| Dem convention shows Biden wants to reassemble Obama's coalition — not build a new one Posted: 20 Aug 2020 12:21 PM PDT  When former President Barack Obama spoke Wednesday night at the Democratic National Convention, it was striking, and telling, to hear which voters he was trying to reach: his voters — the voters he thinks can carry his former running mate, Joe Biden, to victory.
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| Chief: Tennessee officers broke down door of innocent family Posted: 20 Aug 2020 07:57 AM PDT  Three white Tennessee police officers have had their police powers suspended after they broke down the door of an innocent Black family early Tuesday morning. Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake ordered a full investigation of the incident by the department's Office of Professional Accountability. "No innocent family in Nashville, anywhere, should be subjected to what the mother and her two children went through on Tuesday morning," Drake said in a news release.
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| Suspect in Portland Beating Turns Himself in Posted: 21 Aug 2020 01:21 PM PDT  The suspect in the beating of a truck driver in downtown Portland turned himself in Friday morning, police said.Marquise Love, 25, turned himself into police and is being held on $260,000 bail at Multnomah County Detention Center. He is accused of felony assault, coercion, and rioting."I am pleased the suspect in this case turned himself in and appreciate all of the efforts to facilitate this safe resolution," Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell said in a statement on Friday.A crowd of rioters in downtown Portland beat a man unconscious Sunday night after dragging him from his truck, video footage of the incident shows. Police on Tuesday identified Love as the man who delivered a running kick to the head from behind to the man, identified by his family as Adam Haner, as he sat in the street already beaten by the rioters.The crowd surrounded Haner's white truck around 10:30 p.m. near where he crashed into a light pole downtown. At least one individual punched him as he sat inside before he was pulled out of the vehicle. The rioters forced him to sit in the street as he tried to answer a call from his wife.One man in the crowd wearing a "security" vest, allegedly Love, delivered a kick to his head that appeared to knock him out cold and caused his head to bleed after it hit the street. Haner was transported to the hospital.Video clips on social media appear to show the moments just before the attack, when the man attempted to help a person the crowd had previously robbed and beaten.Later, police deployed a large law enforcement response and encountered "a hostile crowd."Police called on Love to turn himself in. Haner has since been released from the hospital and is recovering from multiple serious injuries at home.The incident, which has attracted international attention, has prompted harsh criticism of Portland government officials, including Democratic Mayor Ted Wheeler.By Friday afternoon, more than 3,800 people had donated over $137,000 to a fundraiser for Haner set up by his brother.
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| Kim Jong-un gives sister Yo-jong 'more responsibilities' Posted: 20 Aug 2020 04:57 AM PDT  Kim Yo-jong has reportedly been given responsibility for North Korean policy towards the US.
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| Gulf coast braced for two tropical storms in 24 hours next week – for the first time in 60 years Posted: 21 Aug 2020 10:28 AM PDT  Two tropical depressions could hit the US gulf coast, possibly as hurricanes, in the same 24-hour period next week, for the first time in six decades.The first weather system – which meteorologists have labelled Tropical Depression Thirteen (TD-13) – was about 305 miles (490 kilometers) east of the northern Leeward Islands early on Friday morning, with maximum sustained winds of 35 mph (55 kph).
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| US Army’s future missile defense command system nearly simultaneously defeats cruise, ballistic missile threats Posted: 21 Aug 2020 08:26 AM PDT  Find out how the Army's most recent IBCS live-fire test went, and see footage a Black Dagger target missile launch.
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| Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny given permission to leave Russia for emergency treatment Posted: 21 Aug 2020 01:33 AM PDT  Russian doctors on Friday allowed opposition leader Alexei Navalny to travel to Germany for treatment for an apparent poisoning, after his wife accused them of "playing for time" to hinder an investigation. Mr Navalny, the country's most outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin, was hospitalised on Thursday and remained unconscious after suddenly falling ill during a flight to Moscow from Siberia. His wife Yulia personally appealed to Mr Putin to allow him to travel after doctors refused her request for most of the day, saying his condition was unstable, before reversing their decision. Several of Mr Navalny's aides said the doctors deliberately delayed so that foreign medics would be unable to discover any toxins in his system, and were taking instruction from Russian officials. Spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh called the delay "an attempt on his life". Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and Emmanuel Macron, the French president, have expressed concern over the apparent poisoning, while US Democratic candidate Joe Biden called it "unacceptable".
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| Michael Bloomberg robbed the DNC Posted: 20 Aug 2020 08:14 PM PDT  We now know how much the going rate is for a spot at the Democratic National Convention. Michael Bloomberg spoke for five minutes on Thursday night not long before the nominee itself, a role arguably more prominent than that of Bernie Sanders, the much-abused runner-up.The former New York mayor's remarks were exactly what you would expect. He began by pointing out that he is not a Democrat. He gloated about the vast amounts of money he has given to buy politicians in all parties. He quoted a children's book. He talked about the importance of experts, like the ones he deferred to when he doubled down on the brutal policing tactics that have been the subject of protests across the country. He even said "hell" twice.The best part is that he didn't even have to pay for it. Bloomberg reneged on his promise back in March to keep the thousands of paid staff members who carried him to his towering victory in the 2020 American Samoa Democratic primary onboard until the general election. He has given a whopping $18 million to the party itself and just over $4 million to other grassroots organizations this year. He also offered them some useless free office space during the lockdown.At least President Trump was watching. > After the worst debate performance in the history of politics, Michael Bloomberg, commonly known as Mini Mike, is trying to make a comeback by begging the Democrats for relevance. They treated him like a dog - and always will. Before politics, he said GREAT things about me!> > -- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 21, 2020More stories from theweek.com The DNC's stirring eulogy for Joe Biden Lori Loughlin sentenced to 2 months in prison for role in college admissions scandal Trump initially responds to Biden's acceptance speech with brevity and correct grammar
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| Sen. Cassidy tests positive for virus, has COVID-19 symptoms Posted: 20 Aug 2020 11:57 AM PDT  U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy announced Thursday that he has tested positive for the coronavirus and is experiencing some COVID-19 symptoms. The Republican senator, 62, who is running for reelection on Nov. 3, is experiencing "mild symptoms that began this morning," from COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus, his spokesperson Cole Avery said. Cassidy is at least the 13th member of Congress known to have tested positive for the coronavirus and only the second senator.
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| Under arrest for corruption, Mexico's former oil boss takes aim at three ex-presidents Posted: 20 Aug 2020 06:12 PM PDT  Former Pemex chief Emilio Lozoya accuses former presidents and others of payoffs, bribery, extortion and vote-buying.
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| Michigan Gov. Whitmer says state will continue to show support for Flint residents with proposed $600M water deal Posted: 20 Aug 2020 11:29 AM PDT  A proposed $600 million deal between the state of Michigan and residents of the impoverished, majority-Black city of Flint who were harmed by lead-tainted water is a step toward making amends for a disaster that upended life in the city, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Thursday.
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| Barack Obama put Kamala Harris in an impossible position Posted: 19 Aug 2020 09:05 PM PDT  The best that can be said of Kamala Harris' speech at the DNC on Wednesday night is that it was the second best of the evening. But putting it that way doesn't quite capture the reality of what happened. Barack Obama delivered an incredible speech — a rhetorically accomplished, complexly argued case for defeating Donald Trump, and he delivered it impeccably, staring straight into the camera, drilling right to the souls of the American people.In that respect, Harris was in an impossible position. Originally Obama's remarks were supposed to follow the speech of the vice-presidential nominee, but the former president reportedly suggested flipping the order once Harris' name was announced. That inadvertently set Harris up for failure. But if she had gone first, her pedestrian, disjointed speech, delivered in a tone of phony overacting, would have been largely forgotten by the morning. Obama really was that good, and Harris really was that bad.Rather than making an argument, Harris set out to do what she was expected to — introduce herself to the country. But she did it in a cloying, cliché-ridden way. And she wove the story of her family and career into the political history of the country by way of the identity-politics categories so beloved of left-wing activists and the Democratic Party's consultant class. She started by talking about women. Then transitioned to Black women. Then added in her Indian heritage, and Latinos. Later she name-checked Indigenous people, denounced structural racism, and then, in a tone of high earnestness, made the most cringe-inducing declaration of the entire convention so far: "There is no vaccine for racism."Unlike Obama, who used the camera so expertly, Harris delivered her remarks on a large stage ringed with American flags before an auditorium empty of all but a handful of journalists, photographers, and producers. The vibe started at awkward and sank lower from there.The cardinal rule for running-mates is to do no harm to the ticket. I doubt this single speech hurt the Democrats' prospects in November. But there is no way it helped.More stories from theweek.com 5 bitingly funny cartoons about the Democratic National Convention Kansas City Chiefs to ban fans from wearing headdresses to home games A confused Kirsten Dunst asks Kanye West why he put her on his campaign poster
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| Tropical storm forecast to form soon, could approach Florida as Cat 1 hurricane Posted: 19 Aug 2020 08:09 PM PDT  A tropical depression in the Atlantic may approach South Florida as a Category 1 hurricane early next week, according to the National Hurricane Center.
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| Chicago mayor defends beefed-up police presence near home Posted: 20 Aug 2020 02:53 PM PDT |
| Sarah Cooper lip syncs to Trump at DNC – and speaks out in support of Biden Posted: 20 Aug 2020 06:54 PM PDT  The lip-synching comedian and viral star Sarah Cooper made an appearance at the DNC and did what she does best – poked fun at Donald Trump.On a night when comedy at times mixed uneasily with the sombre tone of the final night of the convention as a result of the lengthy tributes paid to Joe Biden's late son, Beau, who died from a rare cancer in 2015, Cooper managed to find the perfect words.
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| ‘When you’re late, you're late’: Kanye falls short in Wisconsin Posted: 20 Aug 2020 04:43 PM PDT  One member of the elections commission said it was ironic that Democrats didn't make it easier for candidates to file.
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| France's most notorious serial killer raped and murdered 'French Maddie' says ex-wife Posted: 21 Aug 2020 07:26 AM PDT  The ex-wife of France's most notorious living serial killer has accused him of raping and murdering a nine-year old school girl whose case has gripped the country for almost two decades. Estelle Mouzin disappeared in Guermantes, 18 miles east of Paris, on January 9, 2003 while walking home from her school. Her body was never found. Reported sightings fuelled speculation she was kidnapped and taken abroad, sparking parallels with Madeleine McCann, the British three-year-old who went missing in Portugal in 2007. Michel Fourniret, 77, already jailed for life in May 2008 for the murder of seven girls and young women, was charged over her disappearance late last year after his wife came forward to contradict his alibi. In March, Fourniret, dubbed the "Ogre of the Ardennes", then made a cryptic statement to police saying he admitted that "a being is no longer there by my fault" and that the body may be in the Ardennes, northeastern France. That sparked a search of his former properties, to no avail.
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| Joe Biden's speech even wowed his critics: 'Biden crushed expectations' Posted: 20 Aug 2020 08:36 PM PDT  Joe Biden gave the biggest speech of his career on Thursday night when he accepted the Democratic nomination for president. "The current president's cloaked America in darkness for far too long," the former vice president said. "Too much anger, too much fear, too much division. I will draw on the best of us, not the worst. … And make no mistake, united we can and will overcome this season of darkness."The speech earned rave reviews, with former President Barack Obama's chief speechwriter Cody Keenan calling it "easily Joe Biden's best speech. He rose to the moment in a big way." Added Politico's chief political correspondent Tim Alberta, "We're watching an old ballplayer whose skills have diminished turn in a career-best performance in the biggest game of his life. Remarkable to witness."The speech even received praise by some across the aisle. Conservative commentator Erick Erickson tweeted, "Biden exceeded expectations. That was a fine speech." Rich Lowry, editor of the National Review, agreed, tweeting: "Forceful, energetic delivery, strongest when portraying his program as all about jobs, speech lost focus in the second half — but overall, probably helped himself." Guy Benson, the political editor of Townhall, said simply: "Biden crushed expectations."Even those who've known Biden for years were in awe. "After Biden mopped the floor with Paul Ryan in 2012 VP debate, I looked at him and said 'you will never have a better performance than tonight,'" tweeted Jim Messina, Obama's 2012 campaign manager. "I was wrong. Tonight is better."More stories from theweek.com The DNC's stirring eulogy for Joe Biden Lori Loughlin sentenced to 2 months in prison for role in college admissions scandal Trump initially responds to Biden's acceptance speech with brevity and correct grammar
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| Bolivia probes alleged Morales affair with minor Posted: 20 Aug 2020 05:47 PM PDT  Bolivia's justice ministry has filed a criminal complaint against 60-year-old former president Evo Morales over an alleged sexual relationship with a minor, Deputy Minister Guido Melgar said Thursday.
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| Thousands of chicks arrive dead to farmers amid USPS turmoil Posted: 20 Aug 2020 12:35 PM PDT  At least 4,800 chicks were shipped to Maine farmers through the U.S. Postal Service and arrived dead in recent weeks after cuts hit the mail carrier's operations, Maine Rep. Chellie Pingree said.
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| Mexican president defends brother hit by cash scandal Posted: 21 Aug 2020 06:05 AM PDT  President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Friday said footage showing his brother receiving cash was not corruption because the money was for legitimate election funds, but that the prosecutor's office should investigate the videos. The fallout from the videos threatens to damage Lopez Obrador and his government at a time when Mexico is convulsed by a corruption trial of a former state-oil company boss who has alleged graft against previous Mexican presidents. Lopez Obrador said the money given in the videos to his brother, Pio Lopez Obrador, was "contributed" by supporters to pay for things like gasoline and there was no corruption.
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| Colombia calls on US to extradite warlord over fears he will escape justice Posted: 20 Aug 2020 10:33 AM PDT  Salvatore Mancuso, free after a 12-year drug sentence, is wanted for gross human rights violations but is seeking to be deported to ItalyColombia has requested the extradition of a notorious paramilitary warlord jailed in the US on drug charges, amid fears that he may be deported to Italy – and escape justice for human rights crimes in the Andean nation.Salvatore Mancuso, 56, led a rightwing paramilitary group which carried out some of the worst violence against civilians during Colombia's decades-long civil war.He was convicted in Colombia of more than 1,500 murders and forced disappearances, and confessed to participating in a string of horrific crimes. But in 2008 was extradited to the US where he served 12 years of a 15-year sentence on drug trafficking charges.When was released in March, his lawyers claimed that he would be killed if he returns to Colombia, and argued that he should instead be deported to Italy, where he also holds citizenship.From there it is unlikely that he will answer for his crimes in Colombia, as the two countries do not share an extradition treaty."Salvatore Mancuso has serious outstanding debts with Colombian justice and for that I reason I have requested his extradition," Colombia's president, Iván Duque, tweeted on Thursday morning amid growing outcry over the case. "His crimes will not continue to be met with impunity."Mancuso, the well-educated son of an Italian immigrant from Colombia's cattle-ranching north-west, is the highest-ranking former commander of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia still alive. He signed off on countless atrocities during a three-way conflict between leftwing rebels and state forces often acting in collusion with the paramilitaries.In February 2000, militiamen under his command tortured and dismembered more than 60 peasant farmers in the rural village of El Salado, in one of the worst single acts of violence in the five-decade war. Victims – including a six-year-old girl and an elderly woman – were stabbed, beaten and strangled to death.Yirley Velasco, now 34, was 14 when four of Mancuso's men pinned her down in front of the village and sexually abused her after killing her neighbours."We're still wearing the scars of what he and his men did to us, every day we are tortured by it, so how could it be fair that he gets to live comfortably in Italy?" she said on Thursday.The conflict between the Colombian state and leftist rebel groups including the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (or Farc) left 260,000 dead and displaced over 7 million.A peace deal was signed with the Farc in 2016, which brought with it a truth and justice tribunal. Campaigners say that Mancuso, who has already implicated high-profile politicians in his crimes, must answer to it."He must come to Colombia to tell the truth about the political and business leaders that were involved," said Iván Cepeda, a prominent leftist senator whose father, a congressman, was murdered by paramilitaries in 1994.Rosario Montoya, 62, an afro-indigenous organiser from Mancuso's home-province of Córdoba, was forced to run from one of his death squads in 1987 after many of her neighbours and fellow activists had been murdered."They exterminated us and they stole our land and yet only Mancuso knows the truth of what happened," Montoya said. "We're not hoping that he gets punished, we're just hoping to hear who gave him the orders."
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| The ‘We Build the Wall’ Huckster Is Accused of Duping Donors. Turns Out, He Planned to Sell Their Data Too. Posted: 20 Aug 2020 12:10 PM PDT  Federal prosecutors on Thursday arrested former Trump adviser Steve Bannon and Brian Kolfage, the head of a nonprofit seeking to privately finance construction of a southern border wall, and accused them of illegally using that nonprofit to enrich themselves. But the sums the two men allegedly extracted from the organization just scratched the surface of their grandiose plans to make money off the effort. As he was using his group, We Build The Wall, to compile millions of email addresses and phone numbers, Kolfage was also plotting ways to use that data to start a Republican fundraising firm. The venture had gotten far enough that earlier this year, he was already shopping around for potential clients.Kolfage, a triple amputee Air Force veteran, described his plans to a Republican consultant in an email written early this year and seen by The Daily Beast. His previously-unreported efforts to start a political consulting business using the resources acquired and built by his nonprofit show the additional ways—beyond the direct cash payments alleged in the federal criminal complaint unsealed on Thursday—that Kolfage planned to enrich himself using a group that allegedly duped donors with a promise to help fulfill one of President Donald Trump's signature proposals. Efforts to reach Kolfage were not successful. An inquiry sent to We Build The Wall went unanswered.Steve Bannon Arrested on Charges of Stealing From 'Build the Wall' FundraiserIn the email to the Republican consultant, who showed the message to The Daily Beast on the condition of anonymity due to concerns about Kolfage's legal situation, Kolfage bragged that the voter contact list in his possession was likely the third biggest in Republican politics, surpassed only by those controlled by Trump himself and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). He said it contained names, email addresses, phone numbers, and other data points about donors to his nonprofit who Republican candidates could hit up for cash.Kolfage proposed a revenue-sharing agreement, whereby he would keep 50 percent of all the funds raised by the campaigns and groups that used his list.Kolfage's pitch to the Republican consultant, who does digital fundraising for Republican candidates, suggests that Kolfage was seeking to rent the list to other vendors that work with political campaigns, rather than to the campaigns directly. That's a common arrangement for digital fundraising vendors, but it makes it difficult to track down which, or how many, campaigns have rented the We Build The Wall list.But at least one political candidate appears to have done so. The Daily Beast reported last year that Kris Kobach—the former Kansas secretary of state and We Build The Wall general counsel—sent a fundraising email to that list asking for donations to his ultimately failed 2020 Senate campaign. Legal experts told The Daily Beast at the time that that solicitation almost certainly violated federal campaign finance laws, either by failing to disclose that the campaign had paid for its use of the list, or by constituting an illegal in-kind contribution from the nonprofit to the campaign. The ethics watchdog group Common Cause subsequently filed legal complaints against both Kobach's campaign and We Build The Wall over the fundraising appeal.At the time, the Kobach campaign blamed the email on a vendor, which it refused to name. FEC records show that a few weeks after the Kobach fundraising email in question, his campaign began paying Stockton Strategies, the firm run by We Build The Wall aide Dustin Stockton, for "online fundraising services" and revenue-sharing fees.Trump Favorite Is Under Investigation—and Getting Big Bucks to Build the WallOn Thursday morning, as federal agents scooped up Bannon and Kolfage, Stockton tweeted that he "was raided by SWAT" and that his phone was seized but that he was not arrested. He did not respond to inquiries about the We Build The Wall email list, the Kobach campaign's use of it, or about the wave of arrests and charges against others involved with the group.Federal prosecutors accuse Bannon, Kolfage, and two of their alleged co-conspirators of raising money for We Build The Wall with promises that not "a single penny" would be paid to Kolfage, and that all of the money raised by the group would directly finance its construction of a southern border wall. But according to the criminal complaint, Kolfage and Bannon pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars, routing the funds through shell companies and a nonprofit that Bannon controlled in order to mask the transfers.Kolfage used that money on various personal expenses, prosecutors say, including upkeep on his boat, Warfighter, which Kolfage proudly boarded during a record-breaking "boat parade" in Florida this week in support of Trump's reelection.Though the $350,000 in We Build The Wall funds that prosecutors say Kolfage pocketed was no small sum, brokering a donor list as large as the one he described to the Republican consultant this year would likely have represented a significant source of additional income.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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| When you mark your ballot this year, Vladimir Putin will be on it Posted: 21 Aug 2020 02:00 AM PDT  Opinion: The Russian president has a lot riding on this U.S. election.
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| Minneapolis police officer Thomas Lane didn’t check George Floyd’s ‘counterfeit’ $20 note Posted: 21 Aug 2020 10:59 AM PDT  The alleged counterfeit $20 bill used by George Floyd wasn't inspected or collected before his fatal arrest in Minneapolis, according to one of the first officers at the scene.Former police officer Thomas Lane said in newly-released audio that he didn't obtain the bill before, during or after the incident that led to Mr Floyd's death on 25 May.
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| Fact check: COVID-19 is deadlier than the 1918 Spanish flu and seasonal influenza Posted: 21 Aug 2020 02:08 PM PDT  A claim comparing mortality rates among the three diseases per world population contains misleading information. We rate this claim partly false.
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| Dear Joe Biden: The filibuster will stop all your ideas Posted: 19 Aug 2020 06:58 PM PDT  On the third night of the Democratic National Convention, a couple rather neglected topics came first in the proceedings — namely, gun control and climate change. Gabby Giffords, a former Democratic member of Congress from Arizona who was shot in the head in 2011, spoke movingly about her long and difficult recovery, and the need for reasonable gun control laws. Several scientists and activists similarly spoke about the stark need for aggressive climate policy to protect America from climate change.It's nice to see the Democratic Party making room for these issues alongside newsier problems like the coronavirus pandemic and the economic collapse. A future President Biden will have more crises on his plate than any president since Franklin Roosevelt in 1933.However, we should remember that unless the Democrats get rid of the Senate filibuster, there will be little or no progress on any of these issues, big or small. Republicans will almost certainly retain more than 40 seats in the Senate and, if the filibuster remains, be able to bottle up almost all legislation there as Mitch McConnell did for nearly the entirety of the Obama presidency. Moderate Democratic senators have long expressed reluctance about getting rid of the filibuster, but the truth is that unless it is abolished, America will remain nearly impossible to govern.More stories from theweek.com 5 bitingly funny cartoons about the Democratic National Convention A confused Kirsten Dunst asks Kanye West why he put her on his campaign poster Joe Biden's incomparable presidential odyssey
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| California fires spread, fouling air and spurring evacuations Posted: 21 Aug 2020 01:49 PM PDT  Thick smoke blanketed large areas of central and northern California on Friday as more people fled some of the biggest fires in the state's history which have raged largely uncontrolled through the week.
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| Australia virus cases dive to five-week low Posted: 20 Aug 2020 07:08 PM PDT  Australia headed for its lowest daily increase in coronavirus infections in five weeks on Friday as the hotspot state of Victoria neared the midway point of lockdown, prompting the prime minister to hail "a week of increased hope". While the rest of Australia eases restrictions, the home state of a quarter of its population is in a six-week lockdown due to a second wave of virus infections. Victoria reported 179 new cases in the past 24 hours, from 240 a day earlier and down from over 700 a day two weeks ago.
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| Coronavirus: Youthful Pakistan appears to avoid worst of pandemic Posted: 20 Aug 2020 04:06 PM PDT  Testing in Pakistan has been low, but the country seems to have suffered less than its neighbours.
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| TikTok employees have started referring to Trump's deadline to ban the app as 'D-Day' over fears of catastrophic job losses Posted: 21 Aug 2020 11:57 AM PDT  Through the uncertainty, TikTok has grown its US operations to 1,500 employees, and has committed to creating 10,000 jobs by 2023.
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| Op-Ed: The Belarus crisis is a problem for Moscow. Here's how Putin might respond Posted: 21 Aug 2020 04:00 AM PDT  Short of using military force, Moscow can shape events in Belarus through networks developed by its security forces, economic levers and media sabotage.
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| Republican senator Bill Cassidy tests positive for coronavirus Posted: 20 Aug 2020 02:10 PM PDT  Republican senator Bill Cassidy has tested positive for Covid-19, after he was exposed to someone infected with the virus.On Thursday, Mr Cassidy's office announced that he had become just the second senator to have contracted coronavirus, after Republican Rand Paul tested positive for Covid-19 in April, according to CNBC.
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| Fact check: If the vice president becomes president, House speaker doesn't become new VP Posted: 20 Aug 2020 11:20 AM PDT  If Joe Biden is elected but unable to serve a full term, Kamala Harris would become president. Nancy Pelosi, as speaker, wouldn't automatically be VP.
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| The Effects of Hong Kong’s National-Security Law Are Already Clear Posted: 20 Aug 2020 01:12 PM PDT  Just a few weeks after China's imposition of a new "national-security law" on Hong Kong, we can already see the law's effects: It has emboldened the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to suppress dissent, punish activism, and create fear within the city's democracy movement.In 1997, the United Kingdom returned Hong Kong, which it had governed for 99 years under a lease extorted from the Qing Dynasty, back to the People's Republic of China. At the time, the PRC promised to preserve the political autonomy and freedoms the city had enjoyed under the British until 2047. The national-security law and the crackdown it initiated marked the breaking of that promise.Beijing's move to exert increased control over the city reflects several factors, first and foremost among them the rise of Xi Jinping. Xi has attempted to strengthen the CCP's control of China and his control of the CCP, and after tightening his grip on the mainland, he naturally sought to inflict the same fate on Hong Kong. The city's democracy movement, in turn, erred by forgetting that it ultimately was dealing with Xi's regime, which had already crushed all opposition at home, and in demanding what the Hong Kong authorities could never provide (full democracy) while delivering what the CCP could never abide (chaos).Hence the imposition of the national-security law by Beijing, with results worse than anyone predicted.The NSL criminalizes separatism, subversion, and terrorism. All of those crimes are vaguely defined, with ultimate interpretation up to Beijing, which uses similar restrictions to stifle dissent on the mainland. Special judges will be appointed to oversee national-security trials, which can be conducted in secret. Chinese security agents now operate in Hong Kong and defendants can be sent to the mainland for trial. The law singles out "collusion with a foreign country or with external forces to endanger national security," which is so broad it could cover something as simple as criticizing Beijing in an interview with a foreign reporter. Under the law, Beijing even claims the power to charge foreign nationals for acts committed overseas, and indeed has already attempted to do so. Those convicted can receive life imprisonment.Representatives of Hong Kong, who had no say in formulating the measure, have spent the weeks since its enactment desperately seeking to defuse international criticism. No doubt, Xi's regime would prefer to win widespread compliance through intimidation; mass arrests would take effort, create international controversy, and undermine Beijing's image. Ultimately the CCP hopes to use indoctrination backed by coercion to tranquilize Hong Kong's population.Indeed, regime allies in the city's government admitted as much when the law was first implemented. Stanley Ng, a delegate to the National People's Congress, the mainland's rubber-stamp legislature, said the law was ambiguous by design in order to incorporate the "real effects of intimidation and deterrence. You can see the rebels in Hong Kong are now in turmoil." Tam Yiu-chung, another NPC apparatchik, also lauded the law's impact: "Those who have stirred up trouble and broken this type of law in the past will hopefully watch themselves in the future. If they continue to defy the law, they will bear the consequences."The law was, in short, intended to trigger the democracy movement's broad retreat from the public square, and it has. But there are already signs that its effects will be much more far-reaching.On Monday, Hong Kong authorities arrested Apple Daily publisher Jimmy Lai, along with two of his sons and four company executives, for alleged collusion with foreign groups. Around 200 police officers raided the paper. China's nationalistic Global Times tagged Lai as a "modern traitor." On passage of the NSL, Lai had warned: "Whatever we write, or whatever we say, they can label secession or subversion or whatever they decide according to their expedience."Detained separately were members of the now-disbanded group Scholarism and an election-monitoring organization, as well as 23-year-old pro-democracy politician and protest leader Agnes Chow. Over the weekend, Chow cited surveillance of her home on social media. After the plethora of arrests, another democracy activist, Sunny Cheung, observed: "Everyone, let's mentally prepare. The road ahead will be darker and more terrifying than what we've imagined."Such arrests might have been expected within Hong Kong when the law was passed. But last week, the authorities also issued warrants for six activists based overseas. The police refused to discuss the case, but the Chinese state-owned CCTV network helpfully explained that the activists were wanted for promoting secession and colluding with foreigners.One is Samuel Muk-man Chu, the head of the Washington-based Hong Kong Democracy Council, which lobbies the U.S. government. Chu, born in Hong Kong, has been an American citizen for 25 years. He is best known for his work as a pastor and for running several social-justice organizations. China seeks to jail him for promoting the cause of human rights in Hong Kong from the U.S. "I might be the first non-Chinese citizen to be targeted, but I will not be the last," he told CNN. "If I am targeted, any American/any citizen of any nation who speaks out for Hong Kong can — and will be — too."Also charged was Nathan Law, a leader of the 2014 "Umbrella Revolution" democracy protests. He was elected to the Legislative Council in 2016, but subsequently disqualified at Beijing's direction. He wisely fled to the United Kingdom after the NSL's passage. If the law is not being applied retrospectively, as China claims it is not, he is being indicted for actions he undertook after leaving the territory.Simon Cheung, another target, worked for the British consulate in Hong Kong. When visiting mainland China last year, he was detained for 15 days, apparently tortured, and questioned about the democracy movement. After his release, he was granted asylum by the United Kingdom. The charges against him apparently relate to his work there.Amid all of these efforts to intimidate dissenters into silence, the law's passage has also prompted Hong Kong's Beijing-backed chief executive, Carrie Lam, to postpone the September Legislative Council elections, allowing Beijing to decide the body's make-up until the vote is held next year. Lam, who defended the NSL despite not having seen it before it was enacted, claimed that "political considerations" played no role in the postponement, which she blamed on the COVID-19 pandemic. But the PRC had real reason to fear that the opposition would gain control of the Council for the first time if the election had been held as scheduled.The council's makeup is determined through a hybrid system, some lawmakers are directly elected by Hong Kongers, while some are chosen by interest groups. Historically that has ensured that China-friendly elites have the upper hand in governing the city, but hostility toward Beijing has peaked in the aftermath of the NSL's imposition, so much so that the traditional barriers to democratic governance were unlikely to hold if the election had been held. Last November, democracy activists won control of 17 out of 18 district councils normally controlled by establishment parties. Even pro-Beijing Legislative Council members expected another devastating election defeat. The vote delay gives the regime even more opportunity to threaten and arrest anyone who poses a threat to its aims.Even before the election was postponed, the Hong Kong government had disqualified a dozen candidates, including four sitting legislators, on the grounds of promoting self-determination/independence, seeking foreign intervention (such as sanctions against Hong Kong and/or Beijing), opposing the NSL, and promising to reject government initiatives. Beijing's Liaison Office, the territory's real government, explained that "these unscrupulous individuals who are plotting to destroy" Hong Kong could not be allowed to sit on the Council. After the election delay was announced, the government admitted that other candidates are being reviewed: "We do not rule out the possibility that more nominations would be invalidated."With unintended irony, Lam's government mixed its announcement with the statement that it "respects and safeguards the lawful rights of Hong Kong people, including the right to vote and the right to stand for elections." Two weeks ago, the same government suggested that 600,000 Hong Kongers may have violated the NSL by voting in an informal primary for democracy activists. If the goal of the ballot was "objecting or resisting every policy initiative of the [Hong Kong] government," Lam said, "it may fall under the category of subverting the state power—one of the four types of offenses under the national-security law." The police subsequently raided the offices of the polling organization that ran the vote.The authorities also recently arrested four activists, as young as 16, for "inciting secession." They were members of Studentlocalism, a group for pro-independence students in secondary school. Notably, the organization ended operations before the NSL officially took effect, but those detained had posted support for independence on social media afterward, and the police explained that making such statements constituted incitement. Regina Ip, one of the PRC's most reliable local factotums, applauded the arrests, which, she told the New York Times, show the authorities are "acting in accordance with the law."After the law's passage, tenured law professor Benny Tai was dismissed by the University of Hong Kong for his pro-democracy activities. Previously punished for his participation in the 2014 demonstrations, he was recently cited by Beijing for assisting in the unofficial primary. The PRC liaison office blamed him for having "poisoned Hong Kong's political environment," calling him "the culprit behind the chaos in Hong Kong and the representative for colluding foreign powers," and his removal "a just act of punishing evil and promoting good and conforming to the people's will."Other Teachers are being targeted, too. Last month, 92 percent of those surveyed by the Hong Kong Professional Teachers' Union said they felt government pressure and had a negative view of the educational system's future; 80 percent avoided sensitive subjects in the classroom. Many who protested or endorsed anti-government demonstrations were reprimanded and in some cases fired. The Education Bureau called for the elimination of any teaching materials that could "provoke any acts or activities which endanger national security." Some subjects, such as human rights on the mainland, seem likely to become verboten. At an education meeting, Lam ominously said that she hoped "the national-security law is also a turning point for returning education to education and returning students to the right track."Beijing has conducted a broad, cruel, and shockingly effective campaign to destroy political and intellectual liberty in Hong Kong in a very short time. There is no need to wait to judge the impact of the national-security law: It has already chilled free speech, precluded political protest, and silenced critics of the PRC's increasingly oppressive rule. Hong Kongers now face the same fate as mainland Chinese, free to talk only about what the government allows them to talk about. Speak out on anything else, and they risk arrest, prosecution, and prison.The West, at least at the moment, has no satisfactory answer to the crackdown facilitated by the NSL. But we should be under no illusions: Xi Jinping is bringing his increasingly totalitarian rule to Hong Kong. Just over a month and a half after the law's passage, that much is all too clear.
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| China denounces 'slander' over ambassador on people's backs in Kiribati Posted: 20 Aug 2020 02:54 AM PDT |
| Exclusive: Manchester teen who joined Islamic State with twin sister being held with young son in controversial Syrian detention camp Posted: 21 Aug 2020 07:10 AM PDT  A woman from Manchester who joined Islamic State (IS) as a teenager alongside her twin sister is alive and being held with her young son in a controversial camp run by Syrian Kurdish forces, sources in northeast Syria have confirmed to The Telegraph. Salma and Zahra Halane were 16 when they fled their home in Chorlton in June 2014 to travel to Syria, but their fate has not been known since IS lost the last of its territory in fighting against Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in March 2019. Zahra was recently caught trying to escape from the sprawling Al Hol camp, where she had lived for 16 months, and was transferred last week from a women's prison to a new high-security extension to Roj camp, where humanitarians worry the most dangerous IS supporters are being moved, sources in the camps said. Salma's whereabouts is unknown but she is also believed to be alive. Dubbed the "terror twins" in the media, Zahra and Salma remain committed IS supporters, according to women in Al Hol. The fact that their presence went unreported and that at least one of them attempted to escape illustrates the danger of leaving tens of thousands of jihadists under the guard of a militia in a war-torn country, experts say. The Halane twins, who moved to Manchester at a young age from Denmark, crossed into Syria in July 2014, shortly after IS declared a caliphate. The twins, whose elder brother had reportedly travelled to Syria the year before, moved to Raqqa, the caliphate's capital, and soon married Islamic State fighters. Their youth and apparent enthusiasm for life under IS attracted widespread attention, and their journey to jihad was later copied by the Bethnal Green trio - teenage girls from an academy in London of whom only Shamima Begum is known to have survived.
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| It turns out Mitch McConnell will appear at the RNC after all Posted: 20 Aug 2020 10:16 PM PDT  After some back and forth, it's been confirmed that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) will make an appearance at next week's Republican National Convention.McConnell is up for re-election in November, and his campaign spokeswoman, Katharine Cooksey, said in a statement on Thursday that he would not be part of the convention. Instead, he planned on "traveling across all corners of Kentucky next week to speak with families, workers, and job creators about their needs." A few hours later, Cooksey changed course, saying there was a "miscommunication" and McConnell will be recording a message for the convention, The Hill reports. Like the Democratic National Convention this week, the RNC will be mostly virtual. President Trump will give his address from the White House, and told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Thursday night that he wants to have more live parts than the DNC did, because otherwise the event will be "boring."More stories from theweek.com The DNC's stirring eulogy for Joe Biden Lori Loughlin sentenced to 2 months in prison for role in college admissions scandal Trump initially responds to Biden's acceptance speech with brevity and correct grammar
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| Southwest is turning down $2.8 billion in CARES Act aid to avoid the federal government's 'onerous' conditions Posted: 21 Aug 2020 01:45 PM PDT  Even as bookings stay low, Southwest said it can raise enough cash to endure the crisis — and avoid dealing with the strings attached to federal help.
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| Portland clashes rage again outside US immigration building Posted: 21 Aug 2020 01:05 AM PDT  Protesters in Oregon's largest city have clashed again with federal agents outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building that has become a new focus of the demonstrations that have gripped Portland for months, officials said Friday. People in a group of about 100 late Thursday and before dawn Friday sprayed the building with graffiti, hurled rocks and bottles at agents and shined laser lights at them, Portland police said in a statement. The violence came a day after protesters clashed with federal agents for the first time since July in a demonstration that also targeted the ICE building.
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| 5 killed in California wildfires that continue to destroy homes Posted: 21 Aug 2020 03:42 AM PDT  At least five people have died in dozens of wildfires that are raging throughout Northern California.
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| Judge: Indiana can't reject absentee ballots for signatures without informing voter Posted: 21 Aug 2020 12:42 PM PDT  A federal judge says Indiana voters must be informed and allowed to contest if their signature is not found to match on their absentee ballot.
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