosha before fleeing advancing Turkish forces 46 years ago, and stoke tensions between the two sides.
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| Portland man arrested in beating near Black Lives Matter protests Posted: 21 Aug 2020 04:13 AM PDT  Marquise Love had been sought since police identified him earlier this week as suspect in the Sunday night attack by a group of people on Adam Haner, who had crashed his pick-up truck near the protests. The beating came during rising tensions between left and right-wing protesters that have roiled downtown Portland each night for nearly three months following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in police custody. President Donald Trump called the demonstrations in Portland "crazy" on Friday, as he said cities run by Democrats had become lawless and chaotic.
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| Tropical Storm Laura shifts south, leaving most of Florida outside the projected path Posted: 21 Aug 2020 06:42 AM PDT  The race to become Tropical Storm Laura goes to tropical depression 13, a system pointed toward the Bahamas and South Florida as a Category 1 hurricane late in the weekend.
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| Former sailor details misconduct by SEALs pulled from Iraq Posted: 20 Aug 2020 10:01 PM PDT  U.S. Navy intelligence specialist Colleen Grace was asleep on a remote air base in Iraq when she was woken up by knocking on the door next to her room, and then a voice she recognized. The voice belonged to a Navy corpsman she knew. Grace heard the corpsman say that a sailor who attended a Fourth of July barbecue had just been raped by a Navy SEAL on base.
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| The Effects of Hong Kong’s National-Security Law Are Already Clear Posted: 20 Aug 2020 01:12 PM PDT  Just a few weeks after China's imposition of a new "national-security law" on Hong Kong, we can already see the law's effects: It has emboldened the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to suppress dissent, punish activism, and create fear within the city's democracy movement.In 1997, the United Kingdom returned Hong Kong, which it had governed for 99 years under a lease extorted from the Qing Dynasty, back to the People's Republic of China. At the time, the PRC promised to preserve the political autonomy and freedoms the city had enjoyed under the British until 2047. The national-security law and the crackdown it initiated marked the breaking of that promise.Beijing's move to exert increased control over the city reflects several factors, first and foremost among them the rise of Xi Jinping. Xi has attempted to strengthen the CCP's control of China and his control of the CCP, and after tightening his grip on the mainland, he naturally sought to inflict the same fate on Hong Kong. The city's democracy movement, in turn, erred by forgetting that it ultimately was dealing with Xi's regime, which had already crushed all opposition at home, and in demanding what the Hong Kong authorities could never provide (full democracy) while delivering what the CCP could never abide (chaos).Hence the imposition of the national-security law by Beijing, with results worse than anyone predicted.The NSL criminalizes separatism, subversion, and terrorism. All of those crimes are vaguely defined, with ultimate interpretation up to Beijing, which uses similar restrictions to stifle dissent on the mainland. Special judges will be appointed to oversee national-security trials, which can be conducted in secret. Chinese security agents now operate in Hong Kong and defendants can be sent to the mainland for trial. The law singles out "collusion with a foreign country or with external forces to endanger national security," which is so broad it could cover something as simple as criticizing Beijing in an interview with a foreign reporter. Under the law, Beijing even claims the power to charge foreign nationals for acts committed overseas, and indeed has already attempted to do so. Those convicted can receive life imprisonment.Representatives of Hong Kong, who had no say in formulating the measure, have spent the weeks since its enactment desperately seeking to defuse international criticism. No doubt, Xi's regime would prefer to win widespread compliance through intimidation; mass arrests would take effort, create international controversy, and undermine Beijing's image. Ultimately the CCP hopes to use indoctrination backed by coercion to tranquilize Hong Kong's population.Indeed, regime allies in the city's government admitted as much when the law was first implemented. Stanley Ng, a delegate to the National People's Congress, the mainland's rubber-stamp legislature, said the law was ambiguous by design in order to incorporate the "real effects of intimidation and deterrence. You can see the rebels in Hong Kong are now in turmoil." Tam Yiu-chung, another NPC apparatchik, also lauded the law's impact: "Those who have stirred up trouble and broken this type of law in the past will hopefully watch themselves in the future. If they continue to defy the law, they will bear the consequences."The law was, in short, intended to trigger the democracy movement's broad retreat from the public square, and it has. But there are already signs that its effects will be much more far-reaching.On Monday, Hong Kong authorities arrested Apple Daily publisher Jimmy Lai, along with two of his sons and four company executives, for alleged collusion with foreign groups. Around 200 police officers raided the paper. China's nationalistic Global Times tagged Lai as a "modern traitor." On passage of the NSL, Lai had warned: "Whatever we write, or whatever we say, they can label secession or subversion or whatever they decide according to their expedience."Detained separately were members of the now-disbanded group Scholarism and an election-monitoring organization, as well as 23-year-old pro-democracy politician and protest leader Agnes Chow. Over the weekend, Chow cited surveillance of her home on social media. After the plethora of arrests, another democracy activist, Sunny Cheung, observed: "Everyone, let's mentally prepare. The road ahead will be darker and more terrifying than what we've imagined."Such arrests might have been expected within Hong Kong when the law was passed. But last week, the authorities also issued warrants for six activists based overseas. The police refused to discuss the case, but the Chinese state-owned CCTV network helpfully explained that the activists were wanted for promoting secession and colluding with foreigners.One is Samuel Muk-man Chu, the head of the Washington-based Hong Kong Democracy Council, which lobbies the U.S. government. Chu, born in Hong Kong, has been an American citizen for 25 years. He is best known for his work as a pastor and for running several social-justice organizations. China seeks to jail him for promoting the cause of human rights in Hong Kong from the U.S. "I might be the first non-Chinese citizen to be targeted, but I will not be the last," he told CNN. "If I am targeted, any American/any citizen of any nation who speaks out for Hong Kong can — and will be — too."Also charged was Nathan Law, a leader of the 2014 "Umbrella Revolution" democracy protests. He was elected to the Legislative Council in 2016, but subsequently disqualified at Beijing's direction. He wisely fled to the United Kingdom after the NSL's passage. If the law is not being applied retrospectively, as China claims it is not, he is being indicted for actions he undertook after leaving the territory.Simon Cheung, another target, worked for the British consulate in Hong Kong. When visiting mainland China last year, he was detained for 15 days, apparently tortured, and questioned about the democracy movement. After his release, he was granted asylum by the United Kingdom. The charges against him apparently relate to his work there.Amid all of these efforts to intimidate dissenters into silence, the law's passage has also prompted Hong Kong's Beijing-backed chief executive, Carrie Lam, to postpone the September Legislative Council elections, allowing Beijing to decide the body's make-up until the vote is held next year. Lam, who defended the NSL despite not having seen it before it was enacted, claimed that "political considerations" played no role in the postponement, which she blamed on the COVID-19 pandemic. But the PRC had real reason to fear that the opposition would gain control of the Council for the first time if the election had been held as scheduled.The council's makeup is determined through a hybrid system, some lawmakers are directly elected by Hong Kongers, while some are chosen by interest groups. Historically that has ensured that China-friendly elites have the upper hand in governing the city, but hostility toward Beijing has peaked in the aftermath of the NSL's imposition, so much so that the traditional barriers to democratic governance were unlikely to hold if the election had been held. Last November, democracy activists won control of 17 out of 18 district councils normally controlled by establishment parties. Even pro-Beijing Legislative Council members expected another devastating election defeat. The vote delay gives the regime even more opportunity to threaten and arrest anyone who poses a threat to its aims.Even before the election was postponed, the Hong Kong government had disqualified a dozen candidates, including four sitting legislators, on the grounds of promoting self-determination/independence, seeking foreign intervention (such as sanctions against Hong Kong and/or Beijing), opposing the NSL, and promising to reject government initiatives. Beijing's Liaison Office, the territory's real government, explained that "these unscrupulous individuals who are plotting to destroy" Hong Kong could not be allowed to sit on the Council. After the election delay was announced, the government admitted that other candidates are being reviewed: "We do not rule out the possibility that more nominations would be invalidated."With unintended irony, Lam's government mixed its announcement with the statement that it "respects and safeguards the lawful rights of Hong Kong people, including the right to vote and the right to stand for elections." Two weeks ago, the same government suggested that 600,000 Hong Kongers may have violated the NSL by voting in an informal primary for democracy activists. If the goal of the ballot was "objecting or resisting every policy initiative of the [Hong Kong] government," Lam said, "it may fall under the category of subverting the state power—one of the four types of offenses under the national-security law." The police subsequently raided the offices of the polling organization that ran the vote.The authorities also recently arrested four activists, as young as 16, for "inciting secession." They were members of Studentlocalism, a group for pro-independence students in secondary school. Notably, the organization ended operations before the NSL officially took effect, but those detained had posted support for independence on social media afterward, and the police explained that making such statements constituted incitement. Regina Ip, one of the PRC's most reliable local factotums, applauded the arrests, which, she told the New York Times, show the authorities are "acting in accordance with the law."After the law's passage, tenured law professor Benny Tai was dismissed by the University of Hong Kong for his pro-democracy activities. Previously punished for his participation in the 2014 demonstrations, he was recently cited by Beijing for assisting in the unofficial primary. The PRC liaison office blamed him for having "poisoned Hong Kong's political environment," calling him "the culprit behind the chaos in Hong Kong and the representative for colluding foreign powers," and his removal "a just act of punishing evil and promoting good and conforming to the people's will."Other Teachers are being targeted, too. Last month, 92 percent of those surveyed by the Hong Kong Professional Teachers' Union said they felt government pressure and had a negative view of the educational system's future; 80 percent avoided sensitive subjects in the classroom. Many who protested or endorsed anti-government demonstrations were reprimanded and in some cases fired. The Education Bureau called for the elimination of any teaching materials that could "provoke any acts or activities which endanger national security." Some subjects, such as human rights on the mainland, seem likely to become verboten. At an education meeting, Lam ominously said that she hoped "the national-security law is also a turning point for returning education to education and returning students to the right track."Beijing has conducted a broad, cruel, and shockingly effective campaign to destroy political and intellectual liberty in Hong Kong in a very short time. There is no need to wait to judge the impact of the national-security law: It has already chilled free speech, precluded political protest, and silenced critics of the PRC's increasingly oppressive rule. Hong Kongers now face the same fate as mainland Chinese, free to talk only about what the government allows them to talk about. Speak out on anything else, and they risk arrest, prosecution, and prison.The West, at least at the moment, has no satisfactory answer to the crackdown facilitated by the NSL. But we should be under no illusions: Xi Jinping is bringing his increasingly totalitarian rule to Hong Kong. Just over a month and a half after the law's passage, that much is all too clear.
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