| The CIA sent a team of 4 operators on a spy mission targeting China. None came back. Posted: 19 Sep 2020 02:00 AM PDT  In 2008, CIA operative Stephen Stanek faced a decision: cancel the operation he was running or go forward with it — as a tropical storm barreled through the Philippines with a projection to veer north and miss his team's area of operation.
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| Mass suspension of German police officers who shared pictures of Hitler and doctored images of refugees in gas chambers Posted: 19 Sep 2020 02:00 AM PDT  The officers allegedly shared extremist content in chatrooms and WhatsApp groups. Some face charges of spreading Nazi propaganda and hate speech.
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| Communist Organizers Arrested after Allegedly Barricading Officers Inside Aurora Police Department Posted: 18 Sep 2020 12:08 PM PDT  Six rioters were charged by Colorado district attorneys on Thursday with allegations stemming from anti-police demonstrations in June and July.The demonstrations occurred following the death of George Floyd, who was killed during his arrest by Minneapolis police officers. However, Colorado demonstrations also protested the August, 2019, death of Elijah McClain, an African American man who died after being put in a choke hold by officers in Aurora. Several officers in the Aurora Police Department were fired on July 3, 2020, after photos surfaced in which the officers reenacted the choke hold near the site of McClain's arrest.Riots over the summer in Aurora included a July 3 incident in which demonstrators barricaded police inside a precinct building for seven hours.Prosecutors charged Lillian House and Joel Northam, organizers for the Party for Socialism and Liberation, as well as Whitney Lucero with first-degree kidnapping in connection with the July 3 demonstration. The defendants "unlawfully and feloniously attempted to imprison or forcibly secrete 18 officers with the intent to force them or another person to make a concession to secure their release," prosecutors said in a press release. The charges were brought by the district attorneys for Colorado's 17th and 18th judicial districts, both of which are in the city of Aurora.The Party for Socialism and Liberation is a communist party that "believes that the only solution to the deepening crisis of capitalism is the socialist transformation of society," according to its website. House, Northam, and their party have led many of the demonstrations in Aurora and Denver over the summer, the Denver Post reported.Another demonstrator facing felony charges for engaging in and inciting a riot, Terrance Roberts, is a leader of a group called the Front Line Party for Revolutionary Action.Riots that began after the death of George Floyd have caused almost $2 billion in damages, according to a report from Axios, in the most expensive damage from civil unrest in U.S. history. U.S. Attorney General William Barr has called to prosecute rioters for sedition.
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| Sources: Russian aggression against U.S. intelligence satellites sparks congressional briefing Posted: 18 Sep 2020 02:41 PM PDT  Over recent days, officials from the U.S. Space Force and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence briefed congressional committees on an "uptick" in Russian military activity in space targeting U.S. defense and intelligence satellites.
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| Homes destroyed after winds push California fire into desert Posted: 18 Sep 2020 10:07 PM PDT  Homes were destroyed Friday by an unrelenting wildfire that reached a Mojave Desert community and was still growing on several fronts after burning for nearly two weeks in mountains northeast of Los Angeles. Officials were investigating the death of a firefighter on the lines of another Southern California wildfire that erupted earlier this month from a smoke-generating pyrotechnic device used by a couple to reveal their baby's gender. The death occurred Thursday in San Bernardino National Forest as crews battled the El Dorado Fire about 75 miles (120 kilometers) east of LA, the U.S. Forest Service said in a statement.
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| Ethiopia files terrorism charges against leading opposition activist Posted: 19 Sep 2020 05:27 AM PDT  Ethiopia has filed terrorism charges against a prominent media mogul and opposition politician from the Oromo ethnic group, Jawar Mohammed, the attorney general's office said on Saturday. Jawar, founder of the Oromiya Media Network and a member of the Oromo Federalist Congress party, was arrested in June amid the widespread unrest that followed the assassination of popular Oromo musician Haacaaluu Hundeessaa.
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| A Florida bar owner is banning customers from wearing masks and asking them to leave if they do Posted: 19 Sep 2020 09:42 AM PDT  Gary Kirby, owner of Westside Sports Bar and Lounge, said that anyone who refuses to take off their face covering will be asked to leave.
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| Court rulings in critical swing states make it easier to vote this November — but may delay results Posted: 18 Sep 2020 03:00 PM PDT  A Michigan judge ruled Friday that if a mail-in ballot is postmarked by Nov. 2, the day before the election, election officials must count it if it arrives by the end of the day on Nov. 16.
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| Trump Finally Admits Many Americans Won’t Get Vaccine Until April Posted: 18 Sep 2020 12:26 PM PDT  President Trump on Friday said that the U.S. expects to have enough coronavirus vaccines for every American by April. "We'll have manufactured at least 100 million vaccine doses before the end of the year and likely much more than that," Trump said at an afternoon press conference. "Hundreds of millions of doses will be available every month, and we expect to have enough vaccines for every American by April. And again I'll say that even at that later stage a delivery will go as fast it comes they can deliver."Despite Trump saying "three vaccines are already in the final stage," there is still no certainty when a safe and effective vaccine will indeed be approved for the American public. The Global Rush to Approve a COVID-19 Vaccine Keeps Getting CreepierThe claim from the president put him closer to the timeline the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention testified to lawmakers about earlier this week. Trump challenged Dr. Robert Redfield's words during a tumultuous press conference Wednesday by claiming that his timeline on when a COVID-19 vaccine would be ready was "incorrect." Redfield had told lawmakers earlier this week that he thought a vaccine wouldn't be "generally available to the American public" until "late second quarter, third quarter of 2021." Trump Claims Vaccine Will Be Ready by Fall, Says CDC Director Was 'Confused' That answer caught Trump's ire as he described the leading medical official in his own administration as "confused," and pushed a much more aggressive timeline for later this year, throwing out different potential months the vaccine could land. "When he said it, I believe he was confused… We're ready to go as soon as the vaccine is approved," Trump insisted Wednesday. "We're not going to say 'in six months,' we're going to start giving it to the general public."When a reporter pressed Trump about his timeline given the April date he had just offered, the president deferred to Dr. Scott Atlas, a neuroradiologist advising the president on the virus. Atlas reiterated Trump's point about having "over 100 million doses manufactured," by the end of the year. People on the "prioritized list including high risk, including first responders, will have the ability to take the vaccine, no one's being mandated to be vaccinated, at the latest in January.""And as we said....there will be hundreds of millions of doses delivered for people to take it during the first quarter and so that by April every single American who wants to be vaccinated will have the ability to be vaccinated," Atlas said. "It's not a forced vaccination of course." Atlas taking the question—rather than leading health officials who often spoke at the former White House Coronavirus Task Force briefings earlier in the pandemic like Dr. Deborah Birx or Dr. Anthony Fauci, was another sign of how much the public face of the White House response to the pandemic has changed. Neither Birx nor Fauci were in attendance in the briefing room Friday.-With additional reporting from Allison Quinn 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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| Virtual class students overhear fatal shooting between siblings, Wisconsin cops say Posted: 18 Sep 2020 06:20 AM PDT  A teacher called 911 after the shooting.
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| McConnell vows to be "firewall" against progress in Senate as Democrats mull eliminating filibuster Posted: 19 Sep 2020 04:31 AM PDT  While lawmakers from both parties have used the tactic in the past, Democrats look to block GOP opposition in 2021
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| Bret Baier: Passing of RBG a 'major change in the election' Posted: 18 Sep 2020 06:56 PM PDT  Bret Baier discusses the impact of the death of Justice Ginsburg on the 2020 election
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| Tropical Storm Wilfred could form in Gulf; Hurricane Teddy remains a major Category 4 Posted: 18 Sep 2020 08:03 AM PDT |
| Japan police arrest fraud suspect linked to ex-PM's event Posted: 18 Sep 2020 02:40 AM PDT  Japanese police on Friday arrested a man on fraud charges linked to annual cherry blossom viewing parties that were hosted by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, but the new government ruled out an investigation into how the party and its budget were used. Abe's annual cherry party came into question last year when opposition lawmakers pointed out the number of guests and high cost, accusing Abe of using taxpayers' money to entertain constituents. Abe has denied any wrongdoing or personal ties with the suspect and is not facing any criminal investigation so far.
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| Rochester: Two killed and 14 wounded after mass shooting at party in New York state Posted: 19 Sep 2020 03:04 AM PDT  Police say incident is 'tragedy of epic proportions'
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| Tesla driver charged for appearing to be asleep with the seat fully reclined while traveling at over 86 mph Posted: 18 Sep 2020 08:42 AM PDT  Canadian authorities said the man was going over 86 mph before being stopped, where police discovered fully reclined seats.
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| The man behind Trump’s campaign against 'critical race theory' Posted: 18 Sep 2020 05:00 AM PDT  The programs Rufo targeted are intended to improve communication, defuse tensions and promote equal opportunities among co-workers of different races and ethnicities, and are analogous, or identical to, similar programs that have been a staple of corporate human relations departments for decades.
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| Pakistan outcry over police victim-blaming of gang-raped mother Posted: 18 Sep 2020 05:16 PM PDT  A police chief's comments spark an unprecedented backlash after a woman was raped in front of her children.
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| CDC — again — changes COVID-19 guidelines. Now asymptomatic people need a test Posted: 18 Sep 2020 12:37 PM PDT  The change replaces a controversial update from Aug. 24 that said individuals who don't have symptoms don't need to get tested.
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| Fears of a brain drain in Belarus as IT workers prepare to flee brutal crackdown Posted: 18 Sep 2020 12:28 PM PDT  On the night of the Belarusian presidential elections, Andrey Fedorovich, a 27-year-old web developer with an enviable job and a big flat in Minsk, found himself lying on the ground underneath an abandoned van, hiding from riot police rampaging across the city. "I first thought about leaving when I was lying underneath that van, when I saw what kind of people live in my country," Mr Fedorovich says. He and his wife have now decided to flee for Kyiv in Ukraine. Belarus - perhaps better known for its tractor factories - has a booming tech industry. Minsk was the USSR's designated tech hub, and now over 10,000 tech workers are based there. These workers have long enjoyed a comfortable lifestyle and were once hailed as the sole hope for the country's Soviet-style economy.
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| China launches counter-mechanism to US sanctions list Posted: 18 Sep 2020 10:38 PM PDT  China said Saturday it had launched a mechanism enabling it to restrict foreign entities, a much-anticipated move seen as retaliation to US penalties against Chinese companies such as telecom giant Huawei.
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| Tropical Storm Beta spurs hurricane worries for Texas Posted: 18 Sep 2020 09:00 PM PDT  An exceptionally busy Atlantic hurricane season was churning along Saturday as the Texas coast prepared for a tropical storm that could strengthen into a hurricane before breaching its shores in the week ahead. Both the city of Galveston and Galveston County on Saturday issued voluntary evacuation orders ahead of Tropical Storm Beta, as did the city of Seabrook to the north of Galveston. Mayor Pro Tem Craig Brown said in a statement that high tides and up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) of expected rainfall would leave roads impassable, especially along the city's west end and low-lying areas.
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| Does Trump have enough votes to confirm RBG’s replacement? A look at the senators who might block his nomination Posted: 19 Sep 2020 11:12 AM PDT  Republican leaders came forcefully following the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to urge their senate colleagues to toe the party line and demand the vacancy is filled before the November election. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell sent a letter to Republicans on Friday telling them to "keep your powder dry" and avoid falling under pressure to announce their stance on whether the open seat on the nation's highest court should be filled just six weeks ahead of election day. "Over the coming days, we are all going to come under tremendous pressure from the press to announce how we will handle the coming nomination," the senate majority leader wrote to his colleagues.
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| India arrests nine al Qaeda militants planning 'terrorist attacks' Posted: 19 Sep 2020 01:44 AM PDT |
| NC woman still missing two years after she left baby with family reportedly to visit sick mother in Mexico Posted: 19 Sep 2020 08:02 AM PDT  Nancy Troche Garcia, 28, was last seen in Asheboro, North Carolina on May 20, 2018, when she dropped her baby off with the baby's father. She then reportedly went to the father's sister's house nearby and asked her if she would help care for the baby since she would be traveling to Mexico to care for her sick mother. But her mother told police that she was not sick and there were no plans for Nancy to come to Mexico. Nancy's burgundy 2001 Chevy Impala is also missing. The Asheboro Police
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| Trump: Vaccine distribution will begin within 24 hours of approval Posted: 18 Sep 2020 01:12 PM PDT  President Trump speaks about developing the coronavirus vaccine during a White House briefing.
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| Hong Kong Pro-democracy Activist Nathan Law Wins TIME’s 2020 TIME100 Reader Poll Posted: 18 Sep 2020 07:37 AM PDT  TIME asked readers to vote for who they thought should make the 2020 TIME100 list, an annual compilation of the world's most influential people. Nathan Law, a leading pro-democracy activist and the youngest lawmaker in Hong Kong's history, took first place in TIME's poll with 3.8% of the 4.7 million votes cast by readers. Law made news in July when he revealed that he fled Hong Kong after China imposed a new, controversial national security law making separatism, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign countries criminal offenses—an attempt at cracking down on Hong Kong protests.
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| It’s Time to Rein in the Fed Posted: 19 Sep 2020 03:30 AM PDT  At the Kansas City Federal Reserve's virtual Jackson Hole economic-policy symposium, Fed chairman Jerome Powell drove a final stake into the legendary inflation fighter Paul Volcker's Fed. The new orthodoxy promises easy money as far as the eye can see and holds that inflation is good -- not Venezuelan and Zimbabwean hyperinflation of course, just a moderate dose -- thus ensuring that a dollar every year is worth less. Americans should be afraid.Powell announced the Fed's new inflation-averaging strategy. The central bank is changing how it defines and attempts to achieve the 2 percent inflation target, which it adopted on its own authority in 2012. Henceforth, the Fed will attempt to catch up for past inflation shortfalls. Powell warned that inflation below "its desired level," which our enlightened central bankers have decreed is 2 percent, can lead to an "unwelcome reduction" in inflation expectations, causing lower inflation. Joe and Sally Sixpack, however, would view gas, steak, and dental check-up prices not rising as welcome.Additionally, the Fed chairman declared the central bank would not, as it has in the past, preemptively raise interest rates to stave off higher inflation when unemployment falls below its natural rate.The new policy has an asymmetric pro-inflation bias. America's central bankers are not contemplating deflationary policies to offset excessive past inflation. If inflation were 5 percent in period one, the Fed would try to bring it down to 2 percent in period two, not to negative 1 percent.The Fed is a masterful political actor. Powell touted "The Fed Listens" events as "connecting with the American people." All well and good, but it is Congress, which represents the American people, that the Fed is supposed to heed.The Fed isn't independent or the policymaker. It is an instrument of Congress, which by statute directs it to conduct monetary policy to achieve "stable prices," maximum employment, and moderate low-term interest rates. Stable prices mean inflation hovering around zero, not prices doubling every 35 years. If a 200-pound MMA fighter's weight increased 2 percent every year to 244 pounds after a decade, nobody would suggest his weight was stable.Shame on the Fed for "redefining" its role under the law. But shame on Congress for not insisting the central bank hew to statute.If Congress wants inflation, it should pass legislation changing the Fed's mandate to that effect, which President Trump or Biden would likely sign. But while many congressional cravens may want inflation, few want to go on record voting for it.Powell allowed, "Many find it counterintuitive that the Fed would want to push up inflation." No kidding. Money is a unit of account, a means of exchange, and a store of value. Stable money is a sine qua non of stable, prosperous, free societies. There's enormous value in the dollar remaining constant for consumers and firms planning, transacting, and saving. Imagine a world where a yard continually changed.The received wisdom is that deflation is bad. Precipitous deflation is harmful. However, gentle deflation benefits many firms and individuals. During much of the 19th century the U.S. enjoyed mild deflation.To bolster inflation the Fed is keeping real wholesale interest rates negative.Interest rates are the price of present versus future investment and consumption. They are the economy's most important price, dynamically signaling where and when capital should be allocated to maximize value.Keeping interest rates artificially low, as the Fed has done for nearly two decades, causes systemic malinvestment, incentivizes excessive risk-taking, and sustains zombie firms, making society poorer, and is sowing the seeds for the next crisis. It punishes savers and creditors.There are, however, powerful constituencies for easy money. America's biggest borrower, the federal government, loves it. Real-estate developers and brokers and much of Wall Street also vigorously support cheap debt.With everyone focused on the COVID-19 pandemic and recession, inflation is low on people's list of concerns, but it's brewing. From December 2019 to August 24, 2020, the monetary base (M1) increased 35 percent. The Fed's real benchmark interest rate is negative. The pandemic has crimped production. As America limps out of the crisis and the velocity of money -- the rate at which money turns over -- recovers, it's a recipe for inflation.Since the Fed's creation in 1913, its policies have massively debased the dollar and caused or contributed to multiple economic crises, including the Great Depression and the Great Recession, devastating job and wealth creation. While the central bank can affect price levels, easy money can't increase sustainable long-term employment and wealth. Congress should, therefore, eliminate any doubt about what the Fed can and should do by doing away with its "dual" mandate, narrowly focusing it on maintaining stable prices, something that it is equipped to deliver.
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| Mexico's populist president left embarrassed by failed stunt to sell private jet Posted: 19 Sep 2020 08:57 AM PDT  Mexico's populist president Andrés Manuel López Obrador was voted in on a pledge to stamp out corruption and largess that went all the way to the country's highest office. So when he pledged to sell the presidential plane, with its marble bathrooms and king sized bed, it seemed like an easy win. But the $218 million, purchased under a predecessor in 2012, jet lies on the tarmac after the latest failed bid to find a buyer in a saga that has exposed the socialist leader to ridicule and embarassment. This week's attempt to raffle the plane during the country's Independence holiday ended in predictable disaster. For López Obrador, also known by his initials as Amlo, the plane is a symbol of the opulence and waste of the country's political elite, and he vowed to sell it and return the money to Mexicans during his 2018 campaign. After his landslide victory, the President put it up for sale and has been flying on low-cost commercial flights. But it wasn't that easy. The jet is a used and expensive luxury item with few potential buyers. After spending nearly two years parked for sale in California and spending almost the same amount of money for having it parked than he would have spent using it (about $1.5 million), Amlo decided in February he would just raffle it off during the September 15 Independence holiday. He even had to change the law in order to raffle an item instead of money through Mexico's National Lottery. Only the plane wasn't his to raffle. It turned out the Mexican government hasn't finished paying for it. Amlo moved forward with the raffle but decided to give out the cash equivalent of the jet's market value of about $95 million instead of the actual plane, split it into 100 winning tickets.
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| Obama says democracy at risk if Republicans try to fill Ginsburg Supreme Court vacancy before election Posted: 19 Sep 2020 06:48 AM PDT  Former president says same standard should apply as in 2016
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| Firefighters in U.S. northwest aided by weather, as winds drive California blaze Posted: 19 Sep 2020 02:59 PM PDT  The weather shift, which followed intermittently heavy showers on Friday, helped more than 9,000 personnel fight 29 wildfires across Washington and Oregon, including the Riverside Fire southeast of Portland, the U.S. Forestry Service said. Firefighters can expect another 2 to 4 inches of rain in the next week for coastal Oregon and parts of the Cascade Mountains, said David Roth, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center in College Park Maryland.
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| American Airlines CEO says hundreds of thousands will lose their jobs without additional emergency aid Posted: 18 Sep 2020 06:22 AM PDT  "It's not fair to them, it's not fair to our country," Doug Parker said about the upcoming mass layoffs in the airline sector.
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| Trump has approved a deal between Walmart, Oracle and TikTok so the app won't be banned Posted: 19 Sep 2020 03:58 PM PDT  The new company will be called TikTok, and it would be headquartered in Texas.
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| Fired, pro-Black Lives Matter officer sues to get job back Posted: 18 Sep 2020 01:02 PM PDT |
| Steve Cortes reacts to Biden holding substantial lead in Minnesota Posted: 18 Sep 2020 12:37 PM PDT  Trump campaign senior adviser Steve Cortes joins Dana Perino on 'The Daily Briefing.'
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| Navalny shows early stages of recovery from poisoning Posted: 19 Sep 2020 07:21 AM PDT  Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on Saturday posted a photo to his Instagram account in which he is walking down a flight of stairs as part of his recovery after he was poisoned last month.In the photo's caption, Navalny, one of Russia's most prominent Kremlin critics, wrote that he has a "clear path" to recovery, but suggested it will be a long one. He was removed from a ventilator five days ago and said he is still having trouble climbing stairs, pouring water, and using his phone. Still, he has apparently made significant progress since, he said, he was previously considered only "technically alive."Navalny fell ill in August while in Siberia and was airlifted to a hospital in Berlin while in a coma. Multiple labs in Europe have confirmed he was poisoned by a Soviet-era nerve agent called Novichok. His supporters suspect Russian President Vladimir Putin was behind the assassination attempt, but Moscow has denied any involvement and has accused Navalny's aides of removing evidence, jeopardizing the official inquiry into the poisoning. Read more at Deutsche Welle and The Guardian.More stories from theweek.com How a productivity phenomenon explains the unraveling of America How the Trump-Russia story was buried The conservatives who want to undo the Enlightenment
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| Even more evidence shows the coronavirus spreads easily on long plane flights Posted: 19 Sep 2020 04:12 AM PDT  A new study from the CDC found that a single woman likely infected 15 other people on a 10-hour flight from London, England, to Hanoi, Vietnam.
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| Seattle mayor and police chief told to remedy ‘unacceptable’ arrest of Independent journalist Posted: 18 Sep 2020 06:28 AM PDT  Seattle councillor says the arrest of Andrew Buncombe violated the US constitution and Seattle Municipal Code
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| Janusz Walus: Why far-right Polish football fans idolise a murderer in South Africa Posted: 19 Sep 2020 04:36 PM PDT  Janusz Walus killed anti-apartheid leader Chris Hani in 1993, sparking fears of a racial civil war.
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| Mexico sees fentanyl seizures up 465%, denies making drug Posted: 18 Sep 2020 08:24 AM PDT  Mexican authorities say seizures of the synthetic opioid fentanyl so far this year are 465% higher than in 2019, rising to almost 2,300 pounds (1,040 kilograms) from around 405 pounds ( 184 kilograms) last year, but progress against another big Mexican export to the U.S. market — methamphetamines — is slower. The Defense Department said seizures of meth in Mexico rose by only 32.8% between Jan. 1 and Sept. 16, but busts of meth labs dropped 51% compared to the same period of last year.
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