| CCTV shows suspects in fishing trip 'massacre' following victim into Florida dollar store Posted: 23 Jul 2020 10:32 AM PDT  CCTV footage from a Florida convenience store has shown the suspects arrested in connection with a fishing trip "massacre" in the same store as one of the victims just before they were murdered.
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| 'How long did you serve, Tucker?' Another woman who lost her legs in Iraq backs Tammy Duckworth over Carlson's snark Posted: 23 Jul 2020 07:26 AM PDT  Despite their heroic military careers, Tammy Duckworth, Marissa Strock and many more American women like them continue to endure indignities on the home front.
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| Court orders 4th sentencing for actress in 2010 fatal crash Posted: 24 Jul 2020 09:39 AM PDT  A former "Melrose Place" actress who has already served a sentence for a fatal drunken driving crash could go back to prison. The complicated legal history of the case against Amy Locane includes three sentences imposed by two judges, as well as numerous appeals. It stems from a crash in March 2010 that killed Helene Seeman and seriously injured her husband, Fred, as they turned into their driveway in Montgomery Township in central New Jersey.
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| Tom Cotton Introduces Bill to Prohibit Federal Funding for Schools Using ‘1619 Project’ Curriculum Posted: 23 Jul 2020 12:26 PM PDT  Senator Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) introduced a law on Thursday that would prohibit federal funding for schools that incorporate curriculum from the New York Times's "1619 Project."The 1619 Project, named after the year when colonists first brought slaves to the U.S., attempts to retell American history by emphasizing the importance of slavery in the country's earliest years. However, historians have criticized the project for basic "factual errors" and a " displacement of historical understanding by ideology." (One example of such an error in the project is the assertion that the colonies revolted from British rule in order to preserve slavery.)"The New York Times's 1619 Project is a racially divisive, revisionist account of history that denies the noble principles of freedom and equality on which our nation was founded," Cotton said in a statement. "Not a single cent of federal funding should go to indoctrinate young Americans with this left-wing garbage."According to Cotton, the bill would not affect federal funding allocated to low-income or special-needs students.The Times has announced plans to incorporate material from the project in public school curricula. Districts in several major cities including Chicago, Ill., and Washington, D.C., have adopted some of these materials.Writer Nikole Hannah-Jones won a Pulitzer Prize in April for her lead essay for the project.
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| Chinese researcher who took refuge in San Francisco consulate in U.S. custody, officials say Posted: 24 Jul 2020 08:17 AM PDT  A Chinese researcher who took refuge from U.S. authorities at China's consulate in San Francisco is now in American custody and is expected to appear in court on Monday, U.S. Justice Department officials said. According to court filings in U.S. District Court in San Francisco this week, Juan Tang, who worked at the University of California, Davis, falsely claimed on her visa application that she had not served in the Chinese military.
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| Two of the ISIS terrorists dubbed the Beatles admit involvement in captivity of Kayla Mueller, James Foley Posted: 23 Jul 2020 01:00 PM PDT  In exclusive interviews, the two men, Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, for the first time admitted their involvement in the captivity of Mueller.
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| As the School Year Approaches, Education May Become the Pandemic’s Latest Casualty Posted: 23 Jul 2020 03:08 AM PDT  The COVID-19 pandemic might keep schools closed for the fall. But what does that mean for the students who might fall behind?
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| Singapore man admits being Chinese spy in US Posted: 24 Jul 2020 06:36 PM PDT  A court hearing is the latest incident as tensions rise between the US and China in recent days.
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| Hawaiian Airlines flight attendant dies after testing positive for COVID-19 Posted: 24 Jul 2020 03:36 PM PDT  A Hawaiian Airlines flight attendant died after testing positive for COVID-19 earlier this month in California.
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| 5 Seattle media outlets have to hand over their unpublished photos from a George Floyd protest to help police investigate suspected crimes, judge rules Posted: 24 Jul 2020 04:00 AM PDT  The Seattle Police Department subpoenaed five media outlets for their footage from a May 30 protest to aid its probe into alleged violence.
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| Manson follower Leslie Van Houten could get parole Posted: 24 Jul 2020 03:32 AM PDT  Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten has been recommended for parole after serving nearly five decades in prison.
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| Alabama prison officers ‘use cruel and unusual punishment’ on inmates, DOJ says Posted: 24 Jul 2020 07:15 AM PDT  Alabama prisons have used "cruel and unusual punishment" on inmates by allowing correctional officers to perform routine beatings, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said following an investigation."Our investigation found reasonable cause to believe that there is a pattern or practice of using excessive force against prisoners in Alabama's prisons for men," Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband for the department's Civil Rights Division said.
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| Pakistan returns 200-year-old temple to Sikhs in southwest Posted: 23 Jul 2020 05:40 AM PDT  A 200-year-old Sikh temple that served as a school for Muslim girls for seven decades was returned to the Sikh community in Quetta, enabling them to worship there for the first time in 73 years, officials said Thursday. The temple stood empty for a year or two when most Sikhs left Pakistan for neighboring India after the British partitioned the subcontinent into separate nations in 1947, following two centuries of colonial rule. Under the government's guardianship, a school was later set up in the temple building, which remained functional until recently, when Sikhs won a legal battle to have the property returned, temple custodian Govind Singh said.
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| The coronavirus curves are starting to flatten — again. But complacency now could prove deadly. Posted: 23 Jul 2020 12:08 PM PDT  There's no evidence from the rest of the world that relying on people to behave themselves can actually suppress the coronavirus to a manageable level, as opposed to merely slowing its spread. So far, only lockdowns have done that.
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| Scientists find exquisitely potent antibodies; a blood test may identify who needs steroids Posted: 24 Jul 2020 11:42 AM PDT  Scientists have found 19 potent antibodies that "neutralize" the new coronavirus, including nine that exhibit "exquisite potency," according to a study published in Nature. Compared to previously isolated antibodies, some of the new ones can target different regions of the so-called spike that protrudes from the surface of the virus and helps it infect cells. "Finding antibodies directed to different regions of the spike allows for more/better possibility of forming antibody cocktails to attach the virus and to avoid viral resistance," Dr. David Ho, Director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center at Columbia University, told Reuters.
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| The 5 Best Leaf Vacuums for Yard Cleanup Posted: 24 Jul 2020 12:15 PM PDT |
| US push for global alliance against China hampered by years of 'America first' Posted: 24 Jul 2020 10:28 AM PDT  Beijing is flexing its muscles on multiple fronts but Trump's retreat from world leadership leaves it ill-placed to helm a fightbackThe confrontation between the US and China is gathering pace with each passing week. In the past few days, the Chinese consulate in Houston has been shuttered amid allegations it was a spy hub, and the US mission in the south-western city of Chengdu was closed in retaliation, on similar grounds.The FBI has started arresting Chinese researchers at US universities with suspected links to the People's Liberation Army (PLA), one of whom temporarily took refuge in the consulate in San Francisco, before surrendering.US academics and businessmen are being put under greater scrutiny for ties to Beijing and have been warned to come clean about them under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.The tougher legal moves have been accompanied by a concerted set of speeches assailing China by the Trump administration's major national security and foreign policy officials, culminating in an address on Thursday by the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, declaring: "The free world must triumph over this new tyranny."Pompeo travelled to Yorba Linda, California, home of the Richard Nixon presidential library, to declare that the Republican president's historic opening to China in 1972 had begun an exercise in failure in east-west detente."The kind of engagement we have been pursuing has not brought the kind of change in China that President Nixon hoped to induce," Pompeo said. "The truth is that our policies – and those of other free nations – resurrected China's failing economy, only to see Beijing bite the international hands that fed it."Some of the grand geopolitical language can be put down to the importance of anti-China sentiment in Donald Trump's bid to salvage his presidency in the November election. And some of it is inspired by Pompeo's own efforts, increasingly at the expense of his day job, to position himself for a presidential run in 2024.But much of what Pompeo had to say will have global resonance thanks to Beijing's rising aggression on multiple fronts around the globe. At the same time as rounding up more than a million Muslim Uighurs in internment camps, the regime has quashed the liberties enjoyed by Hong Kong, taken over disputed atolls, reefs and shoals in the South China Sea and turned them into concrete redoubts, and conducted a dangerous land grab on its border with India.Pompeo argued that combatting the grip of the Chinese Communist party "is the mission of our time", a declaration likely to get heads nodding in large parts of Asia and the Pacific at least. But his claim, in his next breath, that "America is perfectly positioned to lead it" will ring hollow among many of Washington's bewildered allies.In their eyes, China has expanded in a vacuum left by the US retreat under the Trump administration into "America First" jingoism and unilateralism.One of Trump's first foreign policy moves was to pull the US out of negotiations for the Trans Pacific Partnership which was designed as an economic coalition to prevent China being able to dictate the terms of trade in the 21st century. US allies in the region went ahead anyway but it was severely weakened by the absence of the US administration, which sought instead to unpick existing trade arrangements with its partners.Similarly, the US effort to persuade China to join arms control negotiations would carry more weight on the world stage if the Trump administration had not walked out on three arms control agreements to date and is apparently in the process of jettisoning a fourth, the New Start agreement limiting US and Russian strategic nuclear weapons.The abrupt US departure from the World Health Organization in the midst of a pandemic, accompanied by a campaign of unsubstantiated allegations against its officials led by Pompeo, is also often cited by diplomats posted to Washington as an example of the US abdicating its global leadership role.The failure of governance evident in the Trump administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic – which has left the US as the biggest, most enduring hotspot, and Americans banned from travelling to much of the world – has also made it hard for US diplomats to cajole foreign governments into a common cause against China, without drawing pained smiles.The same could be said for the spectacle of unidentified and seemingly unaccountable paramilitary units making arrests in Portland. In terms of scale, it could not be more different from the mass incarceration of the Uighurs, but it is not a good look for a nation seeking to reclaim the mantle of leadership of the free world.It is a stroke of luck for US diplomacy that, at a time when it is at its weakest when trying to recruit allies, China is doing much of the job on its behalf.
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| Judge Rules Michael Cohen Was Retaliated Against Over Trump Tell-All, Sends Him Home Posted: 23 Jul 2020 08:49 AM PDT  A Manhattan federal judge on Thursday ordered Michael Cohen to be released from prison this week after finding that authorities "retaliated" against the former Trump lawyer for writing a tell-all book about the president. "I make the finding that the purpose of transferring Mr. Cohen from furlough and home confinement to jail is retaliatory," U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein stated Thursday, adding that "it's retaliation because of his desire to exercise his First Amendment rights to publish a book and to discuss anything about the book or anything else he wants on social media and with others."Cohen, who was sentenced in 2018 to three years in prison after pleading guilty to lying to Congress about hush-money payments and plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, was allowed in May to serve the remainder of his time behind bars in home confinement due to concerns about the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Trump Seethes About Michael Cohen's Early Release and New Tell-AllBut on July 9, he was ordered back to prison after questioning an agreement that barred him from publishing a tell-all book, his legal team said. The order prompted Cohen to sue Attorney General William Barr and the Bureau of Prisons director last week. During a virtual hearing, Hellerstein ruled that Cohen could return to home confinement without restrictions based on his First Amendment rights. The judge agreed with Cohen's legal team that the former Trump lawyer was sent back to prison as an act of "retaliation" over his upcoming book. Hellerstein said that during his 21 years on the bench, he had never "seen such a clause," adding, "How can I take any other inference but that it was retaliatory?" Cohen will be released to home confinement at his Upper East Side home at 2 p.m. on Friday after he is tested for the coronavirus. His son has been tasked with bringing him home. While Cohen will be allowed to serve his time at home, the judge stressed that he will still have a number of restrictions on his movements and future employment. The decision to allow Cohen to return home comes just one day after prosecutors alleged Cohen was "combative" during a July 9 meeting—and that's what landed him back at Otisville Federal Correction Institution. "He was antagonistic during a meeting with probation officers at which he was supposed to sign the agreement that would have allowed him to complete the remaining portion of his criminal sentence in home confinement," prosecutors wrote in a Wednesday court filing, adding that Cohen "took issue with nearly every provision in the agreement." Under that agreement, Cohen could have "no engagement of any kind with the media, including print, tv, film, books, or any other form of media/news." Prosecutors said in a filing that he is "free to work on his book while incarcerated." In Cohen's lawsuit, the former Trumpkin said his "graphic" book would show "Trump's personality and proclivities, his private and professional affairs, and his personal and business ethics."Trump's Lawyer Threatens Michael Cohen as He Remains in JailCohen's lawyers argued that the U.S. Bureau of Prisons violated the former Trump lawyer's First Amendment rights by throwing him back in prison. He is "currently imprisoned in solitary confinement because he is drafting a book manuscript that is critical of the President of the United States—and because he recently made public that he intends to publish this book shortly before the upcoming election," they said.His lawyers sought a temporary restraining order allowing for Cohen's release, which Hellerstein agreed to on Thursday. During the hearing, Hellerstein also stressed he was highly skeptical of the prosecution's argument that Cohen was not locked up for his book. Despite largely siding with Cohen's defense team, Hellerstein did say that both sides need to work together in the coming days to negotiate restrictions on the former Trump lawyer's relationship with the media. 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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| India coronavirus: 14-year-old sexually assaulted at Delhi Covid-19 centre Posted: 23 Jul 2020 09:20 PM PDT  The accused and another man who allegedly filmed the incident have been arrested.
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| NASA will launch a balloon the size of a football stadium into the stratosphere Posted: 24 Jul 2020 08:47 AM PDT  NASA will launch a telescope named ASTHROS and a balloon the size of a football stadium so researchers can study the formation of stars.
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| Pentagon UFO unit to publicly release some findings after ex-official says ‘off-world vehicle’ found Posted: 24 Jul 2020 07:04 AM PDT  A Pentagon UFO unit will make some investigations public as ex-advisors suggest that "vehicles not made on this earth" were placed in US government storage.The team will update the US Senate's Intelligence Committee on its unidentified flying object (UFO) research every six months, The New York Times reported on Thursday.
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| Top pediatrician says open schools for younger kids Posted: 23 Jul 2020 03:01 PM PDT  A top pediatrician told Congress that schools should reopen for younger kids in parts of the country next month.
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| Enbridge contractor vessels may have bumped pipeline support Posted: 23 Jul 2020 02:33 PM PDT  Recent damage that prompted the temporary shutdown of an Enbridge oil pipeline in a channel linking two of the Great Lakes may have been done by vessels working for the company, according to an in-house report provided Thursday to The Associated Press. Enbridge this week submitted to government agencies the results of its investigation into "disturbances" that were discovered during inspections of dual pipelines that run across Michigan's Straits of Mackinac. The two pipelines are part of Line 5, which carries oil and liquids used in propane between Superior, Wisconsin, and Sarnia, Ontario.
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| San Diego shipyard inks $10 million contract for Bonhomme Richard firefighting and cleanup Posted: 23 Jul 2020 10:36 AM PDT  NASSCO San Diego will continue to aid cleanup through November.
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| Covington Catholic Student Settles Defamation Lawsuit with Washington Post Posted: 24 Jul 2020 09:52 AM PDT  Nicholas Sandmann, the Covington Catholic High School student who sued major news outlets in the aftermath of their coverage of a controversial interaction he and several of his classmates had with a Native American activist, said Friday that he has settled his libel lawsuit against the Washington Post."On 2/19/19, I filed $250M defamation lawsuit against Washington Post. Today, I turned 18 & WaPo settled my lawsuit," Sandmann wrote in a tweet Friday morning, adding that he thanks his lawyers, his family, and "millions of you who have stood your ground by supporting me.""I still have more to do," Sandmann added.Sandmann sued the Post and other major news outlets after their coverage portrayed Sandmann and his classmates as racist and aggressive towards Nathan Phillips, an elderly Native American man, during a confrontation near the Lincoln Memorial on January 18 of last year.Viral video of the incident showed Sandmann, who was 16 at the time, and Phillips standing face to face as Phillips loudly beat on a drum inches away from the Kentucky high schooler's face while Sandmann smirked. NBC asserted that Sandmann "blocked" Phillips and "did not allow him to retreat" during their interaction. Longer versions of the video showed that Phillips approached Sandmann, who stood mostly still during the incident. Before the encounter between Sandmann and Phillips members of the Black Hebrew Israelites, a militant black nationalist group, began a confrontation with the teenagers, taunting and shouting slurs at them.Sandmann and his classmates wore "Make America Great Again" caps and were attending the annual anti-abortion March for Life, while Phillips was participating in the Indigenous Peoples March.Also on Friday, Sandmann tweeted a veiled warning to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey."The fight isn't over. 2 down. 6 to go. Don't hold your breath @jack," Sandmann wrote.In January, CNN settled Sandmann's multimillion-dollar defamation lawsuit against them for an undisclosed amount of money. The suit cited the "emotional distress Nicholas and his family suffered" due to the network's coverage of the encounter. Sandmann also has ongoing lawsuits against ABC, CBS, NBC, the New York Times, Gannett, Rolling Stone, and several other news outlets.
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| Florida tops 400,000 coronavirus cases after governor says state is moving in 'better direction' Posted: 24 Jul 2020 11:46 AM PDT  The somber milestone follows the U.S. topping 4 million confirmed coronavirus cases nationwide.
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| Exclusive: More than 40 countries accuse North Korea of breaching U.N. sanctions Posted: 24 Jul 2020 08:21 AM PDT  More than 40 countries accused North Korea on Friday of illicitly breaching a United Nations cap on refined petroleum imports and called for an immediate halt to deliveries until the end of the year, according to a complaint seen by Reuters. The 15-member U.N. Security Council imposed an annual cap of 500,000 barrels in December 2017 in a bid to cut off fuel for North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs. The complaint said North Korean vessels continue to conduct ship-to-ship transfers at sea "on a regular basis as the DPRK's primary means of importing refined petroleum."
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| California Cops Scramble to Find Special Needs Toddler After Parents Stop Cooperating Posted: 23 Jul 2020 11:23 AM PDT  California authorities on Thursday continued their desperate search for a special needs toddler who has been missing for over a week—a search made more difficult now that his parents have "stopped cooperating" with investigators. Thaddeus Sran, 2, was reported missing on July 15 after his parents said he vanished from their home in Madera, about 30 minutes outside Fresno, the City of Madera Police Department said in a statement. His parents told police that they put the toddler to bed around 10 p.m. but when they woke up to check on their son at around 8:30 a.m. the next morning, he was gone.But while City of Madera Police Chief Dino Lawson called the incident "a parent's worst nightmare" last week, authorities are now alleging that the couple has not helped in the ongoing search for the 2-year-old. "Unfortunately, Thaddeus' parents stopped cooperating early on in the investigation. We believe their assistance, in this case, would be helpful," the police said in a statement to The Daily Beast. "We are hopeful that they will resume cooperating with Madera Police Department detectives and help us to locate Thaddeus."The police department, which did not provide the parents' names or say if the couple has been accused of any crime, has been extremely tip-lipped about their investigation. Stressing that they "will not stop looking for Thaddeus," the department declined to give any updates on the case. According to his missing person's poster, Thaddeus was last seen wearing a red shirt and Spiderman pants with a diaper underneath. Authorities said an Amber Alert was never issued for the 30-pound child because there was no information about a possible vehicle. Police added that the toddler's family has offered a $5,000 reward for any information to help find him. Lawson also revealed last week that the toddler had "severe health issues" after he was born prematurely. He said that Thaddeus, who is non-verbal, uses a feeding tube and is just learning how to walk. "Everything is on the table and we're not ruling anything out," Lawson said about the investigation, adding that authorities are looking into the possibility the toddler's disappearance was a possible abduction. Madera Police Lt. Josiah Arnold also revealed to NBC News that the toddler's parents had another daughter who died in 2015, but declined to provide further details. He added, however, that Thaddeus' sister's death was investigated and the case remains open. On Tuesday evening, dozens of residents who have been helping in the search for Thaddeus, including a group of mothers, hosted a vigil at Courthouse Park with candles, photos, and posters asking for "prayers." Many attendees wore red and blue, the colors of Thaddeus' Spiderman pants. "We just want to bring him home safe and alive," Sunndeep Sran, Thaddeus's father's second cousin, told YourCentralValley. She added that while her children go to school with the toddler's siblings, she has not spoken to her cousin since March. "The Sran family appreciates every effort everyone is making," Sran said. "We know as much as the media, what the police department is saying, so we are all in support of bringing Thaddeus home."Lawson said that the Madera County Sheriff's Office, U.S. Marshals, and the FBI were aiding in the case. He said authorities were "hopeful" the toddler's parents "will resume cooperating and come back in and speak with our detectives."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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| Astrophysicists published the largest 3D map of the universe ever made, filling in 11 billion years of history Posted: 24 Jul 2020 07:29 AM PDT  It's the most comprehensive 3D map of the cosmos to date, covering millions of galaxies and supermassive black holes.
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| A professor retiring early amid outrage over racist, anti-feminist, and anti-mask tweets has been found dead in his home Posted: 24 Jul 2020 08:55 AM PDT  Mike Adams was found dead and alone around 2 p.m. on Thursday, and an investigation into his death has been launched.
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| Triple tropical trouble: Douglas, Gonzalo and Tropical Depression 8 threaten US, Caribbean Posted: 23 Jul 2020 02:03 PM PDT  Three storms are threatening havoc: Hurricane Douglas in the Pacific, tropical depression in the Gulf of Mexico, Tropical Storm Gonzalo in the Atlantic.
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| Always rocky, China-US relations appear at a turning point Posted: 24 Jul 2020 01:00 AM PDT  Four decades after the U.S. established diplomatic ties with Communist China, the relationship between the two may have reached a turning point. China ordered the closing of the U.S. Consulate in the southwestern city of Chengdu on Friday, in rapid retaliation for the closing of its consulate in Houston. Two weeks ago, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi asked aloud if relations could stay on track.
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| Ahead of hearing with big tech CEOs, Cicilline says a Biden presidency would lead to regulation next year Posted: 23 Jul 2020 02:00 AM PDT  A top Democrat leading an antitrust investigation into the nation's top technology companies said Wednesday his committee will release a report by the end of August with recommendations on legislation that Congress could pass into law as soon as next year.
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| The Media Can’t Stop Misleading on Guns Posted: 23 Jul 2020 01:58 PM PDT  With the possible exception of religion, there is no issue in American political life that is as poorly covered as guns. At RealClearPolitics, John Lott reports that legacy media outlets often quite literally allow anti–Second Amendment activists to write their news stories on gun policy. Politico hasn't quite done that today, but . . . well, I'm not sure having reporters dutifully repackaging Everytown USA press releases is any better.Politico's piece is headlined "Blocked gun sales skyrocket amid coronavirus pandemic." I have been curious to find out how the anti–Second Amendment crowd would spin the recent spike in gun sales -- which has been especially concentrated among new owners and women -- and I now have my answer:> Internal FBI data reveal a jarring new stat: The number of people trying to buy guns who can't legally own them has skyrocketed. That came as part of a surge in gun purchases in the first three months of 2020, compared to the same time period in 2019. And the change has raised concerns about gun safety.Reporters who lard up their pieces with adjectives such as "jarring," "massive," "whopping," and "raised concerns" are usually trying to convince readers of something that isn't true. And so it is here. Indeed, all this Politico piece tells us is that the National Instant Criminal Background Check System is working exactly as intended.Groups such as Everytown spend a lot of time trying to convince Americans that their country doesn't have a background-check system at all. They're good at it, too; millions of voters seem to be under the impression that criminals can walk into a Walmart and walk out with an AR-15. And yet suddenly Everytown is upset that "jarring" numbers of people are being denied guns by the FBI. Isn't that the point of the system?And about those numbers . . . the piece goes on:> In March 2019, the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) ran background checks on 823,273 attempted gun buys (the system immediately greenlights the vast majority of transactions). This past March, however, NICS processed more than 1.4 million background checks — a massive spike. The most dramatic shift, though, might be in how many people the system blocked from buying guns.> > In March 2019 and February 2020, the NICS system blocked about 9,500 and 9,700, respectively. But in March 2020, it blocked more than double that amount: a whopping 23,692 gun sales.What these stats show is that very few prohibited Americans attempt to buy guns from dealers (this number is even lower than typically suggested, because many of them aren't attempting to hoodwink the FBI but are simply ignorant of the law), and that this is as true in 2020 as it was in 2019. The rejection rate in February 2019 was 0.6 percent and in February 2020 it was 0.68 percent. In March 2019, the rejection rate was 1.15 percent, and it was 1.64 percent in March 2020. As a 2019 Government Accountability Office report inidicates, the number of rejected applications has consistently been around 1 percent for years. Remaining around the historical average is neither "whopping," "jarring," nor "massive," despite the framing of the piece.The piece goes on:> NICS's website says it only blocks gun sales for a narrow number of reasons: because the would-be purchaser has been involuntarily committed to a mental institution, for instance, or because the potential buyer is subject to a restraining order for stalking an intimate partner.Actually, NICS says nothing of the sort on its website. Rather, it offers eleven rather broad grounds and circumstances in which a person can be denied a gun. We know they are broad because no other constitutional right has anything close to as many restrictions on it. I can assure you that if the FBI had eleven reasons to deny women abortions, Politico wouldn't be characterizing them as "narrow" constraints.Politico finishes off the short piece off by quoting a couple of completely baseless statements from Everytown president John Feinblatt:> "This FBI data confirms our fear that America's background check system is completely overwhelmed, which means that more guns are slipping through the cracks and being sold to prohibited purchasers," John Feinblatt, the president of Everytown, said in a statement. "Mitch McConnell can stop this by taking action to close the Charleston loophole, but he's too scared of the gun lobby's waning political power to do anything, even as gun violence rises in the midst of a pandemic."There is no evidence to bolster the assertion that the system is "completely overwhelmed" or that more people are "slipping through the cracks." In fact, the FBI spokesperson says in the piece that the NICS "has reallocated resources to address the incoming volume of NICS transactions."Also, there's no such thing as the "Charleston loophole." I realize that activists such as Feinblatt think every gun purchase in America reflects a "loophole" that needs to be closed, but the three-day waiting limit on checks was purposely written into the 1998 law -- which makes it the opposite of a loophole. The provision was added to the law to ensure that the FBI couldn't arbitrarily deny Americans their Second Amendment rights. The Charleston church shooter obtained his gun -- despite his drug use -- not because of problems with the law but because of a data-entry error. If that is distressing to Feinblatt and his organization, perhaps he should ask the Democratic House to stop ignoring FBI requests for more NICS funding.The simple truth is that these numbers reflect an established pattern: When gun purchases rise -- probably initially owing to the helplessness felt by many people during the COVID-19 lockdown, and later compounded by the lawlessness that erupted in big cities -- other numbers will rise with them. Ultimately, Feinblatt's objection isn't to more background checks; it's to more gun ownership. That's his job, so it's to be expected. But what's the media's excuse?
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| Does Tucker Carlson hate America? Posted: 24 Jul 2020 04:51 AM PDT  Tucker Carlson is only capable of two facial expressions. One is a deeply furrowed brow that narrows his eyes to a point at which they almost disappear, not dissimilar to the face a child makes when they are hangry, or lost, or both. He uses this expression when he is describing the point of view of someone with whom he disagrees. The other is a wide-eyed look of pleading which sends his eyebrows rising at least an inch in the other direction. It is an expression meant to portray logic and reason, of why-do-you-hate-America indignity. He uses it chiefly when describing his own views and solutions to the problems facing the country.All of this is to say that if eyes are windows to the soul, Carlson's spirit is black and white. He is a binary man whose whole career has been defined by his opposition to, and his apparent hatred of, other people and ideas. And at a time when America is more polarised than ever, he is having a moment.
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| Mexico City mayor warns of potential coronavirus rebound as hospitalizations rise Posted: 24 Jul 2020 12:24 PM PDT  The mayor of Mexico City warned on Friday of a possible resurgence of coronavirus cases in the sprawling capital in the coming months, noting that hospitalizations have been on the rise in recent days. Mexico City and its surrounding areas, home to more than 20 million people, have been the epicenter of the country's pandemic after infections were first detected in late February. Cases began to level off in mid-June, but authorities now fear that downward trend could reverse.
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| Chinese researcher charged with US visa fraud is in custody Posted: 24 Jul 2020 01:42 PM PDT  A Chinese researcher accused of concealing her ties to the Chinese military on a visa application she submitted so she could work in the U.S. was booked Friday into a Northern California jail and was expected to appear in federal court Monday. Sacramento County jail records show Juan Tang, 37, was being held on behalf of federal authorities after she was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service. The Justice Department on Thursday announced charges against Tang and three other scientists living in the U.S., saying they lied about their status as members of China's People's Liberation Army.
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| Taliban propose potential Afghan talks timeline as violence soars Posted: 23 Jul 2020 10:04 AM PDT  The Taliban are prepared to hold peace talks with the Afghan government next month straight after the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, the insurgents said Thursday, provided an ongoing prisoner swap has been completed. The development comes amid soaring violence that has threatened to derail US-backed efforts to bring Kabul and the Taliban to the negotiating table and seek an end to Afghanistan's nearly 19-year-old war. The Taliban are "likely ... ready to begin intra-Afghan negotiations immediately after Eid in case the process of the release of the prisoners is completed," the insurgents' political spokesman Suhail Shaheen said on Twitter.
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| 'Virtually the entire apparel industry' — from Gap to H&M to Adidas — are profiting from forced Uighur labor, activists say Posted: 23 Jul 2020 08:35 AM PDT  Vast swathes of the fashion industry complicit in China's mass repression of the Uighur Muslims, says a coalition for human rights groups.
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| Fact check: Five Guys employees terminated, suspended, after refusing service to police Posted: 23 Jul 2020 11:04 AM PDT |
| Senate GOP, White House reach tentative $1 trillion pact to break coronavirus aid logjam Posted: 23 Jul 2020 07:33 AM PDT  The latest talks show some signs of resolving intraparty clashes that have kept negotiations at a dead stop for weeks.
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| Genetic impact of African slave trade revealed in DNA study Posted: 24 Jul 2020 01:20 PM PDT  The consequences of rape, maltreatment, disease and racism are revealed by the findings.
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| The body of professional poker player Susie 'Q' Zhao has been found charred in a Michigan park Posted: 24 Jul 2020 07:11 AM PDT  Police are treating Zhao's death as a homicide, and say it is possible her death was connected to her career.
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| Trump’s well wishes to Ghislaine Maxwell defended by White House press secretary Posted: 24 Jul 2020 01:54 AM PDT  Donald Trump's press secretary has defended the president offering his good wishes to Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein's girlfriend who has been charged with procuring underage girls for sexual abuse.Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, said Mr Trump had not meant to wish Ms Maxwell well, but was instead hoping for "justice to be served for victims in this case".
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| Water wars: Mekong River another front in U.S.-China rivalry Posted: 23 Jul 2020 11:56 PM PDT  The Mekong River has become a new front in U.S.-China rivalry, environmentalists and officials say, with Beijing overtaking Washington in both spending and influence over downstream countries at the mercy of its control of the river's waters. It's a confrontation in which the Trump administration - which has largely maintained funding for an Obama-era environmental and development programmes in the Lower Mekong - is losing ground. The two powers' struggle recently moved into the realm of science - with the U.S. and Chinese governments each touting different reports about whether China's 11 dams on the river were harming nations downstream.
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| German court convicts men over 2018 gang rape of 18-year-old Posted: 23 Jul 2020 05:28 AM PDT  The case, in which most of the 11 defendants were Syrian, added to tensions in Germany over migration. Prosecutors say the woman was offered an Ecstasy tablet in a disco in the southwestern city of Freiburg and her drink was spiked with an unknown substance, leaving her unable to fend off the assailants. The Freiburg state court convicted most of the defendants, who were aged 18 to 30 at the time of the time of the assault in October in 2018, of rape, news agency dpa reported.
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| US F-15 Fighter Flew Near Iranian Passenger Jet Over Syria, Officials Confirm Posted: 23 Jul 2020 06:02 PM PDT  Passengers posted videos and photos on social media claiming a fighter jet was buzzing the aircraft "in a threatening manner."
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| How the Murder of an Ethiopian Singer Triggered an Uprising Against a Disintegrating Democracy Posted: 24 Jul 2020 11:58 AM PDT  The songs of Haacaaluu Hundeessaa spoke to the country's grassroots about historical injustices
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| The millionaire Republicans campaigning to oust Trump Posted: 24 Jul 2020 06:30 AM PDT  A growing number of wealthy conservative Americans are hoping to oust President Trump in November's election.
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| Tropical Storm Gonzalo forecast to become 2020's first Atlantic hurricane of the year Posted: 23 Jul 2020 08:07 PM PDT  The storm is forecast to bring gusty winds and tropical downpours to the Windward Islands this weekend, and it's not the only game in town.
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