| FBI says errors discovered in more than two-dozen wiretap applications were mostly minor Posted: 30 Jul 2020 04:59 PM PDT  The agency said its review of 29 applications to obtain wiretaps on U.S. citizens had only minor, mostly typographical errors.
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| Trump loyalist who tested positive for coronavirus is America’s ‘dumbest’ congressman, says Lincoln Project co-founder Posted: 30 Jul 2020 01:14 PM PDT  The co-founder of Republican anti-Trump group The Lincoln Project has called congressman Louie Gohmert "America's craziest and dumbest congressman", following confirmation he tested positive for coronavirus.Steve Schmidt co-founded the Republican political action committee that is aiming to prevent the reelection of Donald Trump, alongside George Conway, the husband of the president's adviser Kellyanne Conway.
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| A key federal appeals court will reexamine case on Michael Flynn's guilty plea Posted: 30 Jul 2020 09:42 AM PDT  The full panel of judges' decision to review Flynn's case could result in a reversal of a three-judge panel's decision to dismiss the case last month.
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| Letters to the Editor: If Joe Biden picks Karen Bass as his VP, L.A.'s major loss would be America's gain Posted: 29 Jul 2020 03:00 AM PDT  Karen Bass is a proactive member of Congress who serves her constituents as well. She would make an excellent vice president.
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| Vatican Hacked By Chinese Spies: Report Posted: 29 Jul 2020 09:43 AM PDT  ROME—The offices that house the Vatican's computer network system were one of the few allowed to stay minimally staffed during the pandemic to ensure that God's work—as it were—continued unfettered. But in early May, weeks before Italy and the Vatican emerged from a draconian COVID-19 lockdown, a series of cyber intrusions reportedly took place, masterminded by Chinese hackers keen on eavesdropping on the Pope's plans for the controversial Catholic Church in China, according to the cybersecurity firm Recorded Future and reported in The New York Times. Is Pope Francis Selling Out the Chinese Underground Church to Its Government?One of the hacks used a fairly standard Trojan malware called PlugX Payload, which was woven into the coding on a cable sent from the office of the Vatican's secretary of state to Monsignor Javier Corona Herrera in Hong Kong. The letter expressed condolences from the pope over the death of a bishop, fairly standard practice in an institution built on rituals and traditions. But when the office in Hong Kong opened the cable, it unleashed the malware.The breach into the Vatican system allowed the deviants to then access the receiving computer network—in the case of the condolence letter, the Catholic Church's China Study Mission in Hong Kong. By sending what looked like a legitimate cable from behind the Vatican's secure firewall, the hackers could be sure the entity opening it would do so without suspicion, and unwittingly grant access. The act is called spear phishing which, unlike regular phishing, is highly targeted. The Diocese of Hong Kong was also targeted and the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions in Milan was also singled out. Recorded Future's report states that additional hacks were found using the same malware. "The first sample included a lure document spoofing a news bulletin from the Union of Catholic Asian News regarding the impending introduction of the new Hong Kong national security law," the report states. Another hack refers to the Vatican and uses a document called, "QUM, IL VATICANO DELL'ISLAM.doc" as the decoy. The document refers to the Shi'ite city of Qom and includes writings from an Italian Catholic academic living in Iran. "Although the direct target of these two lures are unclear, both relate to the Catholic church," Recorded Future states in the report. A source who worked in the Vatican's security office before being furloughed over the pandemic told The Daily Beast that one of the biggest fears the Vatican had was exactly what happened: being hacked by Chinese government operatives looking to derail important talks set for September intended to bolster the tenuous relationship between the Vatican and the Chinese Catholic Church. In 2018, Pope Francis broke a 60-year-stalemate between the Roman Catholic Church and the Chinese Catholic Church that grew from an attempt in 1960 for Beijing to set up its own Holy See, and shut the real one out. The Chinese Holy See was called the Catholic Patriotic Association and instead of accepting bishops chosen by Rome, as in nearly every other diocese in the world, they chose their own political appointees. During those 60 years, Chinese Catholics were only allowed to worship openly if they adhered to the Chinese Church's rules, which spawned an underground Catholic Church that instead followed Rome's orders. Those bishops have now been sidelined as part of the 2018 deal.The conflict is far from over, but the 2018 agreement between Beijing and Rome, which has never been published but is hailed as landmark, was set to be renewed and expanded next month. The most contentious aspects of the ongoing negotiations were being discussed between Rome and Hong Kong separately, so they could strategize about how to deal with China's insistence that they still choose politically appointed bishops and give the pope the opportunity to "bless" them but not remove or replace them. Those preparatory meetings between Rome and Hong Kong would have normally taken place in person to avoid exactly what happened but thanks to the pandemic, many exist in the form of secret cables. The Vatican has made no public statement on the matter, but an official told the Catholic website Asia News, "To say that China spies on the Vatican is like discovering hot water. By now espionage and hackers have become an international problem we have to live with."What happens next is worrying for the Vatican. The hack, now discovered, will likely stop here. But that might also mean the same thing happens to this crucial step forward for Chinese Catholics. 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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| The ultimate high ground: Russia and US try to set rules for space weapons Posted: 29 Jul 2020 01:37 PM PDT  Russia, the U.S., and other space-going nations are trying to establish a military presence in space around Earth – and defend themselves from rivals.
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| Tennessee state senator charged with stealing federal funds Posted: 29 Jul 2020 02:01 PM PDT  A Tennessee state senator has been charged with stealing more than $600,000 in federal funds received by a health care company she directed and using the money to pay for her wedding and other personal expenses, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. A criminal complaint unsealed Wednesday charges state Sen. Katrina Robinson with theft and embezzlement involving government programs and wire fraud, U.S. Attorney D. Michael Dunavant said in a news release. Robinson, a Democrat elected to the General Assembly in 2018 from a Memphis district, is also the director of The Healthcare Institute, which provides training for jobs in the health care field, prosecutors said.
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| China and the U.S. Should Reset Their Relationship Posted: 30 Jul 2020 05:20 AM PDT |
| Iran says fires missiles from underground in Gulf war games Posted: 29 Jul 2020 08:19 AM PDT  Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they launched ballistic missiles from "the depths of the Earth" on Wednesday during the last day of military exercises near sensitive Gulf waters. The launches came a day after the Guards struck a mock-up of a US aircraft carrier with volleys of missiles near the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane for a fifth of world oil output. The Iranian manoeuvres were staged amid heightened tensions between Iran and its decades-old arch enemy the United States.
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| Buddy, the first dog to test positive for COVID-19 in the US, has died Posted: 30 Jul 2020 11:30 AM PDT  Buddy first showed symptoms in mid-April, right before his 7th birthday. He was struggling to breathe, lost weight and became increasingly lethargic.
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| MSNBC host angers Georgia Democrat with Trump support question Posted: 29 Jul 2020 11:45 AM PDT  Georgia Democrat angered by MSNBC host with Trump support question.
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| Trump claims Biden isn't 'going to do well in Texas' as Democrat leads in election polls Posted: 29 Jul 2020 12:40 PM PDT  Donald Trump declared victory in what he called a Democratic "war" on the American energy industry, defying polls while visiting a Texas oil rig by predicting he will win the state in November as he once again turned an official trip into a mini-campaign rally."As long as I'm president we will never allow anyone to put American energy out of business, which is what they want to do," he said on an oil rig in Midland, Texas. "We unlocked the full energy potential of Texas and New Mexico. ... We have become a net energy exporter."
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| Police Find Child’s Toy Bucket in Secret Sealed Cellar Being Searched for Madeleine McCann Posted: 30 Jul 2020 02:30 AM PDT  Police and cadaver-hunting dogs are on the scene in a backyard in Hanover, Germany, where a secret sealed cellar has just been unearthed in the hunt for missing Briton Madeleine McCann. The cellar was once under a garden shed on property where German pedophile Christian Brueckner, the latest suspect in the missing-child case, once lived. The shed was torn down years ago, but neighbors said Brueckner once spent hours inside. German Police Dig Up a Backyard in Search of Madeleine McCannPolice were seen Thursday carrying out a number of items from the cellar, including blue bags of forensic evidence and a child's bucket. McCann was just shy of her fourth birthday when she was snatched from her bed while her twin siblings slept nearby at a holiday rental in Portugal in 2007. Her parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, were dining with friends a few hundred yards away when she disappeared.The case, which has been closed and reopened by Portuguese police several times, has now picked up steam after German authorities identified the convicted pedophile, who is also under investigation for raping a 72-year-old woman. British police have never lost faith in finding out what happened, spending millions of pounds over the last 13 years on an investigation called Operation Grange, through which they have translated the Portuguese dossier and interviewed many key witnesses.But it is German police who have so far advanced the search for the truth. Initially they said they were sure McCann was dead, but provided no clues to back up their line of thinking. McCann's parents have not commented on the latest development on the case, but are said to be watching closely in hopes of finally finding out what happened to their missing daughter. 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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| SpaceX plans to bring 2 NASA astronauts back to Earth on Sunday, but Tropical Storm Isaias threatens their ocean splashdown Posted: 30 Jul 2020 03:34 PM PDT  After two months in space, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley are supposed to splash down near Florida on Sunday. But Tropical Storm Isaias may intervene.
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| Royal Meghan and UK tabloid trade blows in court dispute Posted: 29 Jul 2020 05:23 AM PDT  A lawyer for Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, accused a British newspaper publisher in court on Wednesday of commercially exploiting its legal dispute with her by using court documents as the basis for "sensational" coverage. Meghan, wife of Queen Elizabeth's grandson Prince Harry, is suing Associated Newspapers over articles in the Mail on Sunday in February 2019 that included parts of a handwritten letter she sent to her estranged father, Thomas Markle, in August 2018. Increasingly hostile relations between the royal couple and some British newspapers they accused of intrusive, inaccurate and sometimes racist coverage was one of the reasons why Harry and Meghan left Britain for the United States.
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| Boston, Grimsby and Hull could become global flooding hotspots by 2100, study says Posted: 30 Jul 2020 07:58 AM PDT  Boston, Grimsby and Hull could become some of the world's worst hit coastal flooding hotspots in the next 80 years as climate change raises sea levels and increases the severity of storms, according to a new study. Coastal flooding worldwide will rise by 48 per cent and threaten assets worth up to 20 per cent of global GDP without flood defences or action to mitigate global emissions, according to research from the Universities of Melbourne and East Anglia. If emissions are mitigated, the figures are lowered to an increase of 33 per cent of land at risk of flooding and threats to assets worth $12.7 trillion, or around 17 per cent of global GDP. The study, published in the journal Nature, says the north-east of the UK will be among the worst hit areas. It predicts a rise of 5-9 metres along the coast of Boston, Grimsby and 2-5m in Hull in a worst-case scenario, though the researchers say more detailed local modelling is needed. Overall, up to 287 million people could be exposed to flooding by 2100, representing 4.1 per cent of the global population. Northern France and northern Germany are also among some of the worst hit areas in the world, as well as south-eastern China, the US states of North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland and Australia's Northern Territories. Bangladesh, and West Bengal and Gujurat in India are among the possible hotspots that could face greater economic challenges in implementing flood prevention measures. "A warming climate is driving sea level rise because water expands as it warms, and glaciers are melting," said lead author Ebru Kirezci, from the University of Melbourne. "Climate change is also increasing the frequency of extreme seas, which will further increase the risk of flooding. "What the data and our model is saying is that compared with now, what we see as a 1-in-100-year extreme flood event will be 10 times more frequent because of climate change." Diego Rybski, from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, who wasn't involved in the research, said the analysis of both sea level rise and increased storm activity was "very important". But he added that it was necessary to take flood protection measures into account. The UK recently announced its first major flooding strategy in a decade, including an immediate £170m cash injection for new defence measures. "Imagining the Netherlands without coastal protection illustrates the impact of this simplification," he said.
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| A Black videographer got stabbed at the Portland protests, and he says it is because he is pro-Trump Posted: 30 Jul 2020 03:13 AM PDT  The video was released on Wednesday as Oregon Gov. Kate Brown announced that federal agents would withdraw from Portland.
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| Man fires 'warning shots' in Miami hotel lobby after telling guests 'you all aren't social distancing' Posted: 30 Jul 2020 11:20 AM PDT  A man was arrested in Florida after firing "four warning shots" and telling a mother and her son that they weren't social distancing in a hotel lobby.
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| 260 Chinese boats fish near Galapagos; Ecuador on alert Posted: 30 Jul 2020 12:56 PM PDT  Some call it a floating city, a flotilla of 260 mostly Chinese fishing vessels near the Galapagos archipelago that is stirring diplomatic tension and raising worries about the threat to sharks, manta rays and other vulnerable species in waters around the UNESCO world heritage site. The Chinese fleet is "very close" to the edge of the exclusive economic zone around the Galapagos, which extends 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from the archipelago, said its governor, Norman Wray.
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| Poll puts Biden over Trump in 6 swing states Posted: 30 Jul 2020 01:27 PM PDT  Former Vice President Joe Biden is still looking good in key swing states across the country.In May, a poll from a British consulting firm Redfield & Wilton Strategies put Biden ahead of President Trump in six states Trump won in 2016: Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Redfield & Wilton Strategies' July poll shows Biden still has a lead in all of those states, and even widened it in three of them.While Biden had 4 percent lead over Trump in Arizona, a 2 point lead in Florida, and an 8 point lead in Michigan in May, he has an 8, 7, and 12 percent lead, respectively, in those states as of July. Biden maintained his 10-point lead in Wisconsin over the past two months. Meanwhile Biden lost traction in North Carolina, where he had a 45-43 lead over Trump in May but has a 43-42 lead as of July, and Pennsylvania, where his margin fell from 48-39 to 48-41.Redfield & Wilton surveyed anywhere from 742 to 1,121 registered voters in each of the states, with larger populations corresponding to larger sample sizes. The polls were conducted from July 19-24.More stories from theweek.com Conservative propaganda has crippled the U.S. coronavirus response Facebook beats 2nd quarter revenue expectations even as ad industry struggles Trump says with increased mail-in voting, it could take 'years' to know who won the election
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| Chicago police chief dies in apparent suicide after promotion Posted: 29 Jul 2020 07:45 AM PDT  A 30-year veteran of the Chicago police force is found dead two weeks after being promoted; Matt Finn reports from Chicago as the city marks another deadly night of violence.
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| Former U.S. Marine sentenced to 9 years in Russian prison for assaulting police officer Posted: 30 Jul 2020 07:23 AM PDT  The U.S. ambassador to Moscow has called the evidence against Reed "flimsy," and the latest example of Russia treating American citizens unfairly.
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| Mark Zuckerberg told Congress that Facebook is not a monopoly. But in 2012, it boasted that it held '95% of all social media in the US.' Posted: 29 Jul 2020 01:24 PM PDT  As Facebook faces growing antitrust scrutiny, it is rowing back earlier claims about its size and power.
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| Why some Americans say they'll never wear a mask — and what that says about the U.S. Posted: 29 Jul 2020 10:58 AM PDT  While the vast majority of public health experts now agree that wearing face masks could halt the worsening coronavirus pandemic in its tracks, some Americans continue to resist that guidance.
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| Detained Portland protesters have to promise to stop going to rallies if they want to get out of jail, reports say Posted: 30 Jul 2020 04:50 AM PDT  "Defendant may not attend any other protests, rallies, assemblies or public gathering in the state of Oregon," said one order, per ProPublica.
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| EU extends ban on American travelers - again - with US COVID-19 cases far outpacing European countries Posted: 30 Jul 2020 04:24 PM PDT  For the second time this month, the European Union extended its travel ban on Americans on Thursday, as U.S. COVID-19 infections continued to rise.
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| Tweet that Trump will accept nomination in Charlotte is incorrect -Fox News reporter Posted: 29 Jul 2020 02:59 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) A tweet by a North Carolina television station on Wednesday that said President Donald Trump would accept the Republican presidential nomination in Charlotte, North Carolina, on the first night of the party's convention is incorrect, a Fox News reporter said on Twitter, citing unnamed sources. Fox News' White House correspondent John Roberts later said he was told that was not the case, tweeting "Sources tell @FoxNews this tweet is incorrect."
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| Israel charges man who fled Gaza by swimming Posted: 30 Jul 2020 07:40 AM PDT  An Israeli court Thursday charged with "serious security offences" a Gazan who swam to Israel a month ago after falling out with Hamas, the domestic security agency said. Izz al-Din Hussein, a 24-year-old resident of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, was formerly a member of the Islamist group's air defence wing, Shin Bet said in a statement. Hussein, the Shin Bet said, later fell out with the Palestinian coastal territory's Hamas rulers and also had "personal problems with his family" and fled by swimming to nearby Israel on June 28.
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| Killer of Rafiki, Uganda's rare silverback mountain gorilla, jailed Posted: 30 Jul 2020 03:27 AM PDT  The Ugandan hunter said that he had killed the animal in self defence when he was attacked.
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| Ex-police officer in George Floyd death asks for charges to be dropped Posted: 30 Jul 2020 05:24 AM PDT  A police officer charged in connection with the death of George Floyd has applied to have his charges dropped, court documents show.Lawyers for Tou Thao, 34, have put forward a motion stating that the former Minneapolis police officer could not have known that Derek Chauvin, who knelt on Floyd's neck for almost nine minutes, was about to commit a crime.
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| Father, son with COVID-19 forced to quarantine in Hawaii Posted: 29 Jul 2020 08:20 PM PDT  Hawaii's public health director said a rarely used special health order was used to force them into isolation.
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| Barbie shuts down Donald Trump Jr.'s snide tweet about new campaign dolls Posted: 30 Jul 2020 07:57 AM PDT  Donald Trump Jr. has a theory about the new Barbie doll collection, featuring a Black female presidential candidate and her all-woman campaign team.
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| Obama Attacks Trump Admin’s Protest Crackdown, Voter Suppression in John Lewis Eulogy Posted: 30 Jul 2020 11:58 AM PDT  The late congressman John Lewis famously encouraged Americans to stir up "good trouble," and former President Barack Obama did just that in his eulogy for the late civil rights pioneer on Thursday. Obama earned multiple standing ovations during a speech littered with political barbs aimed at the Trump administration's crackdown on Black Lives Matter protesters and stymied efforts to address voter suppression.Recounting Lewis' relentless activism, Obama said the country "hasn't yet reached that blessed destination where we are judged by the content of our character."'I Never Became Bitter or Hostile': How John Lewis Fought Until the End"Bull Connor may be gone but today we witness with our own eyes police officers kneeling on the necks of Black Americans," he said. "George Wallace may be gone, but we can witness our federal government sending agents to use tear gas and batons against peaceful demonstrators."Obama said Lewis "spilled blood" for the Voting Rights Act, which was now under threat. He called for filibusters—"another Jim Crow relic"—to be scrapped so voting rights legislation can be passed. He called for Election Day to be a national holiday, for former inmates to be given voting rights, and for partisan gerrymandering to be done away with."Even as we sit here, there are those in power who are doing their darnedest to discourage people from voting by closing polling locations and targeting minorities and students with restrictive ID laws, and attacking our voting rights with surgical precision, even undermining the postal service in the run up to an election that's going to be dependent on mail-in ballots so people don't get sick," he said.Speaking directly to the elected representatives in Ebenezer Baptist Church, Obama continued, "You want to honor John? Let's honor John by revitalizing the law that he was willing to die for."Perhaps foreseeing criticism that he made the eulogy political, Obama said, "I know this is a celebration of John's life, there are some who might say we shouldn't dwell on such things but... John Lewis devoted his time on this earth fighting the very attacks on democracy... that we're seeing circulate right now."In response to Obama's call for the end of the filibuster, Andrew Bates, director of rapid response for Joe Biden's presidential campaign, told The Daily Beast, "Congressional Republicans should turn their praise of Rep. Lewis into action and pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act today by voice vote. No filibuster, no delay."Lewis died on July 17, aged 80, from cancer. Declared a living saint by Time magazine, he spent his life campaigning for racial equality and voting rights after being savagely beaten in a civil rights protest while crossing the Edmund Pettus bridge at Selma, Alabama, on a march to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965. Every living president except Donald Trump played a role in Thursday's memorial, one of several events honoring Lewis' life. George W. Bush and Bill Clinton gave a speech while Jimmy Carter sent a letter that was read aloud.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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| Japanese court recognises ‘black rain’ victims of Hiroshima atomic bomb Posted: 30 Jul 2020 08:30 AM PDT  Nearly 75 years after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a Japanese court has ordered that 84 people who were exposed to radioactive "black rain" be made eligible for the same medical benefits as other survivors of the attack. The plaintiffs, the youngest of whom is in their late 70s, were exposed to radioactive rain immediately after the "Little Boy" uranium bomb exploded above the city on August 6, 1945, but were excluded from financial support for medical treatment because they were just outside the zone set by the government in 1976 for victims of the attack. For a few hours after the attack, rain that fell in the city and surrounding areas was black due to debris from the 15 kiloton blast and contaminated with fallout. The plaintiffs argued in court that they developed a range of illnesses, including different types of cancer and cataracts, as a result of their exposure to radiation and from food and water that had been contaminated. Ten of the people who originally filed the suit in 2015 died before Wednesday's ruling.
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| 'Terrible story': Trump meets with Vanessa Guillen's family as they push for military sexual harassment reforms Posted: 30 Jul 2020 02:11 PM PDT  President Donald Trump met Thursday with the family of Spc. Vanessa Guillen, who disappeared from Fort Hood in April and whose remains were found earlier this month.
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| Man interviews Bernell Tremell on his support for Trump hours before he was killed Posted: 29 Jul 2020 09:20 AM PDT  On July 23, Adebisi Agoso was one of the last people to speak with Milwaukee community fixture and Trump supporter, Bernell Trammell, before he was senselessly killed.
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| British Airways is auctioning millions of dollars worth of lounge art in a hasty attempt to raise cash – see the extravagant collection Posted: 30 Jul 2020 02:34 PM PDT  The entire collection was valued by auction house Sotheby's at around $1.7 million but one piece auctioned so far fetched more than that by itself.
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| Minnesota police make arrest in 34-year cold case using DNA, genetic testing Posted: 30 Jul 2020 01:29 PM PDT  "My mom loved to help people," her daughter Gina Haggard wrote in a statement read by police.
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| Guam’s air defense should learn lessons from Japan’s Aegis Ashore Posted: 30 Jul 2020 02:00 AM PDT  Although the current Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery on Guam can defend against some ballistic missiles, its single AN/TPY-2 radar is vulnerable and cannot provide 360-degree coverage.
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| Kayleigh McEnany Struggles to Defend Trump’s Demon Sperm Doctor Retweets Posted: 29 Jul 2020 08:46 AM PDT  Kayleigh McEnany had a difficult job even before her boss started retweeting conspiracy theories from a fringe doctor who blames demon sperm and alien DNA for America's health problems. CBS This Morning co-host Anthony Mason wasted no time getting to that particular story when he invited the White House press secretary on his show Wednesday morning. "Why is the president pushing hydroxychloroquine again when his own health experts say it's not effective in treating the virus?" he asked. McEnany began by explaining that, despite science to the contrary, Trump has a "positive outlook" on the drug's potential as a "prophylaxis in the early stages." The president famously told the press he was taking hydroxychloroquine two months into the pandemic because he had "heard a lot of good stories" about it. "He wants to save lives, that is his goal here," she added. "That is why he's promoting this drug as a prophylaxis but only in consultation with your doctor." Kayleigh McEnany Urges Fox News Viewers to 'Follow Trump's Lead' on MasksAfter pointing out that Dr. Anthony Fauci has contradicted the president's "positive outlook" on the drug by citing medical evidence, Mason zeroed in on the video that Trump retweeted of Dr. Stella Immanuel in which she not only promoted hydroxychloroquine as a miracle "cure" for COVID-19 but also declared that people "do not need to wear masks" and that shutdowns are "unnecessary." "This just comes a week after the president said masks are 'patriotic,'" the host continued. "There's a shift in tone here and what appear to be very mixed messages. Why?" McEnany's defense? "That was a three-second remark in a more than five-minute video," she said, arguing that Trump was simply using Dr. Immanuel's video to push the unproven drug he likes. When she started praising Trump for finally wearing a mask in public months into the crisis, Mason pushed back. "But there's a message in there that says it's not necessary and it comes from the president who has 80 million followers!" he replied. "Did he not look at the whole video?" "The president did look at the whole video," McEnany said, perhaps not helping her case. "And the overarching message of the video, more than five minutes from this doctor, was talking about hydroxychloroquine." Trump himself seemed to predict this controversy during an interview last week when he said, "You know what I find? It's not the tweets, it's the retweets that get you in trouble." The president then admitted that when he "sees something that looks good" on Twitter, he doesn't always "investigate" it before hitting the retweet button. Trevor Noah Unloads on Trump for Trusting 'Dr. Demon Sperm'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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| Chinese long-range bombers join drills over South China Sea Posted: 30 Jul 2020 04:27 AM PDT  China said Thursday that long-range bombers were among the aircraft that took part in recent aerial drills over the South China Sea amid rising tensions between Washington and Beijing over the strategic waterway. The exercises included nighttime takeoffs and landings and simulated long-range attacks, Defense Ministry spokesperson Ren Guoqiang said. Ren's statement appeared to distance the drills from recent accusations exchanged between the sides over China's claim to virtually all of the South China Sea, which it has buttressed in recent years by building man-made islands equipped with runways.
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| California, Florida and Texas see record rise in COVID-19 deaths Posted: 29 Jul 2020 08:35 AM PDT  The United States has registered 10,000 deaths over the last 11 days, the fastest surge since early June, prompting heated debates between the American public and its leaders over the best course forward. "In light of viral surge in our community, it's in the best interest of students and employees to commence the 20-21 school year at a distance," Miami-Dade County Public Schools said on Twitter. With the scheduled reopening of schools days away in some states, President Donald Trump has pushed for students to return to class while teacher unions and local officials have called for them to stay home.
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| Police agencies are withdrawing from security at Democratic Convention after a ban was imposed on pepper spray and tear gas Posted: 29 Jul 2020 03:33 PM PDT  Over 100 police agencies dropped out as security for the Democratic National Convention set to take place in Milwaukee next month, WTMJ-TV reported.
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