| American captured over alleged Venezuelan coup plot says Donald Trump ordered plan Posted: 06 May 2020 12:01 PM PDT  An alleged US mercenary captured in Venezuela has said he was part of a plan ordered by Donald Trump to kidnap president Maduro. In an apparent confession on state TV, Luke Denman, who was arrested alongside other alleged mercenaries, said he had been sent across the border from Colombia to secure an airport to fly Mr Maduro America. In a separate televised address, Mr Maduro said Donald Trump was behind the alleged plot to oust him, and ordered the US nationals to be tried in Venezuela. In a video broadcast Mr Deman admitted his role in the alleged plot. "I was helping Venezuelans take back control of their country," he told an interviewer hidden from the camera. The veracity of the comments is unclear, as was the conditions under which the video had been made. Mr Denman is being held by the Venezuelan authorities. Speaking after the Denman video was played, Mr Maduro said: "Donald Trump is the direct chief of this invasion." The US government has denied any involvement. Last night Russia said the US denial over the alleged plot was "unconvincing". More to follow.
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| Israeli top court throws Netanyahu a lifeline Posted: 06 May 2020 01:51 PM PDT  In a sign of the importance of the decisions, 11 supreme court justices heard the cases in comparison to the usual three- or five-judge panels.
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| Mass arrests and overcrowded prisons in El Salvador spark fear of coronavirus crisis Posted: 06 May 2020 05:20 AM PDT  Governments around the world, from Brazil to the United States, are releasing some prisoners in an effort to reduce COVID-19 outbreaks in overcrowded prisons and jails. But not El Salvador. Over the past month, thousands have been arrested and jailed for allegedly violating quarantine orders in this small Central American country. El Salvador was one of the first countries in the Americas to declare a state of emergency due to the coronavirus pandemic, in mid-March. President Nayib Bukele announced a mandatory national quarantine with few exceptions. At first, his decisive action had broad support. But Bukele's use of police and soldiers to enforce coronavirus restrictions has led to criticism that the president is abusing his emergency powers to curtail civil liberties and undermine democracy. A tough response to coronavirusIn April, the Salvadoran Supreme Court ruled that the government lacked the legal authority to detain citizens indefinitely without suspicion of crime, despite the "extraordinary circumstances" presented by COVID-19. In open defiance of the court, the administration has continued to arrest thousands, allegedly for violating quarantine, and send them to ad hoc "containment centers."The mass detentions put further stress on the country's already overburdened penal system, creating conditions ripe for a public health crisis. In 2018, a special observer sent by the United Nations described the conditions of El Salvador's jails and prisons as "hellish."I used to visit MS-13 designated Salvadoran prisons on a weekly basis in the early 2000s, when I was in El Salvador and conducting research on the "war on gangs." Even then I found conditions in these cinderblock warehouses to be harsh, with overcrowding and poor food. Running water was hit or miss. Sometimes, inmates would go days without access to water, leaving them to drink only what they'd stored.Starting in 2016, the government banned almost all visitors to and observers in these kinds of prisons, claiming it was necessary for security. Since then incarcerated life has become even worse, from the little that outside groups like the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights are able to document. Explicit photosRecently, though, amid the global pandemic, the world got an unexpected glimpse into El Salvador's prisons. On April 25, the Salvadoran government's official press secretary tweeted out disturbing images of shirtless prisoners packed together like sardines – no chance of social distancing – hands cuffed behind their backs. Some had white surgical masks flapping uselessly. Many were unmasked. The images were touting a government crackdown on incarcerated gang members intended as reprisal for a recent uptick in the murder rate. But the draconian treatment they revealed raised outcry among public health and human rights advocates. To these chilling images, the Salvadoran prisons director Osiris Luna Meza added that cells would be sealed "without a ray of sun," and promised to house members of rival gangs together in the same cells – a proposition almost certain to trigger violence. Public enemy No. 1Inflammatory rhetoric, punitive law enforcement and the public humiliation of gang members have become more common in El Salvador over my two decades of research on human rights and the rule of law in the country. So-called "mano dura" or "iron fist" policies are politically popular in El Salvador and other Central American countries grappling with gang violence. For much of the past decade, El Salvador's murder rate has ranked it among the world's most dangerous countries.But too often crime strategies allegedly meant to protect the public, like the recent mass arrests and the prison clampdown, create more problems than they solve. Research shows that hard-line policing has actually exacerbated violence in El Salvador. According to a 2019 U.S. State Department report, Salvadoran police and soldiers given free rein to repress gangs have committed assault, arbitrary arrests, forced disappearances, torture and extrajudicial executions. Bukele, a young leader who took office last year, promised to "turn the page" on the country's rough history. Instead, he has returned to these old authoritarian tactics. A brewing crisisDoing so during a global pandemic turns the country's overcrowded prisons into a public health hazard.El Salvador's national prison system is built for approximately 18,000 inmates, and currently holds over 38,000, according to the World Prison Brief, a database on prison populations worldwide. This number does not include those arrested for curfew violation, who are crammed into local facilities.Even before COVID-19, infectious disease spread rapidly among Salvadoran prisoners. According to a 2016 epidemiological study in El Salvador, infection rates for tuberculosis were at least five times greater in prisons than in the general population.That same year, the Salvadoran Supreme Court declared that prison overcrowding violated prisoners' basic human rights and ordered the government to release some people and build more facilities. Neither has happened. By 2017, journalist Sarah Maslin wrote in The Washington Post that one Salvadoran jail "had become a petri dish for outbreaks of scabies, pneumonia and tuberculosis." Human cost of an iron fistThe coronavirus outbreak makes infectious diseases in Salvadoran prisons an even more urgent concern. Stuffing more people into overcrowded, unsanitary jails and prisons radically increases the risks for COVID-19 outbreaks. The disease inevitably spreads into broader society through prison staff and inmates who are released, according to recent analysis by data scientists published on Law 360. Bukele says his government's harsh security measures are necessary to "defend the lives of Salvadorans." But now more than ever, such actions seem likelier to hurt the people they're meant to protect. [You need to understand the coronavirus pandemic, and we can help. Read The Conversation's newsletter.]
Este artículo se vuelve a publicar de The Conversation, un medio digital sin fines de lucro dedicado a la diseminación de la experticia académica. Lee mas:
Miranda Cady Hallett does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
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| Switzerland seeks medical furlough extension of American detained by Iran: Pompeo Posted: 06 May 2020 07:51 AM PDT  Switzerland, which represents the United States in Iran, has asked Tehran to extend the medical furlough from detention of U.S. Navy veteran Michael White, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday, as the coronavirus continues spreading. Pompeo also thanked Switzerland for seeking humanitarian furloughs from detention by Iran for dual U.S.-Iranian citizens Siamak Namazi and Morad Tahbaz.
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| Biden losing edge over Trump amid virus, poll reveals Posted: 06 May 2020 04:04 AM PDT  A new poll has revealed that Joe Biden's advantage in popular support over President Trump has been eroding in recent weeks.
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| 10 Eco-Friendly Comforters Under $300 Posted: 06 May 2020 07:22 AM PDT |
| Drug Smugglers May Have Started COVID-19 Outbreak Aboard Destroyer, SecDef Says Posted: 05 May 2020 02:32 PM PDT  The destroyer Kidd is the second Navy ship to deal with a coronavirus outbreak.
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| Kenya questions deadly plane crash in Somalia that killed 6 Posted: 05 May 2020 02:37 AM PDT |
| Venezuela's Maduro parades Americans detained in 'daring plot' to overthrow him Posted: 05 May 2020 09:55 AM PDT  Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela's president, said he has detained two American "mercenaries" allegedly involved in a murky operation intended to infiltrate Venezuela and overthrow him. Mr Maduro appeared on state television on Monday night to show off the seized passports of Luke Denman, 34, and Airan Berry, 41, accusing them of being US security forces. "The United States government is fully and completely involved in this defeated raid," he said. The pair, both former Green Berets, were arrested while eight Venezuelan army defectors with them were killed after the government foiled an "invasion" from the sea. President Donald Trump was forced to deny any involvement in the failed plot.
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| A 'shocking' two-thirds of patients recently hospitalized in NY had been staying home Posted: 06 May 2020 03:47 PM PDT  "They're not working; they're not traveling," Cuomo said. "... They were predominantly at home."
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| Coronavirus spreads among Indian police enforcing world's largest lockdown Posted: 06 May 2020 06:13 AM PDT  Hundreds of Indian police have tested positive for the coronavirus in recent days, raising alarm among an over-stretched force as it attempts to enforce the world's largest lockdown to contain the pandemic. TV footage early in the crisis showed police beating back migrant workers as they tried to board city buses to reach their villages, making a mockery of social distancing. India has been under lockdown since March 25 and confirmed nearly 50,000 coronavirus cases and some 1,694 deaths.
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| Broadcaster shutdown crosses dangerous line for Philippines Posted: 05 May 2020 11:31 PM PDT  The shutting down of the Philippines' top broadcaster crosses a dangerous line in eroding the nation's democracy and sends a warning to those who risk angering President Rodrigo Duterte, watchdogs said. Since rising to power in 2016, Duterte has steadily tightened his grip on the nation's key institutions and jailed or sidelined his loudest detractors, but until now his worst threats against critical media had not been fully realised. Tuesday's halting of broadcasting giant ABS-CBN's operations marks the first time a major, independent outlet was shut down since Duterte took office in a step that echoes the country's grim authoritarian past.
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| Coronavirus: Nigeria's death penalty by Zoom 'inhumane' Posted: 06 May 2020 02:17 PM PDT  A man is sentenced to hang for murder after a virtual court session amid the coronavirus pandemic.
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| The final results are in: Finland's basic-income trial found people were happier, but weren't more likely to get jobs Posted: 06 May 2020 10:16 AM PDT  Basic income has gained renewed interest during the pandemic with millions people out of work and national economies thrown into tailspins.
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| Chris Christie Says U.S. Needs to Reopen and Accept More Deaths Posted: 04 May 2020 07:35 PM PDT  Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said on Monday that the American economy needs to reopen quickly and that tens of thousands of more Americans may die from the novel coronavirus, insisting that Americans are "gonna have to" accept that.Speaking to CNN correspondent Dana Bash on her The Daily DC podcast, Christie—who now works as an ABC News contributor—pushed for the reversal of stay-at-home orders in order to open up businesses and ramp up economic activity.Confronted with recent models that now show that as many as 135,000 Americans will die due to decreased social distancing amid the pandemic, Christie essentially threw up his hands and said there really wasn't a choice."Of course, everybody wants to save every life they can—but the question is, towards what end, ultimately?" Christie said. "Are there ways that we can thread the middle here to allow that there are going to be deaths, and there are going to be deaths no matter what?"Echoing previous comments he's made that the country cannot wait to reopen the economy, the former Trump transition team member asserted that "we're going to destroy the American way of life" if people don't immediately get back to work.Bash then asked the ex-governor if the public could accept reopening following reports that an administration model is now projecting a daily death toll of 3,000 by June 1. "They're gonna have to," Christie bluntly replied. "We're in the midst of a pandemic that we haven't seen in over 100 years. And we're going to have to continue to do things."Asked how he would tell the American public about the need to reopen if he were the president, Christie responded: "The message is that the American people have gone through significant death before.""We sent our young men during World War II over to Europe, out to the Pacific, knowing, knowing that many of them would not come home alive," he said. "And we decided to make that sacrifice because what we were standing up for was the American way of life. In the very same way now, we have to stand up for the American way of life."About half the states have begun to reopen public spaces and their economies in recent days despite cases growing in many areas and the confirmed U.S. death count from coronavirus approaching 70,000. President Donald Trump, who has called for states to "LIBERATE," casually conceded during a Sunday Fox News town hall that the final death toll could reach 100,000 after claiming just a few weeks ago that it would be half that number.Chris Christie Clashes With 'The View' Hosts on ImpeachmentRead 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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| Seoul reports panic buying in N Korea amid economic woes Posted: 06 May 2020 01:52 AM PDT  The coronavirus pandemic has likely taken a heavy toll on North Korea, forcing leader Kim Jong Un to avoid public activities and his people into panic buying for daily necessities, South Korea's spy agency told lawmakers Wednesday. Although North Korea has taken intense quarantine measures, it maintains there are no domestic infections.
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| White House press secretary says idea that all Americans need to be tested for COVID-19 is 'nonsensical' Posted: 06 May 2020 03:55 PM PDT  White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Wednesday rejected the idea that every American should receive COVID-19 testing before returning to work.President Trump has said he's been tested multiple times for COVID-19, with the tests all coming back negative. On Tuesday, he visited a Phoenix facility that makes masks, but did not have a face covering of his own. A reporter asked McEnany about this, adding, "Why shouldn't all Americans who go back to work be able to get a test before they do?""If we tested every single American in this country at this moment, we'd have to retest them an hour later, and then an hour later after that, because at any moment you could theoretically contract this virus," McEnany responded. "So the notion that everyone needs to be tested is just simply nonsensical."Earlier in the day, Trump said the United States is continuously conducting more COVID-19 tests, so it will "have more cases" than other countries. "In a way, by doing all this testing, we make ourselves look bad," he added.More stories from theweek.com American individualism is a suicide pact Why even mask skeptics should want to wear them Trump is reportedly back to obsessing over the color of his border wall
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| Rockets hit near Baghdad airport, launcher with timer found Posted: 06 May 2020 12:08 AM PDT  Three Katyusha rockets landed in the perimeter of Baghdad International Airport on Wednesday but caused no damage or casualties, the Iraqi military said. Security officials said it was not immediately clear whether a military base hosting U.S. troops next to the airport was the target. The United States blames a series of rocket attacks near or on bases hosting its troops this year on Iran-aligned militia groups, although those groups have not claimed them.
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| Virus misinformation fuels hatred against India's Muslims Posted: 05 May 2020 10:52 PM PDT  Gayur Hassan's Hindu neighbours came at night, throwing stones at his family's home in a northern Indian village and setting his workshop on fire. All because his son "liked" a social media post. The Facebook post that Hassan's 19-year-old son endorsed had denounced the targeting of India's Muslim minority since the nation of 1.3 billion went into a coronavirus lockdown in late March.
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| New US campus sex assault plan gets pushback Posted: 06 May 2020 12:51 PM PDT  US universities must allow assault victims and defendants to be cross-examined under new guidance.
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| NY Gov. Cuomo picks daughter Mariah as 'informal advisor' for coronavirus mask wearing campaign Posted: 05 May 2020 10:18 AM PDT  Mariah Kennedy-Cuomo, the New York governor's 25-year-old daughter, will be an "informal advisor" for the state's Department of Health.
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| Taiwan makes new push for inclusion in World Health Assembly Posted: 06 May 2020 12:28 AM PDT  Taiwan's exclusion from the upcoming World Health Assembly would harm the global response to the coronavirus pandemic and cannot be excused by mere rules of procedure, the island's health minister said Wednesday. Chen Shih-chung told international media at a news conference that global health officials "have not been honest and failed in their responsibilities," in an apparent reference to the U.N. World Health Organization that oversees the assembly. Beijing claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has excluded it from the United Nations and its subsidiary organizations.
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| National intelligence director nominee Ratcliffe pulls a 180 on whistleblower protections, 'deep state' Posted: 05 May 2020 10:47 AM PDT  Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) has a few new principles now that he's under the Senate's spotlight.Ratcliffe faced a Senate nomination hearing on Tuesday after President Trump nominated him, for the second time, to be the next director of national intelligence. In his hearing, Ratcliffe promised protections for whistleblowers and showed support for the intelligence community — a stark contrast from how he spoke about those topics in the past.Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) on Tuesday asked Ratcliffe if he thought "the intelligence agencies of the United States are running amok," which Ratcliffe answered with a blunt "no." That's a change from the many times Ratcliffe has railed against intelligence agencies' alleged "bias" and "prejudice" toward Trump. Ratcliffe also said the "intelligence I will provide if confirmed will not be altered or impacted by outside influence."> .@SenatorBennet: "Do you think the intelligence agencies of the United States are running amok?"> > DNI Nominee Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-TX): "No."> > Full video here: https://t.co/7wGdBDyQFY pic.twitter.com/QJFnDBGcOM> > — CSPAN (@cspan) May 5, 2020Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) meanwhile asked Ratcliffe if his "past remarks" demanding the Ukraine whistleblower testify publicly and doubting the whistleblower's report would "discourage" further whistleblowers. Ratcliffe promised potential whistleblowers "every protection under the law."> .@SenFeinstein: "Do you believe that your past remarks concerning the Ukraine whibsltblower will discourage IC whistleblowers from exercising their rights...?> > DNI Nominee Rep. Ratcliffe: "Every whistleblower, past, present and future, will enjoy every protection under the law." pic.twitter.com/JDq6fsin2X> > — CSPAN (@cspan) May 5, 2020And as for the "deep state" — the conspiracy theory of a group within the intelligence community allegedly set on undermining Trump that Ratcliffe has alluded to in the past? Ratcliffe said Tuesday he doesn't "know what that means."More stories from theweek.com American individualism is a suicide pact Why even mask skeptics should want to wear them Trump is reportedly back to obsessing over the color of his border wall
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| Liberals Rewrite History to Justify Their #MeToo Hypocrisy Posted: 05 May 2020 05:08 PM PDT  You can believe whomever you choose in the alleged sexual-misconduct cases of Joe Biden and Brett Kavanaugh, but you can't revise history to erase your partisan double standards.One of the most egregious examples of revisionism can be found in a column by the New York Times' Michelle Goldberg, who employs nearly every attack Americans were warned never to use against alleged sexual-assault victims during the Kavanaugh hearings — questioning their motivations, asking why they didn't file charges, attacking them for not remembering specifics, etc. And yet, even if we adopt Goldberg's new standards, Tara Reade still emerges as a more credible accuser than Christine Blasey Ford.For starters, Ford was unable to offer a time or place or a single contemporaneous corroborating witness. Ford offered no evidence that she even knew Kavanaugh. Reade worked for Joe Biden. Reade has offered a specific time and place for the attack.Goldberg contends that Ford's case against Kavanaugh was bolstered by "four sworn affidavits" from witnesses whom she'd told that she'd been assaulted.This is an especially misleading comparison since the charges against Kavanaugh, unlike the ones against Biden, were investigated by the FBI. The question is how many "affidavits" would there be in support of Reade's allegations if there were an official inquiry into her claims — and one conducted by the authorities, not an "unbiased, apolitical panel, put together by the D.N.C.," as Goldberg's newspaper desires?There are already reportedly at least four people on the record who maintain Reade told them about the Biden incident, including her mother, who reportedly called in to "Larry King Live" in 1993, right after the alleged sexual assault took place, looking for advice; her neighbor, who claims that Reade told her about the assault a few years after it happened; and a friend, who says that Reade told her about the assault in 2007 or 2008.Every witness that Ford claimed had been at the suburban Maryland party where Kavanaugh allegedly attacked her had no recollection of the assault or even the gathering where it supposedly happened. This group included Ford's longtime friend Leland Keyser.If Goldberg's standard of credibility is measured by the number of "sworn affidavits" in existence, then she should be calling for an investigation into Reade's story so that the two allegations can be subjected to the same level of scrutiny.Another reason Ford is a more credible accuser than Reade, argues Goldberg, is that the latter's story has changed. Goldberg even insinuates that Reade's neighbor might be lying because she has trouble recalling if Reade relayed the story to her in 1995 or 1996.That's another new and convenient standard. It should be mentioned that during the Kavanaugh hearings we were told that it's normal for victims not to recall every detail about these unconscionable attacks — which makes a lot of sense.Unlike Ford's story, which had evolved — changing places, years, seasons, and the number of attackers — Reade's story has hardly budged, other than in regards to some hazy recollections about when or how she filed a report about Biden. Then again, if having a consistent story is the new measurement of credibility, Reade is at least as reliable as Ford.Another reason to doubt Reade's allegations, contends New York magazine's Jonathan Chait, is that she coordinated "her statements with Bernie Sanders supporters to maximize their political impact." Others, such as NeverTrumper Charlie Sykes, have insinuated even uglier conspiracies to discredit Reade, pointing out that she once deleted a pro-Putin tweet. Apparently Reade has been working the long con for the Russians since 1993. (Ford, incidentally, deleted her entire social-media history before making her accusations public.)Unlike Reade, Ford didn't mention the alleged assault to anyone for around 25 years, until Kavanaugh's name began appearing in the media as a prospective Supreme Court justice in 2012, and even then, it seems she only specifically cited the judge's name after Donald Trump nominated him. If you want to maximize political impact, coming forward during a contentious Supreme Court nomination hearing after three decades of silence probably qualifies.Both Goldberg and Chait also note that Ford's therapist's notes corroborate her claims. The notes do not exactly bolster her credibility, though. For one thing, Ford refused to turn over those notes to Senate Judiciary Committee investigators, instead handing snippets to a favorable reporter at the Washington Post. As far as we know, those notes conflict with her testimony regarding the number of attackers and the year. Moreover, why do therapist's notes from 2012 speak to the credibility of an alleged victim more than a 1993 call from a mother?It's not a mystery why liberals want Ford to seem more credible. At first the media completely ignored Reade's allegations. But once reporters began responsibly reporting the story — a professionalism that wasn't afforded to Kavanaugh — the same liberals who had demanded we "believe all women" began flailing to rewrite history.In USA Today, Kirsten Powers argued that "there is no 'double standard' in the way Kavanaugh was treated vs. Biden," because Democrats had merely called for the accusations to be investigated. That, too, is revisionism. Almost every Democratic senator had called for Trump to withdraw the nomination over the assault charges — many of those calls, in fact, were based on even flimsier accusations, recklessly spread by the press and politicians.It's possible that Reade's credibility would suffer, as did Ford's, if an investigation took a deeper look. Yet, none of the Democrats who dispensed with due process and embraced Ford's accusations have shown the slightest interest in speaking with Reade. They've simply adopted new guidelines for "believing women" and left liberal pundits with the job of justifying their actions — which they dutifully do.Of course, none of the above is dispositive or unequivocal evidence of sexual assault on its own. We can never really know. But the notion that Ford is a more credible accuser than Reade doesn't stand up to even the most basic examination. It's just a flimsy excuse for hypocrisy.
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| U.S. will use 'every tool' to secure release if any Americans held in Venezuela: Pompeo Posted: 06 May 2020 08:46 AM PDT  The U.S. government will use "every tool" available to secure the return of Americans if they are being held in Venezuela, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo vowed on Wednesday, after Venezuelan officials said they had captured two U.S. "mercenaries" in a failed armed incursion. "There was no U.S. government direct involvement in this operation," Pompeo told reporters, echoing President Donald Trump's remarks a day earlier. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Monday that authorities there had detained a pair of U.S. citizens working with a U.S. military veteran who has claimed responsibility for the foiled incursion, launched last weekend.
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| Tennessee Authorities Have Identified a ‘Person of Interest’ in Case of Baby Evelyn Boswell Posted: 06 May 2020 11:19 AM PDT  Three months after 15-month-old Evelyn Boswell was first reported missing, Tennessee investigators say they've identified a "person of interest" in her widely-watched case.The Sullivan County Sheriff's Office said Wednesday they have identified a person of interest in Evelyn's case but refused to name the suspected individual due to the ongoing investigation. To date, no one has been charged with Evelyn's death. The infant was reported missing on Feb. 18 but "was last seen by certain family members near the end of November 2019 and the first of December 2019," authorities said.After an extensive, multi-agency search, the toddler's remains were found in March on a property belonging to a "family member of Evelyn's mother," according to Sullivan County Sheriff Jeff Cassidy. An autopsy report is still pending. Detectives Find Remains of Missing Tennessee Baby Evelyn Boswell"We will never ever forget Evelyn Boswell," Sullivan County Sheriff's Office Captain Joey Strickler told News Channel 11 on Wednesday, stating that several officers are still working diligently on the case. Amid the investigation, Boswell's mother, 18-year-old Megan Boswell, was charged on Feb. 25 with making false reports for allegedly giving authorities "conflicting, inaccurate statements" that "impeded" the investigation. "Every time we've talked to her, her story changed. Every single time," Cassidy said after the arrest, calling Boswell's actions "frustrating."Authorities say Evelyn was first reported missing by her grandfather on Feb. 18 after he hadn't seen the baby in several months. According to court documents obtained by WCYB, Boswell initially told authorities that Evelyn's father, Ethan Perry, had the baby and she was supposed to meet him at a store in Colonial Heights. But Perry, an active-duty military officer stationed in Louisiana, did not have the child.Boswell then allegedly claimed the girl's grandmother had taken Evelyn camping "in a silver camper," and promised, "I'm going to go find her myself." The 18-year-old also told authorities that she was newly pregnant and could not take a polygraph test—which investigators later determined was false. Minnesota Man Killed Wife, Buried Her Under Home Then Faked Her Disappearance: Court DocsMegan Boswell's mother, Angela Boswell, and her boyfriend, 33-year-old William McCloud, were separately arrested in February in North Carolina after investigators found them riding in a stolen gray BMW. They have since been released on bond. Despite the challenges the coronavirus pandemic has presented amid the investigation, Strickler said the sheriff's office is glad to be working through the evidence slowly to ensure they do not make a mistake. Boswell, who has not spoken to authorities about her daughter's case since her arrest, is currently in the Sullivan County Jail and is scheduled to appear in court on Friday morning.Read 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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| Iran warns of 'rising trend' as virus cases top 100,000 Posted: 06 May 2020 04:40 AM PDT  Iran warned of a "rising trend" in its coronavirus outbreak on Wednesday as it said 1,680 new infections took its overall caseload beyond the 100,000 mark. The Islamic republic has struggled to contain the Middle East's deadliest COVID-19 outbreak since announcing its first cases in mid-February. "We are witnessing a rising trend in the past three or four days, which is significant," health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour told a televised news conference.
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| Fauci again dismisses Wuhan lab as source of coronavirus Posted: 05 May 2020 12:32 PM PDT  "If you look at the evolution of the virus in bats and what's out there now, [the scientific evidence] is very, very strongly leaning toward this could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated," Fauci said.
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| United workers are suing the airline for cutting their schedules to save cash, which unions say violates federal bailout terms Posted: 06 May 2020 10:27 AM PDT  United is being sued by a union representing 27,000 of its workers after the airline reduced work weeks from 40 hours to 30 due to the pandemic.
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| India's services activity collapses as coronavirus paralyses global economy - PMI Posted: 05 May 2020 10:07 PM PDT  India's services activity suffered a shock collapse in April as the coronavirus lockdown crippled global demand, causing a historic spike in layoffs and reinforcing fears of a deep recession in Asia's third-largest economy, a private survey showed. The grim result for the industry, the engine of economic growth and jobs, underlined the pandemic's sweeping impact across India as authorities extended a nationwide lockdown, in effect since March 25, until May 17. The Nikkei/IHS Markit Services Purchasing Managers' Index plunged to an eye-popping 5.4 in April from March's 49.3, an unprecedented contraction since the survey first began over 14 years ago.
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| Israeli Supreme Court: Netanyahu may form government Posted: 06 May 2020 01:22 PM PDT  Israel's Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may form a new government while under indictment for corruption charges, clearing the way for him and his rival-turned-uneasy ally to join together in a controversial power-sharing deal. Netanyahu and his rival-turned-partner, Benny Gantz, said they expected their coalition to be sworn into office next week. After battling to three inconclusive elections over the past year, Netanyahu and Gantz, a former military chief, announced their "emergency" government last month, saying they would put aside their rivalry to steer the country through the coronavirus crisis.
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| The U.S. has entered the 'death handoff' stage of the COVID-19 outbreak Posted: 06 May 2020 04:52 AM PDT  The U.S. COVID-19 death toll passed 71,000 Wednesday morning and the number of cases, currently marked at 1.2 million, keeps rising steadily. Trump administration and outside models both forecast significant upticks in death as states lift coronavirus mitigation measures — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) unexpectedly announced Tuesday that hair salons and public pools can open Friday, for example."For every indication of improvement in controlling the virus, new outbreaks have emerged elsewhere, leaving the nation stuck in a steady, unrelenting march of deaths and infections," The New York Times reports. New York City, the worst-hit area in the U.S., has seen a sizable drop in new cases, but new clusters are appearing in the South, Midwest, and other parts of the country. Taken as a whole, America's coronavirus curve has plateaued, but "the plateau is what I call a death handoff situation," University of Minnesota epidemiologist Michael Osterholm told Politico.> Some U.S. cities show signs of progress against the virus, but a view of the country as a whole shows an unrelenting crush of death and infection https://t.co/R1PnGt4Yii pic.twitter.com/8dLDmLjnUv> > — The New York Times (@nytimes) May 5, 2020"Coronavirus in America now looks like this," the Times summarizes:> More than a month has passed since there was a day with fewer than 1,000 deaths from the virus. Almost every day, at least 25,000 new coronavirus cases are identified, meaning that the total in the United States ... is expanding by between 2 and 4 percent daily. Rural towns that one month ago were unscathed are suddenly hot spots for the virus. It is rampaging through nursing homes, meatpacking plants, and prisons, killing the medically vulnerable and the poor, and new outbreaks keep emerging in grocery stores, Walmarts, or factories, an ominous harbinger of what a full reopening of the economy will bring. [The New York Times]Trump acknowledged the tradeoff between death and opening businesses in an interview with ABC News on Tuesday, but his cost-benefit analysis tilts toward the economy and he is winding down the coronavirus task force without an apparent strategy to mitigate the risks. While Trump says the U.S. has ample tests to monitor the coronavirus and plenty of personal protective equipment to treat it, CDC and FEMA officials privately discuss shortfalls and fret about reopening too fast, Politico reports. Most Americans share their concerns.More stories from theweek.com American individualism is a suicide pact Why even mask skeptics should want to wear them Trump is reportedly back to obsessing over the color of his border wall
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| China Will Bar International Investigators Until ‘Final Victory’ Over Pandemic Is Achieved Posted: 06 May 2020 10:11 AM PDT  China's ambassador to the United Nations revealed Wednesday that Beijing will block international investigators from examining the origins of the Wuhan coronavirus until "final victory" over the pandemic has been achieved."The top priority, for the time being, is to focus on the fight against the pandemic until we win the final victory," Chen Xu told reporters when asked about the status of the World Health Organization's requests to study the origins of the virus. The WHO's representative in China said last week that the Chinese Communist Party has blocked repeated requests from the organization to investigate.While Xu added that China is not "allergic" to outside probes, he admitted that "for whether or how the invitation will take place, we need to have the right priority setting at this moment, and on the other hand, we need the right atmosphere."The CCP has been accused of covering up the origins of the virus, with multiple reports detailing the timeline of Beijing's failures in slowing the initial spread, including one study that found China could have prevented 95 percent of coronavirus infections if it had acted sooner.An intelligence dossier compiled by the Five Eyes intelligence agencies of the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the U.K. levels multiple accusations against the Chinese government, including "the suppression and destruction of evidence . . . the genome sequence not shared publicly, the Shanghai lab closure for 'rectification', academic articles subjected to prior review by the Ministry of Science and Technology and data on asymptomatic 'silent carriers' kept secret."China has countered claims of wrongdoing by claiming it is a "victim" of disinformation and trying to shift the focus to a conspiracy theory that the virus originated in the U.S."Peddling disinformation and recrimination are by no means prescription for international anti-pandemic cooperation and should be rejected by all," the Chinese foreign ministry tweeted last week.
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| 'Ahmaud Arbery's life matters': Attorneys, rights leaders demand arrests in slaying of Georgia jogger Posted: 06 May 2020 02:53 PM PDT  Attorneys say they shouldn't have to wait for a grand jury to convene in June and urge police to make arrests in the shooting of Ahmaud Arbery.
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| British Scientist Who Spearheaded National Lockdown Quits After Meeting With Married Lover Posted: 05 May 2020 12:55 PM PDT  The British scientist known colloquially as "Professor Lockdown," who pushed Prime Minister Boris Johnson to impose a nationwide lockdown, resigned on Tuesday after he defied social distancing guidelines to have a rendezvous with his married lover in his London home.Professor Neil Ferguson, who had been praised for his expertise and guidance during the U.K.'s coronavirus outbreak, allowed 38-year-old Antonia Staats—who is married with two children—into his home at the same time he was publicly advising everyone else to adhere to strict guidelines banning couples from seeing each other if they didn't live together. Ferguson, who is the head of the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at Imperial College London, had delivered stark warnings to Downing Street about how many people could die of the coronavirus if the government did not impose restrictions. His renowned work also reportedly informed government responses to coronavirus in the United States, France, and Germany."I accept I made an error of judgment and took the wrong course of action," Ferguson told The Telegraph, which first reported on Ferguson's ouster. "I have therefore stepped back from my involvement in SAGE [the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies]. I deeply regret any undermining of the clear messages around the continued need for social distancing to control this devastating epidemic. The government guidance is unequivocal, and is there to protect all of us."The scientist's lover reportedly made several trips to his home in March and April even though she admitted to her friends that her husband was experiencing symptoms of the coronavirus. Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr. Jenny Harries and Health Secretary Matt Hancock informed the public one week before the lovers' first reunion on March 30 that "if the two halves of a couple are currently in separate households, ideally they should stay in those households." According to The Telegraph, Staat and her husband are in an open marriage and Staat did not believe their actions to be hypocritical because she considers the households to be one.Ferguson has for years modeled the spread of major pathogen outbreaks such as swine flu and Ebola. He tested positive for the coronavirus on March 19 after speaking at a Downing Street press conference two days earlier. He recently completed two weeks of self-quarantine, according to The Telegraph. "This virus is probably the one that concerns me the most of everything I've worked on," Ferguson said in a February 14 interview in the early days of the coronavirus outbreak.The scientist had been on the forefront of the coronavirus fight in the U.K., frequently appearing in interviews to praise "very intensive social distancing" measures. Ferguson heads an Imperial College team that presented a staggering report to the government that projected more than 500,000 deaths in the UK without enforced restrictions. "Scientists like him have told us we should not be doing it, so surely in his case it is a case of we have been doing as he says and he has been doing as he wants to," said British Member of Parliament Iain Duncan Smith. "He has peculiarly breached his own guidelines and for an intelligent man I find that very hard to believe. It risks undermining the government's lockdown message."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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| US demands WHO invite Taiwan to meeting Posted: 06 May 2020 10:16 AM PDT  The United States on Wednesday urged the World Health Organization to defy Chinese pressure and invite Taiwan to its annual meeting, which will discuss the coronavirus pandemic. The United States itself has yet to confirm its participation in the May 18-19 talks of the World Health Assembly, which comes after President Donald Trump vowed to slash funding for the UN body. "I want to call on all nations, including those in Europe, to support Taiwan's participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly and other relevant United Nations venues," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters.
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| German government asks Lockheed, MBDA to rebid on missile defense system Posted: 06 May 2020 02:55 PM PDT  The latest request for a proposal for the TLVS program is the third iteration, after previous attempts to draft a contract failed.
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| U.S. announces $225 million in emergency aid to Yemen Posted: 06 May 2020 10:04 AM PDT  The United States on Wednesday announced it will provide $225 million in emergency aid to Yemen to support food programs, and called on the Houthis to do more to allow aid operations to operate "independently and neutrally". U.S. Secretary of Mike Pompeo told a news conference that the funding Washington is committing will go to the U.N. World Food Program's (WFP) emergency food operation in southern Yemen, as well as its reduced operation in northern Yemen. The WFP said it was going to halve the aid it gives to people in parts of Yemen controlled by the Houthi movement from mid-April after donors cut funding over concerns the Houthis are hindering aid deliveries.
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| China warns the UK against a new 'cold war' as it accuses British politicians of poisoning relations with Beijing Posted: 06 May 2020 04:48 AM PDT  Liu Xiaoming said that UK MPs who were critical of China were not in step with Boris Johnson or the UK Parliament.
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| India coronavirus: Massive evacuation operation to begin from 12 countries Posted: 06 May 2020 04:06 PM PDT  Special flights and naval vessels will bring back tens of thousands of citizens stranded overseas.
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| Texas AG, Governor Urge Judge to Reverse ‘Shameful’ Prison Sentence Given to Woman for Opening Hair Salon Posted: 06 May 2020 12:12 PM PDT  The Texas attorney general on Wednesday harshly criticized a decision by a Dallas County judge to sentence a woman to prison for opening up her hair salon in defiance of the state's lockdown order.In a statement, Attorney General Ken Paxton said Shelley Luther was "unjustly jailed" for trying to feed her family and sent a letter to Dallas County State District Judge Eric Moyé calling on him to release her."I find it outrageous and out of touch that during this national pandemic, a judge, in a county that actually released hardened criminals for fear of contracting COVID-19, would jail a mother for operating her hair salon in an attempt to put food on her family's table," Paxton said in his release."The trial judge did not need to lock up Shelley Luther. His order is a shameful abuse of judicial discretion, which seems like another political stunt in Dallas. He should release Ms. Luther immediately," the attorney added.The salon owner was sentenced to seven days behind bars after she refused to apologize for opening her salon. She was told she could either apologize for her "selfish" actions and admit the "error of your ways," close the salon until Friday and pay a fine — or accept a jail sentence."I have to disagree with you, sir, when you say that I'm selfish because feeding my kids is not selfish," Luther told the judge. "I have hairstylists that are going hungry because they would rather feed their kids. So sir, if you think the law is more important than kids getting fed, then please go ahead with your decision. But I am not going to shut the salon.""As a mother, Ms. Luther wanted to feed her children," Paxton wrote in his letter to the judge. "As a small business owner, she wanted to help her employees feed their children. Needless to say, these are laudable goals that warrant the exercise of enforcement discretion."Governor Greg Abbot, whose lockdown order Luther defied by opening her salon, said Wednesday that he agreed with his attorney general on the matter and called her sentence an "excessive action" by the judge."Jailing Texans for non-compliance with executive orders should always be the last available option," Abbot said. "Compliance with executive orders during this pandemic is important to ensure public safety; however, surely there are less restrictive means to achieving that goal than jailing a Texas mother."Texas is set to allow salons, barber shops, and nail parlors to reopen this Friday when the governor's lockdown order in response to the coronavirus expires.
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