| Fact check: Meme accurately describes legal trouble for members of 2016 Trump campaign Posted: 02 Sep 2020 05:54 AM PDT  A viral Facebook post is accurate about legal issues facing Steve Bannon, Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Michael Flynn, Roger Stone and Michael Cohen.
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| Rescue team detects 'pulse' of possible survivor buried under Beirut rubble for 29 days Posted: 03 Sep 2020 08:43 AM PDT  A border collie dog working with Chilean rescuers discovered a potential survivor of the Beirut port explosion on Thursday night, nearly a month after the blast. The trained rescue dog detected signs of life beneath the rubble of a destroyed building in the district of Gemmayzeh, sparking an intensive search. Up to two bodies were subsequently potentially detected by thermal imaging cameras, trapped below the rubble: one small curled up body and a larger one. The smaller body showed some vital signs, registering 18 breaths per minute, while a faint pulse could also be detected, the team said. Francisco Lermanda, the head of the Chilean Rescue team, told The Telegraph that he suspected whoever was trapped was in a coma. He predicted a long night ahead to reach the possible victim. The discovery was made 29 days after the huge explosion in Beirut's port, triggered when a huge quantity of ammonium nitrate stored for six years in a warehouse was ignited by a fire. The resulting blast killed nearly 200 people, injured 6,000, and caused a huge swathe of devastation across the city.
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| Covid: Australian anti-lockdown suspect's arrest draws controversy Posted: 03 Sep 2020 03:13 AM PDT  Viral footage shows police handcuffing a pregnant woman in her home for allegedly "inciting" a protest.
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| Critics fear NYPD Asian hate crime task force could have unintended consequences Posted: 02 Sep 2020 07:59 AM PDT  "Law enforcement has been one of the biggest perpetrators of violence against Asian Americans and communities of color and continues to be one of the biggest perpetrators of violence," an activist said.
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| Lebanese army finds more explosive chemicals outside Beirut port after huge blast Posted: 03 Sep 2020 08:43 AM PDT  Lebanon's army said on Thursday it had found 4.35 tonnes of ammonium nitrate near the entrance to Beirut port, the site of a huge blast last month caused by a large stockpile of the same highly explosive chemical. The authorities said it was caused by about 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate that had been stacked in unsafe conditions in a port warehouse for years. Lebanon's government quit amid public anger in a nation already brought to its knees by an economic crisis.
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| China cracks down on Inner Mongolian minority fighting for its mother tongue Posted: 03 Sep 2020 10:21 AM PDT  Teachers and students have refused to comply with a new bilingual education program in Inner Mongolia. The state is cracking down in response.
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| Biden promises police reform commission, education funding in Kenosha after talking to Jacob Blake Posted: 03 Sep 2020 01:44 PM PDT  Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden made a visit to Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Thursday, and the first thing he did was meet with the family of Jacob Blake.Police shot Blake last month, sparking protests for racial justice in the city and the country, as well as some destruction in downtown Kenosha. President Trump made destroyed businesses the focus of his visit to the city on Tuesday, but Biden opted for a call with Blake and a town hall with members of the community.> Joe and Jill Biden met with Jacob Blake's family in Kenosha, Wisconsin, for 90 minutes on Thursday, and Jacob Blake called into the meeting from his hospital bed, according to family lawyer Ben Crump. pic.twitter.com/BMbqmQF7kI> > -- NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) September 3, 2020Blake is "out of the ICU" but still in the hospital, Biden told the town hall after the call, and said Blake "talked about how nothing was going to defeat him. How, whether he walked again or not, he was not going to give up."Biden also heard from a firefighter, a mother, a former prosecutor, and other Kenosha residents discussing what they'd like to see happen in their community. He then addressed their points with plans to boost funding for Title I schools, a promise to hold a national commission on policing out of the White House, and calls for sentencing and other criminal justice reforms.It was a lot of policy talk, but Biden would've probably been better off rambling on instead of cutting himself off with an unfortunate joke. > Biden's "not a penny" pledge in Wisconsin: "If you make less than $400,000, you're not going to get a penny tax and you're going to get a tax cut if you make under $125,000." He said in Kenosha he won't lay everything out on taxes now "because they'll shoot me."> > -- Manu Raju (@mkraju) September 3, 2020More stories from theweek.com 7 scathing cartoons about Trump's divisive Kenosha response Dow Jones drops 800 points in worst day for the stock market since June Attorney General Barr won't agree it's illegal to vote twice, as Trump urged, claims ignorance of state laws
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| Trump's press secretary refuses to blame Russia for the nerve-agent attack on Putin's top opponent Posted: 03 Sep 2020 11:39 AM PDT  Other world leaders have explicitly demanded an explanation from the Russian government for Navalny's poisoning.
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| 'You matter to us': Delta Air Lines upgrades Black traveler harassed by white flyer Posted: 03 Sep 2020 11:33 AM PDT  Demetria Poe is applauding Delta Air Lines for "taking a stance" against racism and discrimination after she was harassed by her seatmate on a flight.
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| 'Zombie' Arctic wildfires fuel record carbon emissions Posted: 03 Sep 2020 12:02 AM PDT  This summer's wildfires in the Arctic have put record amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, experts have warned. Some of fires early in the season are thought to have been caused by so-called 'zombie fires', which had been smouldering underground during the winter months. Carbon emissions from this year's wildfires burning in the Arctic Circle have already outstripped 2019's record levels and are the highest for the region in data going back to 2003, Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) said. Scientists from the service, which is run by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) on behalf of the European Commission, monitor wildfire activity across the world. They have estimated that carbon dioxide emissions from the Arctic Circle from the beginning of the year were 244 million tonnes, up by a third on the 181 million tonnes for the whole of 2019. Most of the increase in wildfires has been in Russia's Sakha Republic, which falls partly within the Arctic Circle, with millions of acres of land damaged, the scientists said. Across Eastern Russia as a whole, fires emitted approximately 540 million tonnes of carbon dioxide between June and August, surpassing the previous highest total emissions for the region, seen in 2003, they said. Elsewhere in the world, a large region of the south-western USA has been hit by wildfires due to heatwave conditions, with large plumes of smoke seen moving eastward across the Great Lakes towards the North Atlantic. California has seen the second and third worst fires in the state's history, the data shows. Mark Parrington, senior scientist and wildfire expert at CAMS, said: "The Arctic fires burning since middle of June with high activity have already beaten 2019's record in terms of scale and intensity as reflected in the estimated carbon dioxide emissions. "We know from climate data provided by our parallel service at ECMWF, the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), that warmer and drier conditions have been prevalent again this summer. "Our monitoring is vital in understanding how the scale and intensity of these wildfire events have an impact on the atmosphere in terms of air pollution."
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| Philippine court orders US Marine's early release in killing Posted: 02 Sep 2020 06:17 AM PDT  A Philippine court has ordered the early release for good conduct of a U.S. Marine convicted in the 2014 killing of a transgender Filipino which sparked anger in the former American colony. Joseph Scott Pemberton drew protests from the family and lawyers of Jennifer Laude, who was found dead in a motel room in Olongapo city, northwest of Manila, after they met at a disco bar in October 2014.
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| Savannah church separates from United Methodist Church in support of LGBTQ Posted: 03 Sep 2020 10:12 AM PDT  A Georgia congregation said Thursday that it has finalized its split from the United Methodist Church after the denomination's divisive vote last year to strengthen bans on same-sex marriage and ordination of LGBTQ pastors.
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| Jimmy Lai: Hong Kong tycoon found not guilty in intimidation trial Posted: 03 Sep 2020 12:58 AM PDT  The court ruled the Hong Kong entrepreneur was not guilty over an incident three years ago.
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| 25 more endangered children located as sex trafficking busts continue in 2 states Posted: 02 Sep 2020 09:51 AM PDT  Operations in Ohio and Indiana seek missing children who may be victims of sex trafficking.
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| Baltimore postal facility sat on 68,000 pieces of election mail for 5 days before primary Posted: 02 Sep 2020 11:05 AM PDT  A postal service facility in Baltimore, Maryland sat on 68,000 pieces of political mail for five days before the June 2 primary, according to an audit. The audit by the Postal Service's Office Inspector General (OIG), which was published Monday, was done for the purpose of evaluating, "the U.S. Postal Service's readiness for timely processing of Election and Political Mail for the 2020 general elections."
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| Weeks after Sturgis motorcycle rally, first COVID-19 death reported Posted: 02 Sep 2020 01:54 PM PDT  The man, in his 60s with underlying conditions, was hospitalized and in the ICU after returning from Sturgis, officials said.
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| Kremlin tells West not to rush to judge it on Navalny as sanctions talk starts Posted: 03 Sep 2020 05:04 AM PDT  Russia said on Thursday the West should not rush to judge it over the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny and that there were no grounds to accuse it of the crime, as talk in the West of punishing Moscow intensified. The Kremlin was speaking a day after German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Navalny had been poisoned with a Soviet-style Novichok nerve agent in an attempt to murder him and that she would consult NATO allies about how to respond. Navalny, 44, is an outspoken opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin and has specialized in high-impact investigations into official corruption.
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| The Justice Department is reportedly preparing to file antitrust charges against Google Posted: 03 Sep 2020 01:11 PM PDT  Google controls about 90% of web-search traffic, dominates online advertising, and is already the target of antitrust action led by 50 states.
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| A barista at a Target Starbucks was fired for a satirical TikTok showing how to make a 'Blue Lives Matter' drink with 'bleach' Posted: 03 Sep 2020 01:41 PM PDT  A barista who made a "Blue Lives Matter" drink in a TikTok video was fired, according to Target, which housed the Starbucks store near Indianapolis.
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| DC task force targets monuments, prompting fierce blowback Posted: 01 Sep 2020 07:29 PM PDT  A task force commissioned by the Washington, D.C., government has recommended renaming, relocating or adding context to dozens of monuments, schools, parks and buildings because of their namesakes' participation in slavery or racial oppression. Among the targets are the Washington Monument and Jefferson Memorial.
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| Typhoon Maysak: Ship with crew and thousands of cattle missing Posted: 03 Sep 2020 05:10 AM PDT  One sailor is rescued from a ship with 43 crew and 6,000 cattle thought sunk in the East China Sea.
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| COVID-19 spread at Maine wedding now linked to 143 cases, one death, outbreak at jail Posted: 03 Sep 2020 11:58 AM PDT  There are now 143 COVID-19 cases linked to a Maine wedding, including one person who died, a state CDC spokesperson said.
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| The Democrats’ Dangerous Delegitimization of the Election Posted: 03 Sep 2020 12:14 PM PDT  A recent deep dive in the Washington Post's Outlook section, "What's the Worst That Could Happen?" exploring various potential outcomes of the 2020 presidential election, found that in "every scenario except a Biden landslide, our simulation ended catastrophically." According to the Post, any other outcome is destined to spark "violence" and a "constitutional crisis."Or, in other words, nice country you got there . . .Every assumption in the article, written by Rosa Brooks, a Georgetown University law professor and co-founder of the Transition Integrity Project, is awash in the conspiratorial paranoia that's infected the modern Democratic Party. It's a world where Trump officials -- played, quite implausibly, by Joe Biden partisans Michael Steele and Bill Kristol -- are "ruthless and unconstrained right out of the gate" but the genteel statesmen of Team Biden "struggled to get out of reaction mode." It is place where Republicans aren't only reflexively seditious and autocratic, but a "highly politicized" Supreme Court tries to steal the election.In their "war game" scenarios, however, it's the Democrats who refuse to accept the will of courts to adhere to the constitutionally prescribed system rather than hysteria, and it's the Democrats who wishcast the wholly imaginary "popular vote" into existence.One of the scenarios, we learn, "doesn't look that different from 2016" -- a contest in which, it must be pointed out, not one vote has been proven to be uncounted or altered. In that outcome, America is confronted with "a big popular win for Mr. Biden, and a narrow electoral defeat."In the real world, incidentally, that scenario is called a "Trump victory."In the fictional war game, however, John Podesta, playing the role of Biden, contends that his party won't let him concede the race, and instead alleges "voter suppression" -- the catch-all go-to every time a Democrat loses -- and persuades the Democratic governors of Trump-won states such as Wisconsin and Michigan to send pro-Biden electors to the Electoral College. In the meantime, California, Oregon, and Washington threaten to secede from the union if Trump takes office. The Democratic House unilaterally names Biden president. "At that point in the scenario," the New York Times' Ben Smith explains, "the nation stopped looking to the media for cues, and waited to see what the military would do."This scenario is what a real-life "coup" might resemble. It is, needless to say, utterly insane that Democrats would destroy the nation's long-standing and peaceful transition because they refuse to accept the mandated process of electing the president. All of which is to say the proactive -- and retroactive -- delegitimization of the Trump presidency has been a successful four-year project. It permeates the entire Democratic Party's information complex.First, Democrats convinced millions of Americans that a handful of inept and puerile social-media ads were enough to overturn a presidential election in the most powerful nation on earth. By 2017, a majority of Democrats believed that vote tallies had been tampered with by Russians, somehow without a trace of evidence.Since then, Democrats have been working to convince themselves there is no legitimate way in which Trump could win the election again. A large number of high-profile left-wing columnists have laid the groundwork to make this case and high-profile politicians have joined them. Hillary Clinton's advice to Biden not long ago was to not concede defeat on the night of the November 3 election no matter what happens. In January during the impeachment trial, Representative Adam Schiff said, "The President's misconduct cannot be decided at the ballot box, for we cannot be assured that the vote will be fairly won." House speaker Nancy Pelosi has noted that "Let the election decide'" is a "dangerous position" position because Trump is already "jeopardizing the integrity of the 2020 elections.""It's worth pointing out that *almost* no one thinks Trump will actually win more votes," Chris Hayes told his followers not long ago. "I think if he wins the electoral college and loses the popular vote *again* you're looking at the worst legitimacy crisis since secession."A far bigger crisis for the United States is that liberal pundits tell their audience that the method of winning an election in the United States, one that every president in history of the country relied on, should be considered a crisis of legitimacy.What is worth pointing out as well is that the dynamics of the presidential election would be completely different if the popular vote actually existed. But candidates do not compete for the popular vote, so they can neither "win" nor "lose" it. If they did try to win the popular vote, they would cater to the largest population centers, and no one else, and elections would look very different. I'm not sure that that setup would work out for Democrats exactly as they imagine, but it doesn't matter. A popular vote undercuts federalism, one of the foundational ideas of the Founding. And that's the point.If you haven't noticed, it's working. A recent USA Today poll found that 28 percent of Biden's supporters say they aren't prepared to accept a Trump victory as "fairly won," and 19 percent of President Trump's supporters say the same about a potential Biden victory. So a significant minority of American voters don't believe the next election will be legitimate before it has even been conducted. What happens when every long line at the polls and every Facebook meme and every delayed mail-in ballot is turned into a nefarious plot by the enemy to snatch democracy from the rightful winner? It's going to be ugly, indeed. If their "war games" are to be believed, that's what Democrats are counting on.Editor's Note: An earlier version of this article stated that "almost half" of Americans doubt the legitimacy of the next election. It has been updated to more accurately reflect the poll numbers it cites.
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| Israel announces partial national lockdown after coronavirus surge Posted: 03 Sep 2020 10:59 AM PDT  Israel will impose a partial national lockdown next week to battle a coronavirus infection surge, the head of its pandemic task force said on Thursday, shouting his exasperation in an emotional television address. The health official, Ronni Gamzu, said Israel was facing a "pivotal moment" in trying to contain the spread of COVID-19, with some 3,000 new cases now reported daily in a population of nine million. Other health experts have said political in-fighting among members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition government has led to a slow response to a second wave of cases after a national lockdown flattened the infection curve in May.
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| Facebook has banned an Indian politician from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling party for violating its rules on hate speech Posted: 03 Sep 2020 04:38 AM PDT  Facebook's attitude to right-wing figures has been at the center of a political debate in India following an explosive Wall Street Journal report.
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| Health officials warn U.S. is not ready to roll out COVID-19 vaccine Posted: 02 Sep 2020 01:50 PM PDT  While one or more vaccine could be available toward the end of this year or early next, the path to delivering vaccines to 330 million people remains unclear for the local health officials expected to carry out the work.
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| Video in Black man's suffocation shows cops put hood on him Posted: 02 Sep 2020 04:10 PM PDT  A Black man who had run naked through the streets of a western New York city died of asphyxiation after a group of police officers put a hood over his head, then pressed his face into the pavement for two minutes, according to video and records released Wednesday by the man's family. Daniel Prude died March 30 after he was taken off life support, seven days after the encounter with police in Rochester.
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| China's Military Has Surpassed US in Ships, Missiles and Air Defense, DoD Report Finds Posted: 02 Sep 2020 03:38 AM PDT  China's military is already superior to the U.S. in several respects and is aiming for total dominance.
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| NSA surveillance exposed by Snowden ruled unlawful Posted: 03 Sep 2020 06:48 AM PDT  Whistleblower Edward Snowden tweets he feels vindicated by the ruling from the US Court of Appeals.
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| High-flying drone drops weed over Tel Aviv Posted: 03 Sep 2020 07:50 AM PDT  A drone dropped packets of what looked like cannabis over a main square in Tel Aviv on Thursday after activists seeking to legalize the drug in Israel promised free weed from the air on social media. Police said they arrested two men who operated the quadcopter that flew over Rabin Square, a site often used for street protests and political rallies. "The time has come," the Green Drone pro-legalization group said on its Telegram web messaging channel.
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| Facebook said it removed 2 of Rep. Clay Higgins' posts for violating the company's policies against inciting violence after the congressman suggested killing armed protesters Posted: 03 Sep 2020 02:43 PM PDT  Rep. Clay Higgins wrote that he'd "drop any 10 of you where you stand" if demonstrators showed up to a Louisiana protest with guns.
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| Trump news – live: William Barr says unclear if illegal to vote twice after president suggests it and Biden to visit Jacob Blake’s family in Kenosha Posted: 03 Sep 2020 01:00 AM PDT  Donald Trump's suggestion that voters cast two ballots in November's presidential election, one by mail and a second in person to "check'' the former, has placed the US attorney general under pressure, with William Barr declining to be drawn on the matter other than to say the legality of doing so is uncertain."I don't know what the law in a particular state says", he said in an interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN, in which he joined Mr Trump in disparaging mail-in ballots as "playing with fire" and said Black Lives Matter's crusade against white police violence was a "false narrative".
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| In Mexico, crime, problems resist president's solutions Posted: 02 Sep 2020 09:29 AM PDT  Mexico's problems of crime and violence are so deeply rooted and seemingly intractable that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's best efforts appear to be falling short, and his programs are barely making a dent in long-established illicit activities. On Wednesday, prosecutors confirmed that gunmen pulled up to a wake being held for a young man in a city just south of the capital and opened fire on mourners, killing eight and wounding 14. López Obrador promised to bring peace to the country; but in the first seven months of 2020, there have been 21,060 homicides in Mexico, slightly above the 20,713 in the same period of 2019.
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| Nile dam row: US cuts aid to Ethiopia Posted: 03 Sep 2020 03:14 AM PDT  Ethiopia has begun filling the mega dam before reaching an agreement with Sudan and Egypt.
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| Tree-cutter pinned to ground for 4 days when it falls on him, Minnesota sheriff says Posted: 03 Sep 2020 11:43 AM PDT  The man spent over 100 hours trapped under a tree, officials say.
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| 'Inappropriate and racist content': Some schools cancel online curriculum Acellus as COVID-19 back to school kicks off Posted: 03 Sep 2020 12:28 PM PDT  Examples of Acellus modules posted online include suggestive language such as "sweetie lips" and a controversial image in a lesson on Harriet Tubman.
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| Dubai seeks to attract wealthy foreign retirees as expats leave Posted: 03 Sep 2020 01:25 AM PDT  Dubai is seeking to attract wealthy foreign retirees as the economy of the Middle East trade and tourism hub reels from the coronavirus pandemic and low oil prices, prompting many expatriates to leave. It will grant visas renewable every five years to resident expatriates and foreigners over the age of 55 who fulfil specific financial conditions, the government media office said. To be eligible, they must have a monthly income of at least 20,000 dirhams ($5,445) or 1 million dirhams in cash savings, or 2 million dirhams worth of property in Dubai.
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| SpaceX broke a record by launching 180 satellites in 1 month — accelerating Elon Musk's project to blanket Earth in high-speed internet Posted: 03 Sep 2020 07:45 AM PDT  SpaceX's newest satellites sport sun visors — an effort to reduce their brightness in the night sky and their impact on astronomers' telescopes.
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| US slaps sanctions on war crimes court prosecutor Posted: 02 Sep 2020 02:48 PM PDT  US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday slapped sanctions on the top prosecutor of the International Criminal Court -- a move that The Hague-based tribunal called a "serious" attack against the rule of law.
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| Black jogger jailed after mistaken ID arrest speaks out Posted: 03 Sep 2020 12:08 PM PDT  A Black jogger who spent nearly two days in jail after mistakenly being arrested by San Antonio police because they said he fit the description of an assault suspect says it was a traumatic experience that no one should have to go through. Mathias "Marty" Ometu, a 33-year-old insurance agent, was misidentified as an assault suspect on Aug. 25, wrestled into a patrol vehicle and jailed on charges of having assaulted two officers during his arrest. "I was guilty before proven innocent," Ometu said Wednesday in his first public comments about the case, the San Antonio Express-News reported.
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