| Sarah Huckabee Sanders says Trump doesn't expect to have a transfer of power because he's going to win the election Posted: 25 Sep 2020 07:51 AM PDT  The former White House press secretary also said many Americans would be "questioning the final result" because of an increase in voting by mail.
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| Louisville police chief under fire for email saying BLM members should be washing her car Posted: 25 Sep 2020 09:47 AM PDT  Police chief called protesters 'woke' in bitter email to staff last month, causing anger
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| Buffalo police no longer have to display their names on badges in a policy change designed to protect officers Posted: 25 Sep 2020 09:23 AM PDT  The Buffalo mayor said that some officers were targeted and threats were made against their families. Now badges will display only a number.
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| A BMW hit a Tesla and left, Miami Beach cops say. But that’s not why a man was arrested Posted: 24 Sep 2020 05:00 AM PDT  A hit-and-run in Miami Beach early Thursday ended with a BMW crashed in front of one of the city's most well-known buildings and the arrest of a passenger who, police say, carried a loaded rifle.
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| House Republicans Call on Attorney General Barr to Investigate Recent Spike in Anti-Catholic Hate Crimes Posted: 25 Sep 2020 10:31 AM PDT  A group of House Republicans led by Representative Jim Banks (R., Ind.) on Friday called on attorney general William Barr to investigate a recent rise in anti-Catholic hate crimes.There have been 70 instances of anti-Catholic violence in North America this year — with 57 crimes being reported since May alone — according to a letter sent to the attorney general by Banks and 15 other House Republicans.By contrast, in all of 2018, the most recent year for which data is available, the FBI reported 53 incidents of anti-Catholic hate crimes in the U.S."Bigoted criminals are threatening Catholics and undermining America's core ideal of religious liberty," Banks said in a statement. "The DOJ's Civil Rights Division exists to combat spikes in targeted violence. It needs to fulfill its duty, determine who is behind this pattern of attacks and bring them to justice."Beginning in early July, reports of "horrific and brutal attacks on Catholic and Church properties" spiked, the letter says, including in Boston where a statue of the Virgin Mary at Saint Peters Parish Church was set ablaze. One day earlier, the letter says, a man in Florida allegedly drove a van into a church with parishioners inside before spilling gasoline in the church's foyer and attempting to set it on fire.That same day, San Gabriel Mission in California was burned down. The letter calls the issue "ongoing," citing an incident in September where a man was videotaped toppling an Our Lady of Guadalupe statue in Coney Island, N.Y."As in any other instance of a rapid spike in hate crimes targeted at a specific group, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division has an obligation to investigate the perpetrators of this violence and any organizational or ideological connections between them," the letter states."Crimes like these aren't just targeted at individuals and their property; they are targeted at American society as a whole," it continues. "They are motivated by a destructive impulse to harm property and persons, but also the equally warped desire to undermine America's constitutionally guaranteed rights and social trust within our communities."The Republicans' call to investigate concludes in saying the attacks threaten the physical safety of Catholics as well as the integrity of the American system, and saying the Department of Justice has an obligation to uphold both. The letter was co-signed by Representatives Andy Harris (R., Md.), Greg Steube (R., Fl.), Ted Yoho (R., Fl.), Jackie Walorski (R., Ind.), Doug Collins (R., Ga.), Jeff Duncan (R., S.C.), Rick Allen (R., Ga.), Pete Olson (R., Texas), Glenn Grothman (R., Wisc.), Chuck Fleischmann (R., Tenn.), Ron Wright (R., Texas), Paul Gosar (R., Ariz.), Mike Kelly (R., Pa.), Ken Buck (R., Colo.), and Dan Crenshaw (R., Texas).
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| Kremlin says EU move not to recognise Lukashenko amounts to meddling in Belarus Posted: 25 Sep 2020 04:09 AM PDT  Russia said on Friday that the European Union's decision not to recognise Alexander Lukashenko as the legitimate president of Belarus contradicted international law and amounted to indirect meddling in the country. Lukashenko, in power since 1994, was inaugurated on Wednesday in a secretive ceremony after weeks of huge protests. Russia is a close ally of Belarus and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday that the move not to recognise him would complicate the EU's dialogue with Belarus, but not affect Belarusian ties with Moscow.
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| US military increasingly using drone missile with flying blades in Syria Posted: 25 Sep 2020 07:52 AM PDT  'Ninja bomb', which uses 100lb of dense material and six attached blades, has been deployed in targeted assassinations The US military is making increasing use in Syria of a gruesome and secretive non-explosive drone missile that deploys flying blades to kill its targets.Described as less likely to kill non-combatants, the so-called ninja bomb – whose development was first disclosed last year – has been used a number of times in the last year to kill militants in Syria, including those linked to aal-Qaida, most recently earlier this month.Officially designated as the Hellfire AGM-114R9X – usually shortened to R9X and sometimes know as the "Flying Ginsu" – the weapon has been increasingly deployed in targeted assassinations by the US Joint Special Operations Command.The missile, believed to have been first used in 2017 to kill al-Qaida's then No 2 leader, Abu Khayr al Masri, in Idlib province, first came to wider attention when its existence was disclosed by an article in the Wall Street Journal last year.The weapon uses a combination of the force of 100lb of dense material flying at high speed and six attached blades which deploy before impact to crush and slice its victims.Video that emerged in June this year, posted by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, appeared to show the remains of one of the missiles used in a strike on a vehicle, also in Syria's Idlib that killed a Jordanian and Yemen, both reportedly members of Hurras al-Din, a group affiliated with aal-Qaida.The weapon is believed to have been developed during the administration of Barack Obama at a time when the US policy of targeted drone assassinations attracted considerable criticism for the number of civilian casualties caused by the strikes.Since its deployment it has been used sparingly, apparently most often in Syria.According to the New York Times the most recent use of the missile was on 14 September, when it was reportedly used to kill Sayyaf al-Tunsi, a Tunisian.Observers have speculated that the increasing use of the weapon in Syria – which increasingly has targeted leadership members of al-Qaida's affiliates – has been driven by the complexities of operations in Syria where the US is required to work around a large Russian engagement.The bladed, non-explosive version of the Hellfire missile is the latest iteration of a weapon that has undergone several variations since it was used to weaponize previously unarmed Predator drones in around 2000.The first Hellfires were designed as tank busters with a powerful shaped charge, used in Afghanistan for which they were regarded as not entirely suitable.A later version was developed that carried a heavier explosive warhead , but which led in turn to issues with civilian casualties, leading to the development of the R9X.Up until May last year, it is believed that the weapon had been used no more than half a dozen times. But since then it appears to have been used increasingly more often.The new missile appears designed for use in circumstances where a more conventional explosive missile might not be considered for fears of killing non-combatants.While conceding that the weapon appeared to be less dangerous to civilians, Iain Overton of Action on Armed Violence warned against the impression that it was a "more humanitarian weapon"."This weapon, whilst only used only a handful of times, does appear to have less wide-area effects than other air-dropped explosive weapons."However, the vast majority of the US explosive arsenal does, all too often, cause terrible collateral damage. Given Trump's administration also authorised the use of the largest non-nuclear explosion in the history of the world in Afghanistan, it's important to be wary of the PR optics that the US military is now using 'humanitarian' weapons."Overton also underlined issues with a targeted assassination campaign – using any weapons – that had little oversight."This new weapon, framed as an alternative to larger bombs, might be sold as almost ethical, but if it side-steps due judicial process, and is as susceptible to wrong targeting as other strikes, it is no more than an assassin's blade wielded by a state rarely held to account for its actions."
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| Ted Cruz blocks resolution honoring Ginsburg after Tucker Carlson pushes conspiracy theory about her Posted: 24 Sep 2020 09:54 AM PDT  "I think Justice Ginsburg would easily see through the legal sophistry," Chuck Schumer says of Cruz's objection
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| Anwar Ibrahim: A long-held dream to lead Malaysia Posted: 24 Sep 2020 11:58 PM PDT  After a decades-long quest to become premier, Mr Anwar may finally rise to the top job.
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| When Biden calls a 'lid,' Democrats wet the bed — and Trump starts mocking Posted: 25 Sep 2020 02:38 PM PDT  The Democratic nominee is sticking to his strategy: Keep a low profile, and let Trump light himself on fire.
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| Trump unveils his America First Healthcare Plan Posted: 24 Sep 2020 03:08 PM PDT  In a speech delivered in North Carolina on Thursday, President Trump outlined his "vision" for affordable, high-quality health care called the America First Healthcare Plan.
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| ‘Unlike anything we’ve seen in modern history’: Attacks against journalists soar during Black Lives Matter protests Posted: 24 Sep 2020 06:15 AM PDT  Arrests of US journalists halfway through 2020 outnumber number of jailed reporters in China in 2019
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| In despair, protesters take to streets for Breonna Taylor Posted: 24 Sep 2020 09:02 PM PDT  Some of them raised their fists and called out "Black lives matter!" Others tended to the letters, flowers and signs grouped together in a square in downtown Louisville. All of them said her name: Breonna Taylor. The big question for a town torn apart by Taylor's death and the larger issue of racism in America was how to move forward.
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| FBI chief says U.S. 'Antifa' demonstrators are targets of multiple probes Posted: 24 Sep 2020 12:08 PM PDT  At a hearing of the Republican-led Senate Homeland Security committee, Christopher Wray said that the Bureau had seen "organized tactical activity at both the local and regional level." Wray added that the bureau is conducting multiple investigations "into some anarchist violent extremists, some of whom operate through these nodes." Antifa, short for anti-fascist, is an amorphous movement "who believe in active, aggressive opposition to far right-wing movements," according https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounders/who-are-antifa to the Anti-Defamation League, which tracks extremists.
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| Girls say they were restrained, sexually abused and deprived of food at religious boarding school Posted: 25 Sep 2020 09:51 AM PDT  More than a dozen people reported abuse at a religious boarding school in rural Missouri before the owners' daughter launched a campaign that got action.
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| Smoke from California's wildfires likely killed more than 1,200 people – nearly 50 times the number who perished in the flames Posted: 24 Sep 2020 12:55 PM PDT  Researchers at Stanford University estimate that wildfire smoke killed at least 1,200 people over age 65 in California – and likely more.
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| Letters to the Editor: If Democrats expand the Supreme Court, will Republicans do the same? Posted: 24 Sep 2020 12:38 PM PDT  Any attempt by Democrats to enlarge the Supreme Court would give Republicans an excuse to further 'balance' it when they're in power.
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| Hotel Rwanda 'hero' admits forming armed group behind deadly attacks Posted: 25 Sep 2020 02:28 AM PDT  Paul Rusesabagina, the polarising hero of the "Hotel Rwanda" film, admitted to a Kigali court on Friday that he had formed an armed group but denied any role in their crimes. Mr. Rusesabagina is famed for his depiction in the movie in which he is shown to have saved hundreds of lives during the 1994 genocide, which left some 800,000 dead. After years in exile, where he has become a fierce government critic, he appeared under arrest in Rwanda last month, after apparently being lured into a private jet under false pretences. In recent years Mr Rusesabagina co-founded the Rwandan Movement for Democratic Change (MRCD), an opposition party based abroad. While he has previously expressed support for the National Liberation Front (FLN), which has claimed responsibility for a series of attacks in Nyungwe, near the border with Burundi, his exact role has been unclear. "We formed the FLN (National Liberation Front) as an armed wing, not as a terrorist group as the prosecution keeps saying. I do not deny that the FLN committed crimes but my role was diplomacy," he said. "The agreement we signed to form MRCD as a political platform included the formation of an armed wing called FLN. But my work was under the political platform and I was in charge of diplomacy." This is a breaking news story. More to follow.
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| Volkswagen to compensate victims of Brazil dictatorship - report Posted: 23 Sep 2020 09:30 PM PDT  German carmaker Volkswagen will pay about 36 million reais ($6.5 million) in compensation to more than 60 former employees who were persecuted during Brazil's 1964-1985 military dictatorship, media reported on Wednesday. Volkswagen is due to sign the settlement deal in Sao Paulo on Thursday, according to a report by German broadcasters NDR, SWR and the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung. Volkswagen was not immediately available to comment.
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| Trump unveils his ‘America First’ health care plan Posted: 25 Sep 2020 04:06 AM PDT  Insight from National Taxpayers Union Senior Fellow Mattie Duppler.
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| Wildfires taint West Coast vineyards with taste of smoke Posted: 23 Sep 2020 09:02 PM PDT  Smoke from the West Coast wildfires has tainted grapes in some of the nation's most celebrated wine regions with an ashy flavor that could spell disaster for the 2020 vintage. Wineries in California, Oregon and Washington have survived severe wildfires before, but the smoke from this year's blazes has been especially bad — thick enough to obscure vineyards drooping with clusters of grapes almost ready for harvest. Day after day, some West Coast cities endured some of the worst air quality in the world.
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| Judge orders Eric Trump to sit for N.Y. attorney general deposition before the election Posted: 23 Sep 2020 06:41 PM PDT  Eric Trump had tried to delay answering questions in Attorney General Letitia James' investigation of the Trump Organization.
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| Suspect in Louisville police shooting charged with assault and wanton endangerment Posted: 24 Sep 2020 11:35 AM PDT  Police claim video footage shows Mr Johnson shooting at the officers
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| India's Biggest Slum Successfully Contained COVID-19. But Can Its Residents Survive the Economic Collapse? Posted: 25 Sep 2020 08:05 AM PDT  Jayanti Keshav Parmar, a tailor who lives in Dharavi, a bustling informal settlement of nearly 1 million low-income residents packed into a one-square-mile area in Mumbai, has been stuck at home since March 25 when the Indian government declared a stringent lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19. Out of work for over five months, he has not been able to pay the $80 monthly rent on his compact home in Dharavi since March. Dharavi, often called Asia's largest slum, is a hyper-dense network of brick homes and small-scale enterprises that sprawl in the shadow of shiny new skyscrapers in the heart of India's financial capital.
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| 'Smoke with freedom': Mexicans get high in marijuana garden outside Senate Posted: 24 Sep 2020 09:27 PM PDT  A cannabis 'garden' sprouting next to Mexico's Senate building has become a smoker's paradise, with Mexican stoners lighting up joints without fear of arrest. The cannabis seeds sowed in a plaza by Mexico's Senate by pro-marijuana activists in February have mushroomed into strikingly large plants, and become symbolic of a drive to legalize marijuana in a nation riven by drugs-related violence. "Being able to smoke here (in the garden) in freedom is very important to me," said Marco Flores, a barista sitting on a bench overlooking the Congress building.
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| Exclusive: GOP Sen. Thom Tillis embraced QAnon conspiracy about COVID-19 death count in town hall Posted: 24 Sep 2020 10:54 AM PDT  "When the final accounting is done," the actual death COVID-19 count will be lower, Tillis claims
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| 'You are good people:' Navalny thanks Russian pilots, medics Posted: 25 Sep 2020 06:30 AM PDT  Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is in Germany recovering from what authorities there determined to be nerve agent poisoning, thanked Russian pilots and paramedics for acting quickly after he fell into a coma on a flight from Siberia. Navalny, who collapsed on a plane to Moscow on Aug. 20 and spent nearly three weeks in a coma, said in an Instagram post on Friday that pilots "quickly landed the plane in Omsk" and medical workers at the airport "jammed a dose of atropine" into him, immediately recognizing "a toxic poisoning." After 48 hours in a hospital in Omsk, where Russian doctors said they found no trace of any poisoning, Navalny was transferred to the Charite hospital in Berlin.
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| Feds air FBI agent’s gripes about Flynn probe Posted: 25 Sep 2020 04:30 AM PDT  The official public release of such candid assessments from inside a federal investigative team is extraordinarily rare.
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| Democrats, not Republicans, are hypocrites on filling SCOTUS seat Posted: 25 Sep 2020 01:00 AM PDT  Democrats accuse Republicans of being hypocrites in the issue of the vacant seat on the Supreme Court, but it is Democrats are are full of hypocrisy.
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| Man who allegedly told Korean-American entrepreneur to 'go back to Wuhan' fired from job Posted: 24 Sep 2020 02:03 PM PDT |
| University police officer placed on leave after dragging female student down steps Posted: 25 Sep 2020 03:39 PM PDT  Incident described by university leaders as 'disturbing' and investigation launched
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| Senate committees release interim Hunter Biden probe report Posted: 24 Sep 2020 12:48 PM PDT  Author Peter Schweizer joins 'Bill Hemmer Reports' for analysis
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| American consumers are paying the price for Wall Street’s profiteering in China | Opinion Posted: 24 Sep 2020 06:09 PM PDT  China was America's whipping boy again this week. President Trump used his United Nations General Assembly speech to accuse and to threaten Beijing for its role in covering up the early stages of the pandemic. He said that the U.N. "must hold China accountable for their actions."
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| Florida AG requests investigation into Bloomberg felon voter donation Posted: 24 Sep 2020 06:04 AM PDT  Former NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg says he'll spend millions to help Biden win in the Sunshine State. Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody has asked the FBI to investigate Mike Bloomberg's pledge to spend $16 million to help convicted felons regain their right to vote. The former New York mayor's donation to the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition comes just weeks after NBA star LeBron James pledged $100,000 to the same organization.
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| Coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx reportedly says she is 'distressed' at direction of White House COVID-19 task force Posted: 24 Sep 2020 11:39 PM PDT  Birx told people close to her that she felt her role was diminished after Dr. Scott Atlas joined the task force, CNN reported.
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| Shocking Video Shows Seattle Cop Rolling Bike Over Fallen Breonna Taylor Protester’s Head and Neck Posted: 24 Sep 2020 05:03 AM PDT  The Seattle Police Department is investigating after a video showed one of its cops rolling a bike over the head and neck of a fallen protester at Wednesday night's Breonna Taylor demonstrations.Protests erupted in the city in response to officers in Louisville, Kentucky not being charged for fatally shooting the 26-year-old Black woman. The SPD confirmed in a statement that 13 people were arrested at the Seattle demonstrations and complained that multiple officers had been injured, including one who was struck in the head with a baseball bat.However, the shocking video, which appears to show an SPD officer rolling his bicycle over the head of an already-injured man, has been widely condemned on social media. The anger led the department to comment, "The Seattle Police Department is aware of a video circulating on the internet that apparently shows an SPD bike officer's bike rolling over the head of an individual laying in the street. This matter will be referred to the Office of Police Accountability for further investigation."> Police bicycle pushed over man's neck as he lies on the ground at Breonna Taylor protest in Seattle. https://t.co/zzsFffiTBp pic.twitter.com/SGTGjXaTiG> > — ABC News (@ABC) September 24, 2020The clip originated from a Facebook Live broadcast from C.J. Halliburton, who describes himself as an independent journalist; he recorded the unrest in Seattle throughout the night.The key part of the video shows a line of cops advancing on protesters. One, who is not cycling but pushing his bike by its handlebars, appears to slowly walk toward the man who is flat on the ground. The cop rolls the bicycle over the man's head, with the back wheel appearing to go over his neck.The same officer then appears to bash a second protester with his bike. Two other officers then kneel down next to the fallen man before the scene becomes obscured by the line of advancing cops.A second clip posted on Facebook by Joey Weiser shows the same scene from a different angle, with Weiser shouting, "This person is on the ground—he just ran over his head! He just ran over his head! Oh my God!"The SPD statement didn't identify the officer or the fallen man or make any statement about his condition after the incident.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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| Mary Trump sues family for fraud: "Fraud was not just the family business — it was a way of life" Posted: 24 Sep 2020 08:12 PM PDT  Trump claims that she was deluded into forfeiting her inheritance following the death of her grandfather and father
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| Debate on U.S. funding bill will not finish until next week after Democrats delay Senate process Posted: 24 Sep 2020 11:39 AM PDT  The U.S. Senate voted on Thursday to take up a stopgap funding bill to keep the federal government operating through Dec. 11, paving the way for final passage that would avoid a government shutdown next week. With government funding running out next Wednesday, the legislation would continue funding most programs at current levels, and thus avoid a government shutdown in the middle of a pandemic and ahead of the Nov. 3 U.S. election. The Republican-controlled Senate voted 93-2 to open debate on the measure.
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| US executes first Black man since federal executions resumed Posted: 24 Sep 2020 08:32 PM PDT  Christopher Vialva was executed for a double murder he committed at 19.
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| ‘I’m very ashamed’: Argentine lawmaker suspended after kissing woman’s breast during virtual session of congress Posted: 25 Sep 2020 04:29 AM PDT  Juan Emilio Ameri faces potential expulsion following the 'serious offence' on Zoom
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