| DC Police release body camera footage from fatal shooting Posted: 03 Sep 2020 12:31 PM PDT  Police in the nation's capital on Thursday released body camera footage from the officer who fatally shot a Black teenager a day earlier, leading to protests outside Mayor Muriel Bowser's home and a police station. Deon Kay, 18, was shot in the chest Wednesday afternoon in the midst of a foot pursuit with police officers. The officer turns around, sees Kay running a few feet behind him and fires a single shot into Kay's chest.
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| Mark Zuckerberg says he personally told President Trump that some of his 'rhetoric was problematic' Posted: 04 Sep 2020 08:11 AM PDT  Facebook's new election policies will apply to the president. Trump's campaign responded by saying he's being "silenced by the Silicon Valley Mafia."
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| A shark latched onto a Florida man’s arm and decided to stay awhile, video shows Posted: 04 Sep 2020 11:58 AM PDT  A small shark hung onto a Florida beachgoer's arm relentlessly over the weekend, and the victim acted like it was no big deal.
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| 19 Black families purchase 96 acres of land to create a 'safe haven' for Black people Posted: 03 Sep 2020 02:51 PM PDT  Nineteen Black families purchased more than 96 acres of land in Georgia to create a safe space free of oppression. Eventually, they hope to grow the area into an incorporated, self-sustaining community.
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| Remains of sailor killed in Pearl Harbor returned home Posted: 03 Sep 2020 09:34 AM PDT  Navy Fireman First Class Hadley Heavin, 23, was on the USS West Virginia when torpedoes and bombs destroyed the battleship on December 7, 1941.
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| Part of Trump’s border wall at risk of collapse just months after it was built Posted: 04 Sep 2020 06:57 AM PDT  Part of the Trump administration's border wall between the US and Mexico is at risk of collapsing just months after it was constructed, new engineering reports claim.The border wall, constructed at the shore of Rio Grande, which forms part of the border between the US and Mexico, is at risk of collapsing due to construction flaws, new reports to be filed in federal court this week allege.
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| 2 'fat-phobic' Airbnb hosts have been slammed for banning guests weighing over 220 pounds Posted: 04 Sep 2020 03:40 AM PDT  "Specifying a certain weight is fat-phobic as it's discriminating against people who have a larger body," fat activist Lindsay McGlone said.
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| Alleged Boogaloo members face terrorism charges in Minnesota Posted: 04 Sep 2020 03:41 PM PDT  Two men who prosecutors say are members of an anti-government extremist group, who toted guns on Minneapolis streets during unrest following the death of George Floyd and spoke about shooting police, blowing up a courthouse and killing politicians, have been charged with federal terrorism counts. Michael Robert Solomon, 30, of New Brighton, Minnesota, and Benjamin Ryan Teeter, 22, of Hampstead, North Carolina, are members of the "Boogaloo Bois," authorities say.
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| Trump wins backing of largest U.S. police union as he touts 'law and order' Posted: 04 Sep 2020 07:50 AM PDT  The United States' largest police union on Friday endorsed President Donald Trump's re-election bid, boosting the Republican's message that he is the candidate of "law and order" amid U.S. protests against police brutality and racial injustice. The Fraternal Order of Police, which has more than 355,000 members nationally, said Trump had shown his support and understanding for law enforcement officers facing civil unrest around the country in recent months.
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| A Florida high school student was charged with a cyberattack that caused chaos during the first week of online classes Posted: 04 Sep 2020 07:57 AM PDT  The attack crashed the district's online learning platform and blocked students from logging on during the first week of online classes.
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| The Navy sent him to prison for smuggling explosives. A ‘wanted’ poster for him was sent to the Keys Posted: 03 Sep 2020 05:41 PM PDT  A U.S. Navy sailor on the lam for almost 15 years after escaping military prison in Washington state where he was beginning a three-year sentence for trying to smuggle explosives into the country could be in South Florida, officials say.
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| Iowa Sen. Ernst suggests COVID-19 deaths inflated, later issues clarification Posted: 03 Sep 2020 04:38 AM PDT  The Republican lawmaker's comments echoed a baseless conspiracy about the virus. Her state is a pandemic hot spot.
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| California making 'a lot of progress' on reopening theme parks, but Gov. Newsom isn't ready to say when Posted: 03 Sep 2020 11:02 AM PDT  California is making "a lot of progress" toward reopening Disneyland and other theme parks, Gov. Gavin Newsom says. But he isn't ready to talk dates.
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| Image of Palestinian under Israeli soldier's knee sparks outrage Posted: 04 Sep 2020 08:09 AM PDT  Footage of an Israeli soldier throwing a Palestinian activist to the ground and kneeling on his neck has sparked outrage in the Palestinian territories and beyond.
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| Japan bracing for dangerously powerful typhoon Posted: 04 Sep 2020 03:15 AM PDT  Japan is bracing for a dangerously powerful typhoon approaching its southern regions this weekend on the heels of an earlier storm that injured dozens of people in the country and on the Korean Peninsula. Typhoon Haishen, or Sea God in Chinese, could bring nearly unprecedentedly severe rain, rough waves and high tides to Okinawa and Kyushu by early Sunday, Japan Meteorological Agency officials said. Agency weather forecaster Yoshihisa Nakamoto, in a televised news conference, urged people in the typhoon's path to take precautions and secure extra stocks of water, food and other necessities.
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| Joe Biden receives nearly 200 endorsements from current and former law enforcement officials, as they call Trump ‘lawless’ Posted: 04 Sep 2020 09:52 AM PDT  Joe Biden has won the endorsement of nearly 200 current and former law enforcement officials, as they call Donald Trump a "lawless president".The list, which was announced by the Biden campaign, included former Obama administration Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano as well as dozens of former attorney generals, US attorneys, local police chiefs, and sheriffs.
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| Nepal police fire tear gas to stop religious rally amid COVID-19 surge Posted: 03 Sep 2020 06:47 AM PDT  Police in Nepal used tear gas and water cannon on Thursday to break up a religious rally that defied a government ban on public gatherings imposed to fight the coronavirus pandemic. Despite the ban, about 2,000 residents poured into a major thoroughfare of Lalitpur, near Nepal's capital Kathmandu, to pull a chariot of the rain god, Rato Machhindranath, a ritual that has been celebrated for countless generations. Authorities imposed temporary curbs in Kathmandu and surrounding areas in August to help contain coronavirus contagion and asked residents to observe festivals at home.
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| Trooper arrested after video shows him ripping off protester’s mask in Tennessee Posted: 04 Sep 2020 12:13 PM PDT  Harvey Briggs was fired after video of the incident went viral.
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| Jessica Krug: George Washington University professor says she lied about being black Posted: 04 Sep 2020 08:02 AM PDT  A blog written by Jessica Krug, a white woman, admits to falsely claiming black identity for years.
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| 3 deaths, 147 coronavirus cases now tied to Maine wedding Posted: 04 Sep 2020 12:57 PM PDT  The three people who died as a result of the outbreak did not attend the wedding.
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| White woman charged with hate crime over beach confrontation Posted: 04 Sep 2020 04:26 AM PDT  A white woman has been charged with a felony hate crime after she initiated a confrontation with a group of Black men.
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| Another record-breaking heat wave is building in the West Posted: 03 Sep 2020 10:24 AM PDT  In some areas the heat will be even more intense than the historic heat wave just a couple of weeks ago.
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| Macron decries 'Islamic separatism,' defends blasphemy Posted: 04 Sep 2020 04:13 AM PDT  French President Emmanuel Macron criticized Friday what he called "Islamic separatism" in his country and those who seek French citizenship without accepting France's "right to commit blasphemy." Macron defended satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, which published caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that helped inspire two French-born Islamic extremists to mount a deadly January 2015 attack on the paper's newsroom. The weekly republished the images this week as the trial began of 14 people over the attacks on Charlie Hebdo and on a kosher supermarket.
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| Trump accused of describing war dead as 'losers' and 'suckers.' He denies allegations. Here's what we know Posted: 04 Sep 2020 02:30 PM PDT |
| Iranian judge in Romania committed suicide, prosecutors say Posted: 04 Sep 2020 06:50 AM PDT  A fugitive Iranian judge whose corpse was found in a Bucharest hotel in June had committed suicide by jumping from a hotel's 5th floor, Romanian prosecutors said on Friday. Gholamreza Mansouri, 52, fled corruption charges in Iran last year, one of several judges accused during a high-profile trial. European pro-democracy groups had also accused him of human rights violations.
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| One killed, three people wounded in Miami-area shooting, police say Posted: 04 Sep 2020 03:18 AM PDT  One man was killed and three others wounded in what Miami-Dade County police say was a drive-by shooting late Thursday night.
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| Typhoon Maysak: Ship with 43 crew and nearly 6,000 cattle missing off coast of Japan Posted: 02 Sep 2020 07:20 PM PDT  More than 40 crew members were missing after a ship carrying cattle from New Zealand to China capsized in stormy weather in the East China Sea, the Japanese coastguard said on Thursday. A lone crew member from the Gulf Livestock 1 had been rescued so far. Three vessels, four airplanes and two divers were taking part in the search, the coastguard said. The ship, with a cargo of nearly 6,000 cattle, sent a distress call from the west of Amami Oshima island in southwestern Japan on Wednesday as Typhoon Maysak lashed the area with strong winds and heavy seas. Sareno Edvarodo, a 45-year-old chief officer from the Philippines, was rescued on Wednesday night, Japan's coastguard said. By Thursday evening, he was still the only person rescued so far, a coastguard official said, adding the bodies of some cattle had been recovered. The crew of 43 was made up of 39 people from the Philippines, two from New Zealand, and two from Australia, the coastguard said.
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| Toronto crash: Passengers ignored safety commands, report finds Posted: 03 Sep 2020 08:50 AM PDT  A report reveals how passengers ignored safety advice after a plane collided with a fuel tanker.
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| Why were police at Breonna Taylor's home? Here's what an investigative summary says Posted: 04 Sep 2020 06:00 AM PDT  The reason for targeting Breonna Taylor's apartment for a search warrant after midnight has been a key question since she was fatally shot.
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| Texas Governor Declares a Victory Over COVID. What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Posted: 04 Sep 2020 12:55 AM PDT  Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has already seen his state's reopening waylaid by a resurgent coronavirus pandemic this summer, so a recent tweet from the governor that seemed to indicate he could be ready to do it all over again has alarmed local officials."I'm concerned about how far he goes," Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, a Democrat, told The Daily Beast. "I'll have to wait and see where he goes."The dynamics are just the latest in ongoing tensions between the red state governor and local blue leaders. In a tweet Monday, Abbott touted that he "said last month that Texas wouldn't have anymore lockdowns—despite demands from mayors & county judges insisting on," such a move. "Since my last orders in July, Covid numbers have declined—most importantly hospitalizations," Abbott said in the tweet. "I hope to provide updates next week about next steps." The governor's tweet came in response to an account called "Deep in the Heart of Texas" tweeting at Abbott that "those of us in the restaurant industry need this clarity in our future," after pointing to a video of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis saying earlier that day "we will never do any of these lockdowns again." No other details were given by the governor and a spokesperson for Abbott did not respond to requests for comment seeking more information. The stakes for Abbott are high in Texas after the state's reopening capsized this summer and cases surged, hitting nearly 10,800 new daily cases on July 15, according to state data. That same month, some Democratic leaders called for the governor to give them the power to do local stay at home orders.The state's situation may have improved since then, but Peter Jay Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine, said Texas still has "a pretty high level of transmission." "I don't know what the goals are then by rolling back," Hotez said. "There's no victory here. There's still a very poor quality of life in the metro areas in Texas." As of Wednesday, the state's test positivity rate stood at 8.98 percent, according to state health data, while hospitalizations in the state had fallen from nearly 10,900 on July 22 to 4,075 as of Thursday's report with the daily new case number coming in at 3,899. And with those numbers in mind, the upcoming flu season is seen as another challenge that wouldn't be made easier if the state reopens too quickly. "Whether it's Texas or not… I don't really understand why we would consider relaxing any type of public health measures that we have in place like masking and distancing and certain high risk areas being off limits, more or less, until we get past the flu season at least," said Dr. Rodney E. Rohde, professor and chair of the clinical laboratory science program at Texas State University. Texas Just Hit 10,000 COVID Deaths, and It's 'Flying Blind'A handful of elected officials and public health experts stated bluntly that now isn't the time for the governor to make a reopening push, with the possible reopening of bars in the state a major worry for some like Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins. "If the governor opens bars back up, or makes masking permissive rather than a requirement then he'll squander the gains that we've worked so hard for and the community has sacrificed so long for and we'll be right back in the mess that we were in a month after Open Texas," Jenkins, a Democrat, warned. The Houston area in particular has been hit hard by the coronavirus, and in Harris County the risk level is still listed as severe, meaning there is "a severe and uncontrolled level of COVID-19," according to the county's website. As The Daily Beast previously reported in July, a surge in cases were flooding the area's health care system as calls for a lockdown became more persistent. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, who in mid-July called for a two-week shutdown, picked the governor apart in a statement this week about the Republican's handling of the pandemic pointing to "disastrous" results following the state's reopening in May as he worried about the future. "And now that numbers are better like in April, the governor is about to embark on the same course again," Turner, a Democrat, said. "It is frustrating that he is making decisions that impact all of us without including local officials in the process. The State is about to repeat its mistake, expecting a different result."After Texas began reopening in May, Abbott's reopening push fell apart in late June as the state's coronavirus situation worsened and he halted the state's re-opening over concerns about hospitalizations and new cases. In the days to come, the Republican also closed bars, limited restaurant capacity and made a statewide mask executive order for "counties with 20 or more positive COVID-19 cases," according to a July 2 statement from the governor's office. More than 40 counties are exempt from the order, according to the Texas Division of Emergency Management. When both policies and behaviors in Texas became more relaxed in early May that led to "alarming increases in cases and hospitalizations," in some places the following month Lauren Ancel Meyers, the director of the University of Texas at Austin COVID-19 modeling consortium, told The Daily Beast. The stricter policies and change in behavior that came about because of that then slowed transmission of the virus, Meyers said. "The longer we hold on to the precautionary behavior and the policies the more we will see cases and hospitalizations continue to decline," Meyers said. "It's reasonable to consider changes in policy that may provide some economic and social relief, however, only if done with extreme caution and really strong messaging around the responsibility we all have to take precautions when we're going out in public, to not go out in public if we or anyone in our household even has the slightest symptom of COVID. " While some local officials were clearly troubled by what could come from Abbott's office next week, Deaf Smith County Judge D.J. Wagner welcomed the idea of easing statewide restrictions. "Oh absolutely," the Republican said. "Yeah, we've got to get on with life." That wasn't a feeling shared on the Texas/Mexico border by Maverick County Judge David Saucedo. The local Democrat warned that he didn't think "we're out of the woods yet," and lamented that numbers in border communities have been "pretty high.""In my community, I'm seeing that we're still a hotspot," Saucedo said. "…After every holiday we've seen an uptick in cases go up and we don't want to get into that danger zone again."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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| Death toll from flooding in northwest Pakistan rises to 48 Posted: 03 Sep 2020 12:23 PM PDT  Flash floods triggered by week-long monsoon rains that have hit northwestern Pakistan, including the scenic Swat Valley, have brought the death toll to 48, a government spokesman said Thursday. The army has joined relief and rescue operations across Pakistan, which has been hard hit by rains this summer. Key roads that have been blocked by large rocks dislodged in mudslides are being cleared, according to Taimur Khan, spokesman for the disaster management agency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
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| A car plowed through Black Lives Matter protesters in Times Square, and the NYPD had to deny accusations it was one of its unmarked vehicles Posted: 04 Sep 2020 03:06 AM PDT  The police told local media that the driver was involved in a separate pro-Trump rally that crossed paths with the Black Lives Matter protesters.
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| 'Nothing was going to defeat him': Biden describes phone call with Jacob Blake Posted: 03 Sep 2020 03:26 PM PDT  Biden met with the family in Wisconsin and said Blake's mother prayed with him for her son — and for the police officer who shot him.
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| Does $27 million have a smell? That’s how this agent found it, U.S. Customs says Posted: 03 Sep 2020 05:02 AM PDT  A $27 million smuggling operation got sniffed out Saturday before the ferrying boat could reach the U.S. Virgin Islands, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Puerto Rico said.
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| 'I don't have a safety net': Unemployed Americans say they're stuck after finding out they don't qualify for the $300 jobless benefit expansion Posted: 03 Sep 2020 06:28 PM PDT  More than a million unemployed Americans won't get President Donald Trump's jobless benefit expansion because they get less than $100 per week.
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| Humans almost solely responsible for mammal extinctions in past 126,000 years, study finds Posted: 04 Sep 2020 10:27 AM PDT  Human activity was the cause of 96 per cent of mammal extinctions in the past 126,000 years, rather than climate change, according to a new study. The arrival of humans to Australia around 65,000 years ago and the Americas some 24,000 years ago caused particular spikes in animal extinctions, according to the study in Science Advances. The researchers found similar results in Madagascar and the Caribbean, where animal extinction rates shot up after the arrival of the first humans. The study by a team of researchers from Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK predicts as many as 558 species could be lost in the next hundred years, amid the highest spike in extinction rates since non-avian dinosaurs disappeared 66 million years ago. That compares to just 351 mammal species extinctions since the beginning of the Late Pleistocene 126,000 years ago, although rates have already been rising rapidly, with 80 species lost in the last 1,500 years. The conclusion that historical extinctions have been driven by human activity contradicts earlier studies which have suggested that climate change was responsible, in particular for the extinction of megafauna such as woolly rhinos and mammoths 12,000 years ago. The scientists compiled a large dataset of fossils and found "essentially no evidence for climate-driven extinctions", said co-author Daniele Silvestro. But the authors of the study, which was published in Science Advances, warned that climate change now poses a unique threat to animal species. "Together with fragmented habitats, poaching, and other human-related threats, it poses a large risk for many species," said Mr Silvestro. Current extinction rates are around 1,700 times higher than those at the beginning of the Late Pleistocene, the authors say. "Reconstructing our past impacts on biodiversity is essential to understand why some species and ecosystems have been particularly vulnerable to human activities – which can hopefully allow us to develop more effective conservation actions to combat extinction," said co-author Professor Samuel Turvey at ZSL (Zoological Society of London).
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| 'You shoot at the police, expect us to shoot back': Ohio sheriff responds to protest 'lawlessness' Posted: 03 Sep 2020 03:03 PM PDT  Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones said in a statement Wednesday that he won't allow individuals to harm his deputies.
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| Here’s Where Jeffrey Epstein Donated Right Before His Arrest Posted: 03 Sep 2020 01:17 AM PDT  In the year before his arrest for trafficking minors, Jeffrey Epstein used his shadowy foundation to lavish $891,440 across a dozen nonprofits—including one group in France that was created shortly before Epstein's contribution.Epstein's Gratitude America Ltd. donated tens of thousands throughout 2018 to the obscure group in Paris, along with a Lithuanian ballet company, and an Italian psychology group that offers psychotherapy and sexual counseling.The French group, whose name translates to "Association for the Promotion of National Cultural Policy Conducted in the 80s and 90s of the Twentieth Century," launched in July 2018 with $57,897 from Epstein, public records reveal. The organization lists an address in the 14th arrondissement, in a building mostly occupied by doctors' offices. But the Association wasn't listed among the building's buzzers and mailboxes, and it doesn't appear to have any online presence or known ownership.REVEALED: We Found Billionaire Pedophile Jeffrey Epstein's Secret CharityEpstein frequently visited Paris, where he owned an $8.6-million apartment steps from the Arc de Triomphe. Indeed, police handcuffed the sex offender on a New Jersey tarmac, just after he returned from France in July 2019.Several of Epstein's victims claimed the financier abused them in Paris, according to lawsuits filed against his estate. One survivor, Teala Davies, said Epstein flew her from Madrid to Paris, where he crept into her room and raped her in 2003. Another woman, identified as Mary Doe, claimed Epstein invited her to his Parisian home and "arranged for her to attend a concert accompanied by a world-famous supermodel."Virginia Giuffre, who says Epstein kept her as his sex slave, claimed Epstein and his alleged accomplice, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, abused her in France, too. (Maxwell, who is awaiting trial in a federal prison on charges related to Epstein's teen sex trafficking ring, denies Giuffre's accusations.)Epstein Accuser Says He Tried to Traffic Her to Famous Hollywood ProducerGiuffre has also accused Maxwell of ordering her to have sex with the owner of a large hotel chain during one trip to France, according to a cache of recently unsealed court records. The encounter occurred around the time of Naomi Campbell's birthday party, Giuffre claimed. In a deposition, Giuffre said she had sexual contact with Maxwell in a fancy hotel overlooking the Champs-Elysées, and that Maxwell "brought in a redheaded French girl" after approaching her in Paris. Maxwell was allegedly trying to teach Giuffre to recruit victims."She walked up to this French girl to show me how easy it was for her to procure girls," Giuffre testified. "I wasn't very good at it. And, you know, it was part of my training... to bring in other girls. So she walked up to her. Within five minutes she had her number and that girl came over later that night to the hotel and serviced Jeffrey."Epstein's Paris apartment didn't just house victims; he invited former friends, including disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein, to visit. While in Paris, Weinstein reportedly tried to assault one woman in Epstein's circle who was giving the film mogul a nonsexual massage.Last September, French police asked for victims and witnesses to come forward for their own investigation into Epstein's alleged abuse. Cops also raided Epstein's Paris apartment and the offices of Karin Models, the agency of Epstein's friend and his accused procurer of underage girls, Jean-Luc Brunel. According to Giuffre, Brunel once bought three French girls from their parents as a gift to Epstein. Brunel has denied Giuffre's claims and any involvement with Epstein's trafficking ring.Maritza Vasquez, a former bookkeeper for Brunel's MC2 agency, claimed in a 2010 deposition that Epstein and Brunel were trying to start a new company with a woman in Paris but the venture never materialized. Epstein provided instructions to Brunel "saying that he wanted to have the same contracts as… Donald Trump," Vasquez added, referring to Trump's shuttered modeling agency, "and that he wanted to have the same kind of benefits for the scouters."Meanwhile, Gratitude America bankrolled "Associazione MinD," a psychology organization in Rome for two years in a row, with a $25,000 donation in 2018 and $60,000 in 2017. Associazione MinD did not return messages left by The Daily Beast.According to its website, the group "was born in 2015 from the idea of 3 young psychologists to promote knowledge of the psychological world, through clinical and training activities, using different artistic and creative forms."The other international donation, for $28,543, went to a ballet theater in Vilnius, Lithuania. One online directory of companies indicates the group is the Baltic Ballet Theater, which did not return an email seeking comment.Gratitude America's money appears to have come exclusively from a $10-million donation in 2015 from investor Leon Black, whom the attorney general of the U.S. Virgin Islands recently subpoenaed over his relationship with Epstein.The charity, created in 2012, didn't list expenditures until four years later. By then, Epstein's accountant Richard Kahn had replaced Epstein as president of the group. The financier's longtime personal attorney, Darren Indyke, was vice president, while U.S. Virgin Islands tax attorney Erika Kellerhals was secretary and treasurer. (Indyke and Kahn are the co-executors of Epstein's more than $600-million estate.)Jeffrey Epstein's Right-Hand Mystery MenGratitude America donated to several nonprofits linked to people in Epstein's orbit—including the Junior Tennis Champions Center (JTCC) in College Park, Maryland, where Next modeling agency honco Faith Kates' son worked. JTCC received $10,000 from Gratitude America in 2018 and $25,000 the year prior. Last year, Kates would only provide a vague comment on the JTCC donation, saying "My son volunteered in high school and I believe they gave back the donation."Harvard's Hasty Pudding theater troupe received $50,000 from Epstein in 2018, and another $50,000 in 2016. As we previously reported, Celina Dubin—the daughter of Epstein's former girlfriend Eva Dubin and her husband Glenn, who was accused of sexual misconduct by Giuffre—was a member of the Hasty Pudding Institute. (The Dubins have denied Giuffre's claims.) The son of Epstein's accountant George V. Delson, who prepared tax returns for the hedge-funder's defunct C.O.U.Q. Foundation, solicited a $25,000 donation for the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. Lawrence Delson, a professor at NYU and the Fashion Institute of Technology, serves on the theater's board of trustees.Bonnie Monte, the theater's artistic director, said her organization knew nothing about the anonymous donor. "Lawrence did solicit the donation which we did not know anything about," Monte told The Daily Beast. "We did try to do some research to find out where it came from. We never knew who the anonymous donor was until over a year later, after Jeffrey Epstein's death." Monte said she looked online but could only find an unrelated Florida-based veterans charity called Gratitude America.Delson, who didn't return messages, told Monte "in the interest of transparency, in case anybody asks," that the $25,000 came from one of Epstein's foundations. "I said who is Jeffrey Epstein?" Monte recalled replying, adding that she was "horrified" to learn who Epstein was and figured it was good his money was going to charity.The latest tax filings for Epstein's charity also reveal a $500,000 donation to the Kuhn Foundation, which received $150,000 from Epstein in 2017.CNBC previously revealed Epstein agreed to provide $1.4 million in funding for a PBS science show created by Robert Kuhn called "Closer to Truth." That show never got off the ground due to a lack of funding following Epstein's suicide.Kuhn told CNBC he met Epstein multiple times in New York and that a group of scientists, which he declined to name, introduced them. Kuhn claimed he didn't know about the sexual abuse accusations against Epstein which he described as "totally reprehensible." He added, "It is an example of the corruption of power distorts your own reality and then exercises this power over people who are psychologically defenseless."Epstein funded a slew of other organizations he's backed over the years, including a $25,000 donation to the New School; $10,000 to the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation; and $35,000 to the Edge Foundation, a society of science and tech intellectuals which hosted the exclusive "Billionaires' Dinners" Epstein attended.Ghislaine Maxwell Bragged About 'Pal' Jeff BezosHumanity Plus, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit which says it's "dedicated to elevating the human condition" through technology, received $100,000 from Epstein in 2018. (The group previously operated as the World Transhumanist Association, which received $20,000 from another Epstein group in 2011.)In a statement on its website, Humanity Plus said Gratitude America did not include Epstein's name on the donation. "This donation of $100,000 was put to a good cause as evidenced in Humanity+ tax Schedule B, Part 1 that states the donation was granted to educational research and development of Artificial Intelligence, the ethical use of AI, and increasing awareness of how AI can benefit humanity," the group said."This AI research is diametrically opposed to the exploitative and abusive behaviors of Mr. Epstein that were recently revealed in the news. At the time we accepted this donation from Gratitude America, Ltd., Humanity+ had no knowledge of Mr. Epstein's horrific alleged criminal activity, and we strongly condemn it."In 2018, Gratitude America also donated $25,000 to the Cancer Research Wellness Institute (CRWI), a California nonprofit founded by the late Howard Straus, who was the son of alternative cancer therapy doctor Max Gerson. Epstein's charity shelled out $75,000 to CRWI the year before.Before he died in June 2019, Straus told The Daily Beast in an email that he'd never heard of Gratitude America or Epstein, and that he personally thanks donors no matter the size of their contributions. "A donation of that size would be the single largest donation we've ever seen, and believe me, we'd notice!" Straus wrote."I am president of CRWI, and can assure you we have NEVER received a donation of that magnitude from ANYONE. I would know," Straus said. "We are perennially short of funds, and would love to be the recipient of such largesse, but not from sexual predators," Straus added, before apparently referring to President Trump, "like the Orange Shitgibbon or his imitators.'— with additional reporting by Erin Zaleski and Barbie Latza NadeauRead more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Texas assistant AG loses job after reports of QAnon posts Posted: 04 Sep 2020 09:22 AM PDT |
| McEnany begins WH briefing criticizing Pelosi for hair salon visit, shows video on loop Posted: 03 Sep 2020 11:40 AM PDT  White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany opened Thursday's White House press briefing by criticizing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after a video surfaced showing Pelosi inside a salon without a mask, which violates local health guidelines.
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| Joe Biden says QAnon supporters should get a mental health check while calling the conspiracy theory ‘totally bizarre’ Posted: 04 Sep 2020 03:18 PM PDT  Joe Biden has said that the far-right conspiracy group QAnon should get a mental health check before the president has an opportunity to dismantle the Affordable Care Act.The Democratic presidential candidate made the comment during a campaign speech in Wilmington, Delaware, on Friday after he was asked what he thought about the conspiracy group.
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