| Lindsey Graham breaks with Trump: ‘No issue’ whether Kamala Harris is US citizen Posted: 14 Aug 2020 11:18 AM PDT  Trump stoked an untrue theory that Harris isn't eligible to be vice president.
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| North Korea's leader is tapping his own private food reserve to feed the country, and it could be a worrying sign Posted: 15 Aug 2020 05:00 AM PDT  "It reflects the perfect storm of economic stresses that North Korea is suffering right now," a former CIA branch chief in Korea told Insider.
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| Chili's hostess is assaulted over social-distancing rules, police say Posted: 14 Aug 2020 11:30 AM PDT  "I was kind of fighting for my life," restaurant hostess Kelsy Wallace, 17, said. "I was really scared, calling out for my mama."
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| Mexican government forces out over 1,000 immigration officials accused of corruption Posted: 14 Aug 2020 05:24 PM PDT |
| Female member of Afghan peace team survives attack by gunmen Posted: 14 Aug 2020 11:39 PM PDT  A female member of Afghanistan's peace negotiating team was lightly wounded in an assassination attempt, officials said Saturday. Tariq Arian, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said Fawzia Koofi, who is also a former parliamentarian, was attacked Friday afternoon near the capital Kabul while returning from a visit to the northern province of Parwan. Koofi is part of a 21-member team charged with representing the Afghan government in upcoming peace talks with the Taliban, following a U.S. deal with the militants that was struck in February.
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| Fauci slammed Tucker Carlson, saying he 'triggers some of the crazies' to attack him and that it's 'ridiculous' that he needs personal security to protect him Posted: 15 Aug 2020 02:21 AM PDT  Fox News host Tucker Carlson has repeatedly criticized infectious-diseases expert Anthony Fauci's expertise of late.
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| New Jeffrey Epstein Victims, Including 11-Year-Old Girl, Come Forward in Lawsuit Posted: 14 Aug 2020 02:30 PM PDT  A Florida woman who alleges Jeffrey Epstein sexually assaulted her when she was 11-years-old is among nine accusers who have filed a new lawsuit against the millionaire pedophile's estate.The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Manhattan Supreme Court, alleges Epstein sexually abused them from as early as 1978—far earlier than Epstein's previously known instances of abuse—and continued until 2004. Five of the women in the lawsuit claim they were underage when they were abused, including a Tennessee woman who says she was 13 when the financier raped her multiple times. The other four women in the lawsuit were over 18. They were part of a "massive sex trafficking network" run by Epstein for him and his wealthy and powerful friends, it claims.Victoria's Secret Mogul May Finally Have to Explain His Epstein Ties"These nine Plaintiffs come forward to stand up for themselves and others, after they were sexually abused and assaulted by Epstein," the lawsuit says. "Some... were raped by Epstein, repeatedly."Epstein, 66, was found dead by suicide in his jail cell at Manhattan Correction Center last month. The sex offender was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges for allegedly abusing dozens of underage girls over two decades, beginning in the 1990s. The charges came 12 years after the disgraced businessman pleaded guilty in state court in Florida to soliciting prostitution. He was sentenced to 18 months behind bars in a widely criticized plea deal, and served 13 before he was released.Some of the most shocking claims detailed in the new suit relate to the woman from Tennessee, whose alleged abuse started in 1978 when she was 13, and continued for a long period. Epstein "sexually assaulted, abused, battered and raped her multiple times," the lawsuit says.This assault is the oldest abuse allegation against Epstein, who would have been 25 at the time and working on Wall Street after leaving his teaching gig at the Manhattan prep school Dalton. A woman from Florida alleges in the suit that, in 1993, when she was just 11 years old, Epstein "sexually assaulted, abused, battered and digitally penetrated her on three, separate occasions." She also alleges Epstein forced her "to perform oral sex on him," according to the lawsuit. How We Got the Scoop on Jeffrey Epstein's Arrest"As a result of the aforementioned sexual abuse, [the woman] suffered and continues to suffer from severe and serious injuries including... severe emotional distress and physical manifestations thereof," the lawsuit states.The women were allegedly sexually abused by Epstein and his associates in New York, Florida, New Mexico, California, and the United States Virgin Islands—but the suit also claims abuse happened in South Carolina, a location not mentioned in previous lawsuits and criminal cases against Epstein. The suit doesn't detail how the females met Epstein, or how they came to file a lawsuit together. They were able to sue Epstein's estate due to New York's Child Victims Act—which allows individuals abused as children to bring claims regardless of the statute of limitations.Dozens of victims have laid claim to Epstein's estate, which includes his unsold $88 million Manhattan mansion.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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| Truck driver in school bus crash helps free trapped kids, then collapses Posted: 15 Aug 2020 11:30 AM PDT  The 25-year-old driver of the rental truck died of his injuries at a hospital.
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| ‘Wish I had my baby back.’ Suspect who shot Indiana toddler in mom’s car wanted by FBI Posted: 14 Aug 2020 09:08 AM PDT  "This little girl's life was stripped from her in an act of senseless violence."
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| New tropical threat could emerge along East Coast Posted: 14 Aug 2020 10:09 AM PDT  Josephine ended a brief lull in Atlantic tropical activity, as it developed and clinched a new Atlantic record on Thursday. However, the storm is expected to take a curved path well away from North America into next week. Now, meteorologists are watching a disturbance closer to home that was born from showers and thunderstorms over the southeastern United States -- and it has a chance at very soon becoming the next tropical storm of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season. This image, captured during Friday afternoon, August 14, 2020, revealed banding structure to the clouds and the hint of a low-level circulation just off the Delmarva coast. These conditions are indicative of a budding tropical cyclone. (NOAA/GOES-East) The feature, which the National Hurricane Center has dubbed Invest 96L, is moving away from the East Coast, so there's no threat of a landfall from a budding tropical storm. However, the rapidly organizing and strengthening system has already been playing a role in raising surf along the mid-Atlantic coast and is likely to do the same in southeastern New England this weekend. AccuWeather meteorologists are keeping an eye out for potential tropical development off the East Coast. A Friday, Aug. 14, 2020, satellite loop shows clouds associated with a stalled boundary that could generate the next Atlantic system. (AccuWeather) "There is a high chance this disturbance evolves enough to become a tropical depression and tropical storm as it moves out to sea at any time through this weekend," AccuWeather's top hurricane expert Dan Kottlowski said. "The system will be over sufficiently warm water, and if it stays south of strong wind shear to the north, it can strengthen," Kottlowski added.Rain directly from this system is not likely to fall on the Northeast. However, there are other non-tropical systems that will continue to instigate some weather trouble spots during the weekend. Showers over the lower part of the mid-Atlantic and Southeast states will be triggered by the same stalled weather pattern that has persisted much of this week. Meanwhile, a non-tropical storm at the jet stream level of the atmosphere could produce spotty showers in eastern New England on Saturday.The circulation around the system off the East Coast could actually tend to drag drier air southward over part of the mid-Atlantic coast on Saturday and could prevent the rain dampening the South from spreading northward over New England on Sunday.CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP Part of the reason for breezy to windy conditions and rough surf along the mid-Atlantic coast, in addition to the disturbance itself, has to do with the difference in atmosphere pressure from north to south. An area of high pressure was hovering over southeastern Canada. As the air will flow from high to low pressure from the disturbance, it will create breezy, if not windy, conditions. Proximity to the smooth ocean surface and the disturbance itself can add several miles per hour to the strength of the wind.Since some of the flow of air is blowing in from the ocean, that landward breeze is helping to raise surf and cause slightly-above-normal tides from North Carolina to New Jersey and will continue to do so into Saturday. Tides can be a foot or two above normal, which can be enough to cause minor coastal flooding at times of high tide in some communities.As the system drifts northeastward, seas and surf are likely to build along the southeastern New England coast early this weekend, regardless of the official classification of the system. Forecasters urge bathers to be on the alert for increasing rip currents.Small craft advisories were in effect along the East Coast from the Maryland and Delaware up through coastal Maine on Friday. Southeastern New England will be in for a windy day on Saturday. Steering winds should likely keep the system far enough away from Nova Scotia and Newfoundland to avoid direct impact, but a period of rough seas and surf could occur early next week in this part of Canada.With Kyle as the next name on the list of storms for the Atlantic in 2020, if the system forms in the next several days, then it would set an early-season formation record for the letter "K." The current record belongs to the infamous Katrina from Aug. 24, 2005.The 2020 Atlantic tropical cyclone season has already set seven early-season formation records starting with Cristobal in July and then six storms in a row from Edouard through Josephine. All of the last six storms previous early-season records were set during the notorious 2005 season that went on to bring Katrina and Wilma.Most likely, 2020 will continue to set many more early-season formation records, and this year could be second only to the number of named storms set during the historic 2005 season, which generated a record 28 storms. Like the 2005 season, Greek letters, which are used when the seasonal list is exhausted could again be needed this year, forecasters warn.Additional threats from the tropics will warrant a close eye from forecasters into the next week."In addition for the potential for a tropical system to develop from the train of tropical disturbances, known as tropical waves, moving westward from Africa, we will be keeping an eye on the Gulf of Mexico next week," Kottlowski said.Following the name Kyle, the "L" storm for this year in the Atlantic is Laura. The early-season formation record for the "L" storm is Luis set on Aug. 29, 1995.A feature similar to the disturbance along the Atlantic coast could set up over the Gulf of Mexico next week."During the latter part of next week, a tropical disturbance could evolve over the central to northern part of the Gulf of Mexico," added Kottlowski."We continue to expect a very busy time from late August through September and October and especially during the heart of the hurricane season in September, and there is some indication that we may continue to have named systems toward the end of the season," Kottlowski said.AccuWeather is predicting up to 24 named tropical storms with nine to 11 of those expected to strengthen further into hurricanes this season in the Atlantic basin.Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
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| Trump says he will look 'very strongly' at granting pardon to whistleblower Edward Snowden Posted: 15 Aug 2020 03:57 PM PDT  Whistleblower Edward Snowden, considered a traitor by some and a hero by others, has been living in exile in Moscow since leaking spy secrets.
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| Indiana police to stop blocking roads during executions Posted: 14 Aug 2020 03:38 PM PDT  Indiana State Police agreed Friday to stop blocking roads to a prison where federal executions resumed last month and are set to continue, backing down after anti-death penalty activists said in a lawsuit the roadblocks impeded their free speech rights. During the first three federal executions in July following a 17-year hiatus, troopers shut main roads to the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, where all federal executions are carried out by lethal injection. A joint notice filed in Indianapolis federal court says state police will no longer prevent demonstrators from convening near an intersection across from the sprawling prison.
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| Authorities to allow sea lion killing to help struggling salmon population Posted: 14 Aug 2020 03:27 PM PDT  U.S. authorities on Friday gave wildlife managers in Washington, Oregon and Idaho permission to start killing hundreds of sea lions in the Columbia River basin in hopes of helping struggling salmon and steelhead trout.
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| Coronavirus has exposed extent of slavery in UK, says Sir Iain Duncan Smith Posted: 14 Aug 2020 12:44 PM PDT  Coronavirus has shone a light on a "lawless state" within Britain, where people are held as slaves and criminal gangs steal from the taxpayer, says Sir Iain Duncan Smith. The former Conservative Party leader tells of the "enormous criminal sub-society thriving in the UK", whose practices have been exposed during the pandemic. Writing in The Telegraph, Sir Iain says: "A significant and well-organised network of gangs brings people into this country by different methods, including illegal passports. But the gangs don't just go away when the migrants land in the UK. Too many migrants are then forced into slavery in disgusting conditions." He made the comments after a report was published by the Centre for Social Justice, the think tank, on slavery and exploitation of workers in Leicester. It follows reports of a clothing factory in Leicester that allegedly paid staff illegally low wages and flouted safety measures.
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| Forget One-State and Two-State. This Is the Only Solution for Israelis and Palestinians. Posted: 14 Aug 2020 01:39 AM PDT  The two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian century of conflict is back on the agenda in recent months because of converging controversies and developments. First, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been flirting with annexation of part of the West Bank, which Israel's peace partners and adversaries warned could spell the end to a workable Palestinian state there. At the same time a proposed "one state" solution by writer Peter Beinart and others has led to renewed controversy in pro-Israel circles in the United States. Then on Aug. 13, the United Arab Emirates, Israel, and the United States put out a joint statement that would halt Israel's annexation plans and lead towards bilateral relations between Abu Dhabi and Jerusalem. But the agreement does not solve the question of what happens to the oft-discussed two-state solution. Jared Kushner Is Working On More MidEast Pacts With IsraelTrump's Peace Plan Rescues Benjamin Netanyahu. For Now.The recent developments expose the fallacy of the Manichean binary of either two states or one, which ignores the reality on the ground. There will never be two states or one, but rather a solution that looks more like 1.5 states, which means an Israeli state and a Palestinian autonomous area with aspects of statehood.The two-state solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians has been the mythical final status unicorn that peacemakers have been searching for over the last three decades. Since the First Intifada and the Oslo Accords of the 1990s there have been numerous "interim" periods of negotiations, road maps and meetings, all of which failed to lead to a Palestinian state. At the same time Israel's continued construction of settlements in areas where the Palestinian state is supposed to arise have made disentangling Israel and the Palestinians increasingly unlikely. The reason the two-state solution is unlikely is because over the last decade and a half, when things were supposed to trend towards this "final status," they trended away from it. The Palestinians received a self-governing autonomous area in parts of the West Bank and Gaza. This was controlled by the Palestinian Authority (PA) until elections in 2005 divided the area into Hamas-run Gaza and the PA-run West Bank which is largely controlled by the Palestinian faction Fatah. Meanwhile Israel continued building more settlements, roads and infrastructure in the West Bank, growing the Jewish population there to some 450,000 in 200 communities and an additional 300,000 in Israeli-annexed Jerusalem. Considering the trauma and difficulty Israel faced withdrawing just 7,000 people from Gaza during the disengagement in 2005 and the subsequent rocket fire and three wars in the Gaza Strip, Israel won't take that path again.What makes it most unlikely is also time. The "Oslo" period of the West Bank being controlled by an autonomous Palestinian PA, with its own security forces and all the trappings of a pseudo-state, has now lasted longer than either the British Mandate of Palestine or the Jordanian and Egyptian control of the West Bank and Gaza. That means most Palestinians under the age of 40, which is the vast majority of the population, have only known the Palestinian Authority self-governance era.I spent five years teaching at Al-Quds University in the West Bank. My students were mostly the Oslo generation of Palestinians. They were kids during the First Intifada and came of age during the Second Intifada. They saw dreams of statehood reduced, but they have no connection to Israel, unlike their parents' generation, who lived under direct Israeli rule from 1967 to 1993. I learned from them that neither a one-state solution, nor a full two-state solution was likely to happen. It seemed to be a reality that many on the ground accepted as well, without wanting to admit that a full-fledged Palestinian state wouldn't come into being anytime soon.This matters when people discuss the idea of a one-state solution. The one-state concept is based on the theory that since Palestinians won't likely get a state, they should demand equal rights inside an Israeli state. This is based on a reading of history taken from the 1990s when many looked to South Africa as a successful model of conflict resolution. Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry warned in 2014 that if there were not two states, then Israel would become an apartheid state. The logic of Kerry's argument, which is held by many Israel critics, is that the only solution to an apartheid state is sanctions on Israel that would result in pressure on Israel. This hoped-for solution of the critics is that sanctions would result in Israel replicating the 1990s end of apartheid and transition to full democracy, which is a one-state solution. This is the logic that underpins much of the one-state thinking, and it is a logic derived primarily from rose-colored visions of past success stories rather than the reality in Israel and the West Bank today.The problem with the one-state argument is that in areas where Israel does govern Palestinians and offers them rights to vote, the results do not end in the supposed post-apartheid harmony. In Jerusalem, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians can vote in municipal elections and only around 2 percent vote. Under the myth of one state, Israel would annex everything in the West Bank and Hamas-run Gaza—and then what? There is no evidence Palestinians and Israelis want to share a government. The idea of re-integrating Hamas-run Gaza into Israel is farcical and would involve violence and civil conflict.For all these reasons the only real solution, which already exists on the ground, is a 1.5-state solution. This means that Palestinians continue to enjoy many of the trappings of a state, including the bilateral relations the Palestinian Authority already enjoys with 137 countries. The Palestinians have more international relations with their non-state than Kosovo does, and Kosovo's independence was created by forcefully ousting the Serbian government with NATO and European Union backing.We have to understand the pursuit of a two-state solution as part of a 1990s post-Cold War era when conflicts were being solved globally through negotiations under the new liberal world order that was largely led by the United States and the West. From East Timor to Bosnia, from the Baltic states to peace in Northern Ireland, there was a wave of democratic peace-making. Even with difficulty South Sudan became independent and Syria withdrew its troops from Lebanon in the early 2000s. That era of emerging independent states has now ended. A Kurdistan independence referendum was not recognized globally and demands for Catalan independence and Scottish independence have gone nowhere. Self-declared states such as Somaliland, Northern Cyprus South Ossetia, the Donetsk People's Republic and other quasi-states have not received broad international support. Some of them are recognized only by Russia, in the case of a series of statelets that emerged with the end of the Cold War on Russia's borderlands, while others were carved out of existing states by ethnic or tribal conflict or the breakdown of states like Somalia. Others, such the autonomous Kurdistan region of Iraq, have many trappings of a state but are only autonomous regions. Yet, they exist and tend to control their own borders and have small armies and flags.A two-state or one-state solution cannot be imposed on the Israelis and Palestinians. The era of peaceful democratic transitions to new states has largely ended with the current rise in authoritarian regimes globally and America's global retreat from "endless wars" and humanitarian interventions. In addition any peace plan that envisions the Palestinian Authority becoming a full-fledged state in the areas that it controls in the West Bank, a kind of Swiss cheese of enclaves, ignores reality. You can't run a state when it isn't contiguous. That's why East and West Pakistan broke apart and it is likely why Hamas runs Gaza and Fatah runs Ramallah.A better discussion to be had with Israelis and Palestinians is how to work the current problem within the parameters that exist. No annexation by Israel and no full statehood for the Palestinians. This leaves a solution that is in-between. Those who talk about "peace" and "peace process" don't like complex solutions. They want the South African or Northern Ireland model. They don't like the Bosnia or Kurdistan Regional Government models, where you have states that either lack recognition or are merely autonomous but behave like states. The Kurdistan region of Iraq, for instance, has more powers that are state-like than Ramallah. It has two airports, borders that it largely controls, oil it exports, a flag and large army. The Palestinians are blockaded and divided. Bosnia is independent but still divided.Most conflicts around the world today stem from border disputes that began with the end of the colonial era or the end of the Cold War. Similarly with Israel and the Palestinians, the inability to get to a final status is a result of the conflict in 1948 when Israel became independent, and the 1990s when the Oslo Accords were put into motion. While international law likes neat and clean borders, reality on the ground across the world is not so simple. It is not helpful to try to shoehorn Israelis and Palestinians into one state that they don't want to live in together, nor to try to forcibly pry them apart and cause new conflicts in the process. Agreeing on an autonomous quasi-state or "1.5-state solution" formula is better. That's largely what exists already. It is also a compromise that may gain tacit acceptance among Israel's potential new peace partners in the Gulf. Providing Palestinians more freedom of movement or control over their own borders and affairs could be a good step towards a more workable and peaceful solution that isn't perfect for either side, but is preferable to the conflicts that would result from demanding a final state of one or two states.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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| Killings of two female U.S. service members prompt families to demand change Posted: 14 Aug 2020 06:00 AM PDT  The recent killings of two young servicewomen, Vanessa Guillen and Natasha Aposhian, highlight issues of sexual harassment and assault in the U.S. military. Their families are now leading the fight for a change in the way the military investigates those crimes.
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| Coronavirus spread in Georgia is 'widespread and expanding,' says report Posted: 15 Aug 2020 01:19 PM PDT  Georgia's governor is expected to sign a new order Saturday that will allow local governments to require masks on public property but not in businesses.
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| He applied to work security at a Key West bar. Police say he’s part of a murder plot Posted: 15 Aug 2020 03:00 AM PDT  Key West police and U.S. Marshals arrested a man this week who recently applied to work security at a bar in the Southernmost City who turned out to be a suspect in a stalking and attempted murder case in Nebraska.
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| US economist proposes $12 trillion in slavery reparations to eliminate black-white wealth gap Posted: 14 Aug 2020 07:13 AM PDT  A renowned economist has said that $12 trillion should be afforded to black Americans in reparation for slavery to help the close wealth gap.Duke University professor, William Darity Jr, and writer, Kirsten Mullen, jointly published a report for The Roosevelt Institute, an American liberal think tank, laying out a case for slavery reparations.
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| Ex-FBI lawyer to plead guilty to falsifying documents in Russia inquiry; first case brought in DOJ review Posted: 14 Aug 2020 10:44 AM PDT  Former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith was charged with making false statements in the Russia inquiry.
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| US prosecutor in Miami targeting Venezuela graft is leaving Posted: 13 Aug 2020 09:02 PM PDT  A federal prosecutor who has jailed some of Venezuela's biggest crooks is stepping down, The Associated Press has learned, leaving a void that could dampen U.S. efforts to expose criminal activity in the South American country amid rising tensions with the Trump administration. Michael Nadler, an assistant U.S. attorney, is leaving to enter private practice next month at a boutique Miami law firm— Stumphauzer Foslid Sloman Ross & Kolaya—said a person familiar with the move who insisted on speaking anonymously because it hadn't been made public. Nadler, 48, has indicted multiple Venezuelan Cabinet ministers, businessmen and Swiss bankers as part of a sustained effort by investigators in the Southern District of Florida to recover some of the $300 billion estimated to have been stolen from Venezuela in two decades of socialist rule.
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| Greece has secretly sent away more than 1,000 migrants, taking them to the edge of the country's territorial waters and then abandoning them at sea Posted: 14 Aug 2020 08:11 PM PDT  "I left Syria for fear of bombing — but when this happened, I wished I'd died under a bomb," Najma al-Khatib told The Times.
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| Wild boar who stole German nudist's clothes to be culled Posted: 14 Aug 2020 08:24 AM PDT  A trained marksman is to be deployed to shoot a wild boar that stole the clothes of a naked German man, Berlin authorities said on Friday. The boar made international headlines last week after photographs of the portly nudist giving chase were shared on social media. But in a sad postscript to the incident, the local forestry department said yesterday (FRI) the boar would have to be killed as it has lost its fear of humans and presents a danger to public safety. The boar in question emerged from the forest with two cubs last week and made its way through crowds of Berliners seeking to cool off in the Teufelsee, one of the city's many lakes. "You have to put yourself in the boar's position," Katja Kammer of the Grunewald forestry department told local RBB television. "The sun is hot on its black fur. So it heads for water or into a swamp." Forestry officials have been tracking the boar in question for some time, Ms Kammer said. "Fortunately, there have not been any serious incidents involving wild boar at the Teufelssee." Wild boar numbers are regularly controlled by licensed hunters around Berlin and many other major German cities. When the population becomes too high. the boars emerge from the forests to look for food and can turn aggressive when they encounters humans. In one famous incident, four people including a police officer were injured when they were attacked by a 265-pound boar that had wandered into the Berlin neighbourhood of Charlottenburg in 2012.
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| Democrats call on top DHS officials to 'resign in disgrace' after watchdog says their appointments were invalid Posted: 14 Aug 2020 10:11 AM PDT  A government watchdog has found that two top Department of Homeland Security officials are not eligible for their jobs — and Democrats want them to immediately "resign in disgrace."The independent Government Accountability Office on Friday said that Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf and Kenneth Cuccinelli, his deputy, were appointed to their positions in violation of the Vacancies Reform Act, and the two top officials are "serving under an invalid order of succession," The Washington Post reports.The watchdog explains that when former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen resigned in 2019, the official who became acting secretary, Kevin McAleenan, "had not been designated in the order of succession to serve," and since "the incorrect official assumed the title of acting secretary at that time, subsequent amendments to the order of succession made by that official were invalid."House Homeland Security Committee Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Committee on Oversight and Reform Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) in a statement called for the officials to resign, while Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) also said Wolf and Cuccinelli "must resign in disgrace" or be removed from office."There are also major questions about the legality of their actions over the last 16 months that the DHS Office of the Inspector General must swiftly review," Castro added.A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security in a statement per the Post said "we wholeheartedly disagree with the GAO's baseless report and plan to issue a formal response to this shortly." More stories from theweek.com Trump's Post Office meddling is plainly illegal Trump will deliver speech on Biden's 'record of failure' hours before DNC acceptance speech USPS says it will freeze collection box removal until after election following backlash
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| American tourists are further banned from entering Canada until September and 'citizen detectives' are on the lookout Posted: 15 Aug 2020 07:36 AM PDT  Fear of Americans bringing the coronavirus across the border has led Canadians to report cars with foreign license plates to the police, or vandalize them.
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| California wildfires: Rolling blackouts for first time in decade as temperature hits 112F and blazes threaten LA Posted: 15 Aug 2020 06:27 AM PDT  An intense heatwave covering much of the western US and bone-dry conditions across California forced rolling blackouts for the first time in a decade and fuelled wildfires that threatened thousands of homes.Electrical demand surged on Friday as residents dialled up air-conditioning units and fans, prompting the California Independent System Operator, the body that manages the state's power grid, to declare a "stage 3 emergency" that evening, forcing utilities to cut power to hundreds of thousands of residents in the state.
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| Far-right demonstrators, counter-protesters and police clash in multiple states Posted: 15 Aug 2020 05:20 PM PDT  Fights broke out at demonstrations in Michigan and Georgia Saturday. Among those involved: far-right Proud Boys, counter-protesters and police.
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| Filing: Kansas prof's prosecution criminalizes job disputes Posted: 14 Aug 2020 06:58 AM PDT  The prosecution of a Kansas researcher ensnared in a U.S. government crackdown on Chinese economic espionage and trade secret theft opens the door to criminalizing workplace disagreements, his attorneys argued Friday in a motion asking a court to throw out the charges. Feng "Franklin" Tao is charged with not disclosing on conflict-of-interest forms work he was allegedly doing for China while employed at the University of Kansas — something federal prosecutors have portrayed as a scheme to defraud the university, the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation. In their request to dismiss the case, defense lawyers Peter Zeidenberg and Michael Dearington wrote that the government seeks to use Tao's prosecution as a potential new model for the Justice Department to prosecute professors "without having to produce evidence of intellectual property theft or export control violations."
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| In struggle to land a blow on Biden, Trump toys with nickname change Posted: 14 Aug 2020 05:32 PM PDT  U.S. President Donald Trump, who has used belittling nicknames to describe his opponents throughout his political career, toyed with a name change on Friday for his Democratic rival in the Nov. 3 election, Joe Biden. Unable to hold his signature large campaign rallies because of the pandemic, Trump brought about 300 police officers who support his re-election bid to the open area outside the clubhouse at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club. Trump polled the crowd on whether he should stick with "Sleepy Joe" or change his nickname to "Slow Joe."
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| Yale University 'discriminated against white and Asian students', says Department of Justice Posted: 14 Aug 2020 08:07 AM PDT  Yale University illegally discriminated against white and Asian American students, the US Justice Department said after its investigation found race to be the "determinative factor in hundreds of admissions decisions each year." The findings are the result of a two-year investigation in response to a complaint by Asian American groups concerning Yale's conduct. The Justice Department said it had concluded that the Ivy League university gave too much weight to race in reviewing applications, in violation of federal civil rights law. Eric Dreiband, the assistant attorney general for the civil rights division, claimed that Yale grants "substantial, and often determinative" preferences to certain "racially-favored applicants" and disfavours others. He also asserted that for "the great majority" of cases, Asian American and white applicants have "only one-tenth to one-fourth of the likelihood of admission as African American applicants with comparable academic credentials."
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| Turkey hits out at France in Mediterranean gas crisis Posted: 14 Aug 2020 11:25 AM PDT  Turkey on Friday accused France of acting like a bully and hit out at Greece as EU foreign ministers confronted an emerging crisis in the energy-rich eastern Mediterranean.
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| Amber Alert resolved for 16-year-old Florida teenager, authorities say Posted: 14 Aug 2020 11:09 AM PDT  UPDATE: The Amber Alert for the unidentified 16-year-old girl has been resolved Friday night, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said.
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| After months of haggling, Lockheed moves on German air defense bid Posted: 14 Aug 2020 09:55 AM PDT  Lockheed Martin and MBDA Deutschland have submitted another bid for Germany's next-generation air defense system, following negotiations throughout the summer that some observers said nearly tanked the project.
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| Bolsonaro 'led Brazilian people into a canyon', says ex-health minister Posted: 15 Aug 2020 01:00 AM PDT  Luiz Henrique Mandetta accuses president of playing a 'pivotal' role in steering economy towards catastropheHistorians will savage Jair Bolsonaro for leading Brazilians into a deadly "canyon" with his shambling, self-interested and anti-scientific response to Covid-19, according to his former health minister.In an interview with the Guardian, Luiz Henrique Mandetta accused the Brazilian president of playing a "pivotal" role in steering Latin America's largest economy towards a catastrophe. Bolsonaro played politics with citizens' lives at a time of global crisis, he said, as Brazil's death toll rose to more than 105,000. Only the US has suffered more deaths.Mandetta, who has hinted he will challenge Bolsonaro for the presidency in 2022, became a household name in the early stages of this year's pandemic. He drew praise from left and right for his accessible, science-based alerts over the threat of coronavirus during daily press conferences.A 55-year-old orthopedic doctor, Mandetta was elected to congress in 2010 and has faced criticism for opposing the Mais Médicos (More Doctors) health scheme that sent Cuban doctors to remote and deprived parts of Brazil. He was named health minister in November 2018, shortly after Bolsonaro's shock election.But he was sacked in mid-April after publicly challenging Bolsonaro's sabotaging of social distancing. Speaking from his base in the midwestern city of Campo Grande, he said the two had not spoken since.On the day Mandetta was fired Brazil's Covid-19 death toll stood at about 2,000. Four months later it has risen to over 105,000 with the former minister one of many who blames Bolsonaro for the tragedy's scale.Bolsonaro has repeatedly downplayed the pandemic, undermined containment measures and attended protests and barbecues, using face masks incorrectly, if at all.Mandetta said the fight against Covid-19 had been fatally compromised by Bolsonaro's "utter contempt for science" – which saw him belittle the disease as a "little flu" and trumpet ineffective treatments such as the antimalarial drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine."It's interesting that he totally rejects science and mocks all those who speak of science. Yet when there's any prospect of a vaccine he's the first to come knocking on science's door ... as if a vaccine would redeem him from his shambling march through this epidemic."Mandetta also attacked Bolsonaro's "complete sabotage" of the health ministry. After Mandetta and his team were evicted, another health minister, Nelson Teich, took charge but lasted less than a month after also clashing with the president over Covid-19. Since May the ministry has had an army general with no medical experience as its stopgap leader.Mandetta – who said he felt anguished and impotent about the situation – claimed that by forcing out specialists and surrounding himself by yes men Bolsonaro had lost touch with reality."When you're in a situation where you surround yourself with people who say what you want to hear and not what is the truth … the leader ends up blinding himself to what is happening," he said. "He listens but doesn't hear. He looks but doesn't see."The ex-minister suspected Bolsonaro's refusal to comfort grieving families reflected guilt over the realisation his actions had cost lives."He led the Brazilian people into a canyon in quick march and people have fallen off and died – and having to recognize that this was a mistake, that this caused pain, I think must be politically tricky for him right now."Perhaps once the tragedy was over Bolsonaro might publicly express remorse, Mandetta said. But how could Brazilians believe the words of a man who had "openly criticized those who sought to save lives"?He warned that without an urgent change in direction the average number of daily deaths – which has been close to or above 1,000 for nearly three months – was only likely to fall in late September.Mandetta, who is from the rightwing party Democratas, has declined to confirm he will run for president but said Brazil needed a leader who could "pacify" the country after Bolsonaro's "toxic" term."I hope the leader who emerges victorious in 2022 is capable of rebuilding Brazil's broken social fabric, giving this country a sense of unity … and accepting that it just isn't normal to go around saying Brazilians like to roll around in the sewage."Mandetta predicted Bolsonaro would eventually pay a political price for "making a beeline down the path of denial". But on Friday one of Brazil's top pollsters found the president's approval rating had risen to its highest level since he took office in January 2019.
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| Philippines death penalty: A fight to stop the return of capital punishment Posted: 15 Aug 2020 04:26 PM PDT  The death penalty might soon return to the Philippines, but critics warn it targets the most vulnerable.
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| TikTok's US employees are scared they won't get paid if the app is banned, and now they're planning to sue the Trump administration Posted: 14 Aug 2020 12:25 AM PDT  "The fear is that we will not be able to receive our paychecks," Patrick Ryan told Business Insider.
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| 9th Circuit ends California ban on high-capacity magazines Posted: 14 Aug 2020 10:21 AM PDT  A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday threw out California's ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines, saying the law violates the U.S. Constitution's protection of the right to bear firearms. "Even well-intentioned laws must pass constitutional muster," appellate Judge Kenneth Lee wrote for the panel's majority. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra's office said it is reviewing the decision and he "remains committed to using every tool possible to defend California's gun safety laws and keep our communities safe."
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| An Arizona school district canceled its reopening plans because too many teachers refused to show up Posted: 15 Aug 2020 05:05 AM PDT  Nearly half the teachers in the J.O. Combs Unified School District said they would not show up. Arizona has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.
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| Japanese ship involved in Mauritius oil spill breaks apart Posted: 14 Aug 2020 10:25 PM PDT  The condition of the MV Wakashio was worsening early on Saturday and it split by the afternoon, the Mauritius National Crisis Committee said. The vessel struck a coral reef on July 25, spilling about 1,000 tonnes of fuel oil and endangering corals, fish and other marine life in what some scientists have called the country's worst ecological disaster. On Friday, some residual oil from the ship leaked into the ocean, Mauritius Marine Conservation Society President Jacqueline Sauzier told Reuters on Saturday morning.
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| Belarus leader says Putin offers help as pressure builds Posted: 15 Aug 2020 12:26 PM PDT  Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said Saturday that Russia's Vladimir Putin has offered to help ensure the country's security, as opposition protesters kept up the pressure on the veteran leader over his claim to have won re-election.
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| Paris Declared ‘Red Zone’ as Second COVID Wave Hits Spain and France Posted: 14 Aug 2020 02:42 AM PDT  ROME—Europe is bracing for a second wave of COVID-19 as the busy tourist season reaches its peak this weekend.In France, the government on Friday declared the cities of Paris and Marseilles and the surrounding regions "red zones" after a spike in new cases sent authorities scrambling to contain outbreaks largely driven by visiting tourists and careless young people.On Thursday, France reported more than 2,500 new infections of COVID-19 for the second day in a row, taking the country back to mid-April levels, when much of Europe was on lockdown.The situation isn't much better in Spain, where officials there warn of a "critical moment" after the military was dispatched to the northeastern city of Zaragoza to rebuild a field hospital that was taken down four months ago.There Is No 'Russia Vaccine' Spain has an infection rate of 100 per 100,000, according to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, which is the highest in Europe after the tiny country of Luxembourg. France has a rate of 32 cases per 100,000.The United Kingdom, which came into coronavirus restrictions later than much of the rest of Europe, has added France to the list of countries, including Spain, from which visitors must now quarantine for 14 days upon entry, sparking anger among travelers who are still on holiday in France.Italy, which was once the Eurozone's epicenter for the virus, has a rate of just 8.2 cases per 100,000, but the country is still under very strict guidelines, including a face-mask mandate in all public spaces since March. France, by comparison, only mandated face coverings indoors on July 20.Italy has also started an aggressive testing program under which all travelers from Greece, Croatia, Malta, and Spain must be tested on arrival or present a testing certificate within 72 hours, though there are flaws in the system, especially at smaller airports that do not have adequate resources to carry out the tests or follow up on contact tracing. As of Friday, France looked likely to join the list. A smaller spike in Italy of around 500 new cases a day this week, up from the lower hundreds, has been attributed to young people returning from those countries.The Italian government has extended the state of emergency to Sept. 7, which allows regions to impose restrictions and close certain sectors tied to outbreaks. "We must continue to be cautious in order to protect the results obtained thanks to sacrifices made by all in recent months," Health Minister Roberto Speranza said this week.How Is New York Having Crazy Parties With No COVID Surge?In the Netherlands, authorities have warned that young people are also to blame for a spike of about 600 new cases a day, up from 40, according to BBC News. The Dutch health ministry spokesperson Joba van den Berg said 70 percent of cases stemmed from private gatherings held by people trying to skirt restrictions on gatherings."I do understand it is difficult, with summer time, parties, family gatherings, wedding, funerals," van den Berg told the BBC. "But many people are too close together and they are the source of the enormous increase in infections." Europeans are now looking to how other countries are handling their outbreak. New Zealand, which went more than 100 days without a single new case, has gone under partial lockdown after a cluster was found that is potentially tied to a frozen food plant.Australia has also successfully fought back a spike by locking down large swaths of the country to mitigate the spread. It is unclear whether plans in place in many European countries to open schools in person next month will be affected by the threat of what clearly looks like it could be a second wave.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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