| 'Totally irresponsible': Dems criticize Pence presiding over Amy Coney Barrett vote after aides contract COVID-19 Posted: 26 Oct 2020 08:53 AM PDT  "As vice president, I'm president of the Senate. And I'm gonna be in the chair because I wouldn't miss that vote for the world," Pence said Saturday.
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| Ocasio-Cortez: No problem with Biden's lack of support for fracking ban, would be 'privilege' to lobby him Posted: 25 Oct 2020 09:59 AM PDT  Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) told CNN's Jake Tapper on Sunday's edition of State of the Union that she feels strongly about the need to ban fracking in the United States, but she's not letting that get in the way of her efforts to help former Vice President Joe Biden defeat President Trump in the upcoming election.Biden, she said, has "made very clear" that he disagrees with a fracking ban, but she says it would be a "privilege" to lobby him on the issue in the future. However, "we need to focus on winning the White House first," she told Tapper.> "Vice President Biden has made very clear that he does not agree with a fracking ban… It will be a privilege to lobby him should we win the White House, but we need to focus on winning the White House first," Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/NZ5SzTY8Co> > — State of the Union (@CNNSotu) October 25, 2020Ocasio-Cortez has emerged as one of the most prominent voices in the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, and she certainly has policy disagreements with the more moderate Democratic nominee. Indeed, earlier in the year, when she first threw her support behind Biden's candidacy after he secured the nomination over Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ocasio-Cortez said "the whole process of coming together should be uncomfortable for everyone involved." But her latest comments reaffirm that she prefers that uncomfortable process continue over the next four years.More stories from theweek.com The very different emotional lives of Trump and Biden voters The 19 greatest and worst presidential campaign ads of the 2020 election The Trump administration has surrendered to the pandemic
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| Teacher's elevator death blamed on human error Posted: 26 Oct 2020 03:27 AM PDT  Officers found 38-year-old Carrie O'Connor in the elevator on September 14.
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| Trump supporting write-in candidate declares herself governor of Ohio after discussing plot to kidnap Mike DeWine Posted: 26 Oct 2020 09:55 AM PDT  A woman who ran as a write-in candidate against Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has unlawfully declared herself governor of the state and been implicated in a plot to kidnap and prosecute Mr DeWine. Renea Turner, who ran against Mr DeWine as a write-in candidate in 2018, posted a video to her Facebook on Thursday in which she places her hand on a Bible and proclaims herself the governor of Ohio. "Ohio is free from Tyrannous leadership," she wrote in a Facebook post following the stunt.
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| Family’s dog turns ‘vicious’ and kills infant as parents slept, Virginia police say Posted: 26 Oct 2020 08:13 AM PDT  The dad killed the dog as soon as he saw what happened, police say
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| First nest of Asian 'murder hornets' vacuumed out of tree in United States Posted: 25 Oct 2020 06:03 AM PDT  Agricultural department workers wearing protective suits have eradicated the first nest of giant "murder hornets" discovered in the United States, vacuuming them out of a tree in Washington state. The nest of Asian giant hornets was found on Thursday by Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) entomologists on a property in Blaine, near the border with Canada, the agency said. They spent weeks searching for the nest, trapping hornets and tracking them, using dental floss to tie tiny radio trackers on the insects, which are nearly two inches (five centimeters) in length and have a painful sting. Before dawn on Saturday, a team of workers dressed from head to toe in protective suits vacuumed the insects out of their nest in the cavity of a dead tree. "Got 'em. Vacuumed out several AsianGiantHornets from a tree cavity near Blaine this morning," the state agriculture department said on Twitter later Saturday, along with a video showing a mass of hornets in a transparent container. It said removal of the nest appeared to have been successful and more details would be provided at a press conference on Monday. Scientists in Washington state have been actively searching for the Asian giant hornet since the first such insect was detected in December 2019 and after one of the wasps was trapped in July in Whatcom County, where Blaine is located. Canada also found Asian giant hornets in two locations in neighboring British Colombia. Several more of the invasive pest not native to the US were subsequently caught, all in the same region. The WSDA believes there was a good chance that there are more nests and "stopping this cold is very crucial," said Sven Spichiger, an entomologist with WSDA, during a press conference on Friday. "If it becomes established, this hornet will have negative impacts on the environment, economy, and public health of Washington State," the WSDA said.
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| Mexico seizes industrial-scale meth, fentanyl lab in capital Posted: 25 Oct 2020 03:24 PM PDT |
| 60,000 in Southern California to evacuate after wildfire spreads Posted: 26 Oct 2020 01:57 PM PDT  A fast-moving wildfire forced evacuation orders for 60,000 people in Southern California on Monday as powerful winds across the state prompted power to be cut to hundreds of thousands to prevent utility equipment from sparking new blaze
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| Pence Will Not Preside Over Amy Coney Barrett Vote after Possible Coronavirus Exposure Posted: 26 Oct 2020 12:13 PM PDT  Vice President Mike Pence will not preside over Monday's Senate vote to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.Pence is currently on the campaign trail and is scheduled to make a stop in Minnesota on Monday despite an outbreak of coronavirus cases among people in the the vice president's inner circle over the weekend.Five cases of the coronavirus were reported among the vice president's close associates on Saturday, including Pence's chief of staff, Marc Short. Pence and his wife Karen both tested negative for the coronavirus on Saturday.Pence aides told multiple outlets that he will not preside as Senate president over Barrett's confirmation vote after Senate Democrats sounded the alarm that his attendance would amount to a health hazard for other members."Not only would your presence in the Senate Chamber tomorrow be a clear violation of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, it would also be a violation of common decency and courtesy," Senate Democrats including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote Monday in a letter to Pence, adding that his presence is "is not a risk worth taking."In the event of a tie, Pence would cast the tie-breaking vote to confirm Barrett. However, Republicans appear to have 52 Republican votes in favor of her confirmation to the high court. The only Republican expected to vote against Barrett is Senator Susan Collins of Maine.The confirmation vote is expected to take place around 7p.m. Monday evening and President Trump is scheduled to swear Barrett in shortly thereafter in an outdoor ceremony at the White House.
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| The pandemic has accelerated an already growing shift in Arizona. That could spell trouble for Trump. Posted: 25 Oct 2020 01:23 PM PDT  Biden holds a narrow lead, according to polls, aided by pandemic upheaval and demographic shifts years in the making. But don't count the president out yet, some said.
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| How to tell if your non–medical grade "fashion mask" is really working Posted: 25 Oct 2020 11:00 AM PDT  As facemasks become fashion accessories, scientists say there are ways to tell if yours is truly effective
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| Protesters storm churches in Poland on the 4th day of unrest after a court ruling tightened the country's already-strict abortion laws Posted: 25 Oct 2020 05:17 PM PDT  The court banned abortion in the case of fetal defects, making abortion legal only in cases of incest, rape, or danger to the mother's life.
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| India's first 'saviour sibling' cures brother of fatal illness Posted: 26 Oct 2020 05:04 PM PDT  Her birth has also led to a debate about the ethics of using technology to create a child.
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| Belarus opposition leader says supporters launching strike Posted: 26 Oct 2020 02:14 AM PDT  Belarus opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya said Monday supporters were beginning a nationwide strike after her deadline expired for strongman Alexander Lukashenko to step down.
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| Attack Drones Dominating Tanks as Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict Showcases the Future of War Posted: 26 Oct 2020 01:56 AM PDT  STEPANAKERT, Nagorno-Karabakh—Stretched on a gurney, a soldier lies wrapped in gauze. Fifty percent of his body is burned, even inside his throat and lungs, says one of the paramedics in the back of the ambulance, which is making a seven-hour drive from Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia's capital Yerevan. War broke out almost one month ago between Azerbaijan and Armenia over a disputed border territory. The ambulance snuck out of Stepanakert in between air raid sirens, as Azerbaijani shelling of the city picked up again after a six-day break. Only the soldier's burned lips, a small part of the nose and his burnt eyelashes are showing. His hopes of survival are tied to a beeping respirator and the two paramedics constantly injecting him with morphine and saline solutions.Reporters have been kept away from soldiers and the direct impact of the war in recent days, but plans scrambled by the reinvigorated shelling of Stepanakert lead to The Daily Beast suddenly finding ourselves in the back of this ambulance, being given an accidental glimpse at the human consequences of the war.Kamikaze drones purchased from Israel have been used to devastating effect by Azerbaijan. These small craft also known as loitering munitions are able to surveil targets including tanks, artillery installations or troops before blowing themselves up. Larger Turkish drones are also flying high above the disputed region and launching missile strikes.While the soldier in the ambulance has been unable to tell medics how he was so badly wounded, his head injuries and extensive burns are consistent with what they have seen with drone strikes, one doctor at the hospital in Stepanakert told The Daily Beast."He was damaged on the front line," says one of the paramedics in the ambulance, "We see many of these injuries. We need help here. We need to stop the war. It is terrible what is happening."Before leaving the war zone and entering the relative safety of Armenia, there is a problem with the respirator. A female paramedic starts pumping air into the wounded soldiers' lungs manually. As they are about to lose the soldier, the ambulance comes to a full stop, while the driver is trying to get the motorized system running again. Shelling can be heard in the distance.The mountains cause the sound to echo, making it hard to tell whether the shelling is close or far, but that does not hide the discomfort of the crew forced to pull over in the midst of another bombing. A Bloody War In the MakingThe war in Nagorno-Karabakh, which was almost entirely controlled by the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh, broke out on Sept. 27. Artsakh is a small mountainous pocket in the Caucasus which is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but has been claiming independence for almost 30 years. The population is almost entirely ethnic Armenian and the breakaway state is supported by Armenia. The republic declared independence after the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which lasted from the late 1980s to 1994, claiming 30,000 lives.Since then, the dispute over the region has continued. The two sides fought a four-day war in 2016, but the current battles are the worst fighting the region has seen since the devastating war in the '90s. Armenia says it has lost around 900 servicemen, while Azerbaijan does not declare its death toll. However, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin, nearly 5,000 people have already died, and there are several reports about the huge loss of military hardware such as tanks on both sides despite two ceasefires negotiated in Moscow with Russia as the main mediator.The ceasefires have already been broken and the crisis is of global significance. Nagorno-Karabakh is located next to regional superpowers such as Turkey, which support Azerbaijan militarily and politically in the conflict. At the same time, Russia has a defensive pact with Armenia, making the situation tense. The Republic of Artsakh is also located next to Iran, a major player in the region."We must be attentive that the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan does not become a regional war," Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said, according to BBC.The war is also attracting increased attention in Washington, D.C. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had leaders from both Azerbaijan and Armenia over for seemingly fruitless talks, while Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), among others, has called for an immediate ceasefire."Azerbaijan's aggressive actions, fully supported by Turkey in Nagorno-Karabakh and against Armenia, must stop," said Markey. "Since Azerbaijan continues its attempts to resolve this conflict through the illegal use of military force, the international community will be left with no choice but to move to recognize the independence of the Republic of Artsakh." He Is About to DieBack in the ambulance, the soldier is fighting for his life. Occasionally he seems to regain consciousness for just long enough to gasp with pain. Before the ambulance took off towards the Armenian capital Yerevan, the stream of ambulances carrying wounded soldiers with empty stares and missing limbs from Stepanakert had been temporarily forced to stop. The air raid sirens started screaming over Stepanakert for the first time in several days, as Azerbaijani forces struck the city with what was reportedly both airplanes and artillery. Doctors, nurses and patients ran to the basement in one of the city's hospitals while explosions were heard nearby, shaking the bunker.One doctor in the bunker, who did not want to give his name due to restrictions on speaking to the media, told The Daily Beast that around 1,000 soldiers and 300 to 400 civilians had been declared dead at three hospitals in Artsakh, to his knowledge. These numbers point to far more casualties than the 900 officially reported by the Ministry of Defense in Artsakh, especially as some soldiers' bodies are never retrieved from the front line."We see many soldiers with burn and head injuries," says the doctor pointing to a room in the bunker where a soldier with severe brain injury is undergoing surgery. "The Turkish drones used by Azerbaijan are often giving the soldiers brain damage."He is referring to the Azerbaijani use of Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drones, which are penetrating the Artsakh defenses, despite assistance from Armenia. "We Cannot Shoot it Down"Open source analysis gathered by Forbes magazine has tracked the destruction by drones of around 200 tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and armored personnel carriers, plus 300 soft-skinned military vehicles as well as radars, short-range air defense systems, and missile launch vehicles.The Armenians have no such drone army with which to strike back at Azerbaijaini targets.In an interview with The Daily Beast, Suren Sarumyan, a spokesman for the Artsakh Defense Ministry, claimed that the Republic of Artsakh has been able to shoot down several drones but he accepted that the unmanned aerial assault vehicles were taking a toll."Drones do make an impact on the front line, but our soldiers are among the strongest in the world because they stand firm and fight hard," said Sarumyan, "The secret to that is that our soldiers defend their home, and it is very difficult to defeat them, even with all the world's drones."While the military claims they can shoot down drones such as the Bayraktar TB2, Vladimir Vartanyan, a military analyst who is part of the press department of the Republic of Artsakh, disagrees."We can see them on our radar, but [the Turkish drones] fly too high for us to shoot them down," he said. He explained that much of the Artsakh defenses are remnants from 1991 to 1994 and badly in need of an upgrade "We use everything that we have now because this is total war," he said. "In my opinion, we need to buy some Russian systems, which have experience in shooting down these drones in Syria."With Azerbaijan reported to be making large territorial gains in the southern part of Nagorno-Karabakh, Vartanyan said: "It is essential that we start to shoot them down very quickly."Azerbaijan has previously confirmed that it is using Turkish drones in the war, according to Middle East Eye.Ian Williams, an expert in missile defense and missile proliferation at the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told The Daily Beast that what we see right now in Nagorno-Karabakh is the evolution of warfare."We have for a long time declared tanks to be dead without it happening. However, the Armenian tanks have not done well in the current crisis," said Williams. "Drones are relatively cheap for countries that would not normally be able to afford air support. The current crisis shows us what kind of damage they can do to an opponent without drones." He Might Not Make itA paramedic holds the soldier's head as the ambulance makes its way up and down through the mountains. The respirator is working again, and the sound of it pumping air into the soldier's lungs resumes. On the way to Yerevan, one of the paramedics gets the news that a friend has died near the front line. An atmosphere of grief descends on the ambulance as reports continue to come in of air attacks in several cities in the Republic of Artsakh.As Yerevan approaches, the soldier starts to move his arms involuntarily while his chest spasms. The situation is eased by another morphine shot, but the paramedic shakes his head when asked whether the soldier will be safe once he reaches the hospital in Armenia's capital."The injuries might just be too much," he says.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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| Man charged in burning of ballot drop box in Boston Posted: 26 Oct 2020 09:43 AM PDT  A man was charged with setting a Boston ballot drop box on fire and damaging dozens of ballots, police said Monday. Worldy Armand, a 39-year-old Boston resident, was taken into custody late Sunday, hours after he started a fire inside a drop box outside the Boston Public Library in the city's Back Bay neighborhood, authorities said. The box contained more than 120 ballots.
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| Turkey's Erdogan says it's time for two-state solution in Cyprus Posted: 26 Oct 2020 10:38 AM PDT  Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday it was time for a realistic proposal about a two-state solution on the divided island of Cyprus to be discussed, and added that the parameters of the current talks were not sustainable. Cyprus was split after a Turkish invasion in 1974 triggered by a brief Greek-inspired coup. The European Union admitted the island into the bloc in 2004, represented by the internationally recognised Greek Cypriot government in the south.
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| Kushner faces sharp criticism after he suggests some Black Americans don't 'want to be successful' Posted: 26 Oct 2020 08:14 AM PDT  President Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner is facing some sharp criticism over what his detractors believe was a textbook example of a lack of self-awareness.During a Fox News interview on Monday, Kushner, speaking about Black communities in the United States, said his father-in-law's policies "are the policies that can help people break out of the problems that they're complaining about, but he can't want them to be successful more than they want to be successful," before claiming there has been a groundswell of support for Trump among Black voters.Kushner's comments were understood by his critics to imply that some Black Americans don't strive for success, and he was quickly rebuked. Obsevers pointed out that Kushner comes from a wealthy family, and married into another one, and, therefore, was able to jump over hurdles faced by many other Americans throughout his life. > When I first met Jared, we were college students and he owned $10 million worth of residential rental properties in Somerville based on money he got from his dad.> > More Black people should try that. https://t.co/z13KwvXUKf> > -- Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) October 26, 2020> "he can't want them to be successful more than that they want to be successful," is a thing said by Jared Kushner, whose father bought him into Harvard and NYU, then gave him a real estate fortune, before he got his current job from his father in lawpic.twitter.com/iAp4yAs8va> > -- Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) October 26, 2020More stories from theweek.com The very different emotional lives of Trump and Biden voters The 19 greatest and worst presidential campaign ads of the 2020 election The Trump administration has surrendered to the pandemic
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| In setback for Democrats, Supreme Court won't let late mail ballots count in Wisconsin Posted: 26 Oct 2020 05:23 PM PDT  Voting rights groups and the state and national Democratic parties had filed lawsuits seeking to extend the deadline.
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| Court Ruling Could Kill Uber and Lyft in California Posted: 26 Oct 2020 03:30 AM PDT  Just days before Californians themselves were set to decide on the matter, a state appeals court has ruled that app-based ride-sharing companies Uber and Lyft must comply with state law AB5 and classify all of their drivers as employees rather than contractors. The ruling raises the possibility that the companies will simply end operations in the state altogether, both having stated previously that their business model depends on the flexibility of using contractors.The companies claim, and drivers often confirm, that the flexibility of contract work is key to their operations. Employers are required under federal and state law to schedule and track their employees' hours for overtime, unemployment, and other purposes. That's not case with contractors, who are legally considered independent businesses.Critics of the ride-sharing companies, such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom, claim that's just a dodge to get out of paying overtime and complying with other workplace regulations. Labor unions have pushed for the drivers to be classified as employees, since contractors cannot join unions.A three-judge state appeals court panel on Thursday agreed, rejecting the companies' arguments out of hand. The panel was in full crusader mode, calling the case a "reminder that the foundation of interim injunctive relief lies in equity comes from Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who was renowned for her expertise in procedure long before she became the national icon known as RBG."The panel said that there was just no reason to assume that forcing ride-sharing companies to operate as traditional employers would in any way hurt their business model, even as it conceded that that model was built around contractors."We recognize that defendants' business models are different from that traditionally associated with employment, particularly with regard to drivers' freedom to work as many or as few hours as they wish, when and where they choose, and their ability to work on multiple apps at the same time," it said.The "multiple apps" point, in particular, is worth noting, because that refers to the ability of drivers to work for multiple different app-based companies at the same time. In other words, the drivers can work for a company and its direct competitor, a situation no traditional employer would tolerate. But a business cannot automatically restrict a contractor from doing that. The ride-sharing companies don't even try. If you've ever taken a ride in an Uber or a Lyft, you've probably also seen a sticker for the other service in the drivers' window.The panel nevertheless argued the companies were employers because the ride-sharing service they provided was the core of their business model, rather than an incidental activity, pointing to a Supreme Court ruling called Dynamex. As for the possibility that the companies cannot function as traditional employers, the panel asserted that just couldn't possibly be true."The People counter, correctly, that a party suffers no grave or irreparable harm by being prohibited from violating the law," the panel said.That is not true in the real world, however: An ill-conceived law can cause great damage. A good example can be found in the case of AB5 itself. In addition to scaring off many employers who use contractors, the law reined in contract work generally, strictly limiting what even traditional freelancers like photographers or musicians could do. State lawmakers were forced to amend the law and carve out exemptions for numerous professions. That's clear proof that they had overreached. Freelancers still claim it's too restrictive.It may yet get worse for Californians. If the state ballot's Proposition 22 to roll back AB5 fails and the panel's ruling stands, the companies have said they'll simply stop operating the state. Customers throughout the state will have limited transportation options — a potential public safety issue, as Mothers Against Drunk Driving has warned. Meanwhile, numerous drivers will be left without a way to make the additional money that ridesharing offers at a time when Californians need the opportunity. The national unemployment rate is 7.9 percent, but the Golden State's rate is 11 percent. California's unemployment has been consistently higher than the national average throughout the year, and the state's effort to reign in gig-economy companies has likely been a factor.
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| France may be at 100,000 virus cases daily as Molotov cocktails thrown at German public health agency Posted: 26 Oct 2020 05:22 AM PDT  Pressure in France for local lockdowns is increasing after the government's chief scientific advisor estimated that the country is seeing 100,000 new coronavirus cases every day. On Sunday, 52,000 new Covid-19 infections were reported in France, another daily record - but yesterday Jean-François Delfraissy, the government's chief scientific advisor, said the true figure was probably twice as high. Dr Delfraissy joined other senior doctors in urging the government to introduce local lockdowns or a weekend lockdown that would effectively extend the current 9pm curfew in force in much of the country to weekends in order to limit social contacts.
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| Senate confirms Barrett to the Supreme Court Posted: 26 Oct 2020 05:33 PM PDT  The Senate voted on Monday evening to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, just eight days before the election which solidifies a conservative majority on the high court for a generation.
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| A Florida man drove a stolen bulldozer through a neighborhood and destroyed Biden-Harris campaign signs, police say Posted: 26 Oct 2020 01:18 PM PDT  James Blight, 26, was arrested and charged with grand theft auto and trespassing in Haines City, Florida, in connection to the incident.
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| 7 held for suspected tanker hijack after UK commando raid Posted: 26 Oct 2020 02:25 AM PDT  Seven stowaways seized when British naval special forces stormed an oil tanker in the English Channel have been arrested on suspicion of hijacking, police said Monday. Hampshire Police said the men, believed to be from Nigeria, were being held at several police stations on suspicion of "seizing or exercising control of a ship by use of threats or force." Special Boat Service commandos were lowered by rope from helicopters onto the tanker, whose crew had locked themselves in a secure part of the ship known as the citadel.
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| Canadian policeman describes arresting Huawei exec Meng Posted: 26 Oct 2020 04:12 PM PDT  A Canadian police officer testified Monday about his arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou on a US extradition warrant, revealing that Washington had requested that data on her phone and laptop be secured so that it could not be "erased remotely."
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| NASA used a Boeing 747 rigged with a massive telescope to discover water on the moon — take a look at SOFIA Posted: 26 Oct 2020 09:00 AM PDT  The former Pan Am Boeing 747SP that took NASA over 10 years to retrofit for space exploration made the finding that will aid humanity's lunar return.
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| ‘Trump’s never going to leave Mar-a-Lago - he’ll go back to being a businessman’: President’s neighbours reflect on prospect of life after White House Posted: 26 Oct 2020 12:15 PM PDT  President officially moved residency to Sunshine state last year
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| 18-year-old freshman at University of Dayton apparently dies from Covid-19 Posted: 26 Oct 2020 10:01 AM PDT  Michael Lang, 18, died on Thursday "apparently due to complications from" coronavirus after a long hospitalization, officials at the Ohio school said.
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| Florida Democrats need to flip 3 state Senate seats. Here’s why they’re going for 2. Posted: 26 Oct 2020 07:50 AM PDT  Florida's government could undergo a seismic shift it hasn't seen in more than a quarter century.
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| Qatar airport accused of invasive passenger strip-search as it sought mother of newborn baby found in toilet Posted: 25 Oct 2020 08:08 AM PDT  Australian officials have raised "serious concerns" with Qatari authorities after airline staff were accused of invasively strip-searching women, including 13 Australians, having taking them off a flight from Doha to Sydney. The events of Friday, 2 October, came to light in a report by Australian broadcaster Seven News on Sunday night. Flight QR908 to Sydney was due to leave Hamad International airport at 8.30pm but was delayed for four hours after a newborn infant, believed to have been prematurely born, was found in a terminal bathroom. Women on board the flight were ordered to disembark without being told why and reportedly forced to strip and undergo an invasive medical examination nearby. After their return to the plane it was allowed to depart. A spokesperson for Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade told ABC it had raised the incident with Qatari officials. "We have formally registered our serious concerns regarding the incident with Qatari authorities and have been assured that detailed and transparent information on the event will be provided soon," he said. One of the 34 passengers on Flight QR908, Dr Wolfgang Babeck, told Guardian Australia that after about three hours of waiting on board the plane, the airline asked all the women on board to disembark. Upon their return "most of them were very upset", Dr Babeck said.
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| Zeta strengthens into hurricane as it approaches Mexico Posted: 26 Oct 2020 04:45 PM PDT  Zeta, the earliest ever 27th named storm of the Atlantic season, strengthened to a hurricane Monday afternoon, and is centered about 90 miles southeast of Mexico's Cozumel island, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.Zeta has maximum sustained winds of 80 mph and is moving northwest at 10 mph. Forecasters expect the storm to make its way over the Yucatan Peninsula late Monday before moving into the Gulf of Mexico. Zeta will likely approach the Gulf Coast by Wednesday, but could weaken by that point.The storm could bring four to eight inches of rain to Mexico, parts of Cuba, and the Cayman Islands, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said, and could make landfall in the United States anywhere from Louisiana to Florida's Panhandle. Zeta is the 11th hurricane of the 2020 season; during an average season, there are six hurricanes and 12 named storms, The Associated Press reports.More stories from theweek.com The very different emotional lives of Trump and Biden voters The 19 greatest and worst presidential campaign ads of the 2020 election The Trump administration has surrendered to the pandemic
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| How the name 'Karen' became a stand-in for problematic white women and a hugely popular meme Posted: 26 Oct 2020 12:43 PM PDT  The "Karen" meme depicting women who ask to "speak to the manager" has become nearly ubiquitous online. Here is the meme's history and origin.
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| Fox News COVID Infection Sends Election Plans Into ‘Chaos’ Posted: 26 Oct 2020 02:57 PM PDT  Fox News has been planning its election night coverage for weeks, prepping staff and on-air talent for the biggest news night of the year. But now Fox faces uncertainty after the network's president and many of its key on-air stars may have been exposed to COVID-19."Everyone is in a panic about election night," said one current Fox News staffer.On Sunday, The New York Times reported that top Fox News executives and talent will quarantine and get tested after flying on a network-chartered flight from Nashville to New York—following Thursday night's presidential debate—with a staffer who later tested positive for the coronavirus. Passengers included network president Jay Wallace and on-air political hosts and analysts like Bret Baier, Martha MacCallum, Dana Perino, and Juan Williams. (A Fox News spokesperson would not confirm the Times story or the exposure, citing employee confidentiality.)All four of those stars were expected to play key in-studio roles for Fox's election-night coverage. But now it's unclear how the network plans to proceed with its top talent potentially unable to gather in the same room."I believe it will put election night-plans into chaos," another current Fox staffer told The Daily Beast under condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. "It will be like starting from scratch... It's not good for anyone." The employee added: "It's insane that there's a possibility the anchors will have to host the biggest night of 2020 from their homes.""We have multiple contingency plans in place and always have back-up plans for all kinds of scenarios, even without a pandemic," a Fox News spokesperson told The Daily Beast. In a Monday internal memo obtained by The Daily Beast, Wallace and CEO Suzanne Scott acknowledged that some staffers had tested positive for COVID-19, and said that the network would reduce staff in buildings and implement "enhanced testing procedures." The executives said that the network will further pare down its in-person election night coverage, and that "only those employees who are critical to that night's production will be permitted to work from [Fox's Midtown Manhattan headquarters]."Fox News Host Wonders When Masks Got 'Political.' He Should Watch His Own Network.The plane debacle isn't the only reminder of the danger of the pandemic for the network's employees in recent days. Last week, an internal memo was sent to Fox News staffers noting that web video producer Rob Brown, who had been with the network since 1999, had died. While the memo did not specify a cause of death, several sources, including a family member, confirmed to The Daily Beast that Brown—who had not been in the office since March—died from coronavirus complications."Rob was a wonderful employee and a bright light to those of us who were blessed to have worked alongside him," a Fox News spokesperson said in a statement. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family."The news of last week's debate-night flight exposure has alarmed Fox News staff, many of whom have felt relatively safe because of the network's fairly robust testing protocols and skeleton in-person staffing at the Washington and New York City offices.Still, some employees were not surprised by the exposure of leadership and talent, noting how Fox execs have sent large groups of staffers to travel for the debates—even when the network had no primary role in the events."Last week in Nashville, [NBC reporter Kristen] Welker was the moderator. But NBC had almost no footprint. ABC had almost no footprint," one source familiar with the situation told The Daily Beast. "But [Fox News] had a huge, huge footprint? Why is that?" (In addition to Wallace, MacCallum, Baier, Williams, and Perino, the network separately flew in pundits Karl Rove, Katie Pavlich, and Donna Brazile.)Williams and Perino, who co-host late-afternoon talk show The Five, both showed up at the offices on Friday after the flight in which they were potentially exposed to the virus, raising alarms among staffers after the Times report, per network insiders. And several of the show's unabashedly pro-Trump hosts, Greg Gutfeld and Jesse Watters, meanwhile, have taken an ambivalent stance towards large-scale anti-coronavirus measures like a national mask mandate, which experts say could save tens of thousands of lives."They think mask-wearers are punks," the source said of Watters and Gutfeld, noting how the pair have repeatedly echoed Trump's dismissive suggestions that we are "turning the corner" on the pandemic that has now killed more than 225,000 people in the United States, with no end in sight. A recent Instagram post from The Five's official account shows Watters standing in the greenroom without a mask.In light of their colleagues' at-times cavalier attitude towards the coronavirus—both on- and off-air—some Fox staffers have begun to re-examine in-office behavior and expressed concerns that some colleagues aren't taking the crisis seriously enough."In the elevators, everyone's good about masks," one source said. "But in the offices, nope."Since the pandemic began, the network has been operating with a skeleton crew from its hubs in New York City and Washington, D.C., and have taken some precautions to ensure that staff are tested. Some network talent take regular weekly saliva tests facilitated by the network, and the traveling cohort to major events including debates and conventions receive rapid tests. Fox News also installed plexiglass in the control rooms between seats and the building is routinely sanitized.Still, some employees have been hesitant about returning back to in-studio programming amid the pandemic, including Williams himself. The Five returned to the studio in recent weeks and has featured the hosts sitting in socially-distant high chairs. Prior to the pandemic, the set featured all five hosts crammed together around a small table.While on-air talent is subject to the network's rigorous testing protocols, they appear to be sending a message to viewers that social-distancing isn't that important. Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, for instance, were seated nearly shoulder-to-shoulder throughout Thursday evening's coverage of the presidential debate. Both Bret & Martha were tested by the Commission on Presidential Debates before entering the debate hall which is why they sat without being distance. Baier, meanwhile, further noted on Monday that he has since tested negative.Thursday's debate coverage wasn't the only time that lack of social distancing was noticed on-air. Following the first presidential debate last month in Cleveland, Ohio, pro-Trump Fox News host Sean Hannity interviewed presidential son Donald Trump, Jr.—who refused to follow mask-wearing requirements during the debate—inside the debate hall as the two sat right next to each other. (They even joked about being so close together without masks.) Fox News commentator Donna Brazile, who also traveled to Nashville, was in Salt Lake City for the vice-presidential debate and was within arm's length of anchor Bill Hemmer on set.> No social distancing happening on the Fox News set this morning. pic.twitter.com/EPhZNHtgN0> > — Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) October 7, 2020Besides the network sending big teams to cover these political events, Fox News stars have also individually placed themselves in harm's way.For instance, Laura Ingraham and Pete Hegseth—both Trump loyalists and informal presidential advisers—were present at the Rose Garden ceremony last month announcing Amy Coney Barrett's Supreme Court nomination that turned into a super-spreader event. This even resulted in one especially awkward on-air moment, in which Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner mistakenly believed that Hegesth had confessed to testing positive for the coronavirus.—Lachlan Cartwright contributed reporting. Diana Falzone was an on-camera reporter for Fox News from 2012 to 2018. In May 2017, she filed a gender discrimination and disability lawsuit against the network and settled, and left the company in March 2018. She was represented by attorney Nancy Erika Smith.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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| Pakistan opens first metro line after years of delays Posted: 26 Oct 2020 04:22 AM PDT  Pakistan's first metro line began operations Monday in the eastern city of Lahore following years of delays, in a country severely lacking public transport or modern infrastructure.
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| Russia proposes new missile verification regime with U.S. after demise of treaty Posted: 26 Oct 2020 02:29 AM PDT  The Kremlin on Monday proposed that Russia and the United States agree not to deploy certain land-based missiles in Europe and introduce mutual verification measures to build trust following the demise of the INF nuclear arms control treaty. The United States withdrew from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty last year, accusing Moscow of violating it, a charge denied by the Kremlin. Global nuclear arms control architecture has come under further strain since then as the former Cold War foes have been unable to agree on a replacement to New START, another major arms control pact that is due to expire in February 2021.
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| Trump's chief of staff makes shocking admission: "We're not going to control the pandemic" Posted: 26 Oct 2020 01:15 PM PDT  Despite the president's brush with COVID-19, Chief of Staff Mark Meadows shrugs off any plan to control spread
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| Chicago Public Schools Says Teachers Union ‘Refuses to Even Discuss’ Returning to In-Person Classes Posted: 26 Oct 2020 07:53 AM PDT  Chicago Public Schools on Friday pushed back against the Chicago Teachers Union, which filed an unfair labor practice charge last week accusing the city's school district of illegally refusing to negotiate with the union on how to safely resume in-person classes amid health concerns.The union has "refused to even discuss" returning to in-person classes, school district spokeswoman Emily Bolton said in a statement."We are disheartened that CTU continues to obstruct and mislead the public about the necessary planning measures needed to prepare for a potential return to safe in-person learning," Bolton said. "While the district is doing everything in its power to plan for all possible scenarios, the CTU refuses to even discuss a return to in-person learning, even as hundreds of private schools in Chicago are open."Chicago's public schools are scheduled to start in-person classes in phases for pre-K students and some special education students during the school year's second quarter, which begins in two weeks on November 9."We don't know what the health situation will be in a couple of weeks' time, but it would be irresponsible not to plan ahead while thousands of students miss out on valuable learning," Bolton added.However, CTU has accused the city's public school district of violating the union's collective bargaining agreement by neglecting to negotiate the start of in-person learning."We all want to return to our students. We don't want to die doing our jobs, and we don't want to be vectors for spreading illness or death to our students and their families," CTU vice president Stacy Davis Gates said in a statement. "Yet the mayor and CPS simply refuse to lay out and discuss their plan for returning to classrooms, when we know from their own facilities records that these buildings aren't safe."The union has demanded that its certified industrial hygienists be allowed to inspect school air quality in the district's buildings. CPS meanwhile has said it has hired state-certified environmental hygienists to perform inspections, the results of which the district says it will release to the public before schools are opened. The district argued that CTU does not have any legal or contractual right to demand its own inspection.Coronavirus cases and hospitalizations have increased in the Chicago area, the city's positivity rate ticking up to 7.5 percent over the last week.Last week, Chicago ordered all non-essential businesses to close at 10 p.m., and more restrictions could be set in motion if cases of the virus continue to rise.
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| More than 57 million Americans have already voted, suggesting a huge voter turnout for 2020. But it's not clear who that would favor. Posted: 25 Oct 2020 07:58 AM PDT  Americans have already cast 41% of the total votes submitted in 2016, and there is more than a week to go.
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| Atlanta rapper Silento charged with driving 143 mph Posted: 26 Oct 2020 04:52 PM PDT  Atlanta rapper Silento was arrested on Friday and accused of driving 143 mph on Interstate 85, according to authorities.
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| In California: Fires prompt evacuations in OC; PG&E cuts off power to 1M people Posted: 26 Oct 2020 05:23 PM PDT  Plus: Restaurants sue state over liquor licenses paid during shutdowns, and Californians will reconsider affirmative action at the ballot box
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| NASA confirms water on the moon's sunlit surface for the 1st time Posted: 26 Oct 2020 10:24 AM PDT  NASA on Monday announced that scientists have confirmed there is water on the sunlit surface of the moon.The agency revealed that its Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy detected water molecules in the moon's southern hemisphere. NASA's announcement explained that scientists had previously observed "some form of hydrogen" on the moon's surface, but they couldn't "definitively distinguish" between water and hydroxyl. The findings were detailed in two studies that were published in Nature Astronomy."We had indications that H2O — the familiar water we know — might be present on the sunlit side of the moon," Paul Hertz, director of NASA Headquarters's Astrophysics Division in the Science Mission Directorate, said in a statement. "Now we know it is there."> NEWS: We confirmed water on the sunlit surface of the Moon for the 1st time using @SOFIAtelescope. We don't know yet if we can use it as a resource, but learning about water on the Moon is key for our Artemis exploration plans. Join the media telecon at https://t.co/vOGoSHt74c pic.twitter.com/7p2QopMhod> > — Jim Bridenstine (@JimBridenstine) October 26, 2020NASA also said in its announcement that this suggests "water may be distributed across the lunar surface, and not limited to cold, shadowed places," and it also "raises new questions about how water is created and how it persists on the harsh, airless lunar surface." NASA added, though, that it isn't clear if the water that was discovered is "easily accessible for use as a resource," but the agency said it's "eager to learn" more before "sending the first woman and next man to the lunar surface in 2024." More stories from theweek.com The very different emotional lives of Trump and Biden voters The 19 greatest and worst presidential campaign ads of the 2020 election The Trump administration has surrendered to the pandemic
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| The states with and without travel restrictions amid the coronavirus pandemic Posted: 26 Oct 2020 11:49 AM PDT  Some US states require travelers to get tested for the coronavirus and self-quarantine for 14 days, while others have no travel restrictions in place.
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| Rats help clear minefields in Cambodia – and suspicion of the military Posted: 26 Oct 2020 04:59 AM PDT  Editor's note: Dr. Darcie DeAngelo is a medical anthropologist at the Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention (I-GMAP) at Binghamton University, State University of New York. In this interview, she explains the relationship between locals who live near minefields in Cambodia and the mine detectors, often former military combatants, who are viewed with suspicion because of divisions caused by the series of civil wars between the 1970s and 1990s. Why are there so many unexploded bombs and minefields in Cambodia?Cambodia is known for being the site of U.S. bomb droppings during the Vietnam War and for the Khmer Rouge genocidal regime, which also planted land mines from 1975 to 1979. Today a majority of Cambodia's population is age 35 or younger, which means most of the population has grown up since the Khmer Rouge regime ended in 1979. This statistic fails to take into account the uneven distribution of the regime's end in the country as fighting continued in the northwest of the country where the Vietnamese and their Cambodian allies fought to keep the Khmer Rouge army out of the country. Most of the land mines in Cambodia were planted between 1985 and 1989, when the Vietnamese-allied government installed a "bamboo curtain" against the invading Thai and Khmer Rouge along the Thai-Cambodia border in the northwest. This area, called the K5 belt, remains the most densely land-mine-contaminated region of the world, a 1,046-kilometer (650-mile) strip of land with "up to 2,400 mines per linear kilometer." Cambodia's problem of millions of undetonated land mines makes it the country with the highest population of amputees in the world. On average it has 100 land mine accidents per year. Why are the military and other de-mining organizations viewed with suspicion by the locals?Land mine clearance requires a huge amount of military infrastructure. Decontamination, which is the term used for removal of land mines, depends on the same military skill sets that contamination depends on. So people who are de-miners are often soldiers or former combatants in Cambodia, and the divisions from the civil war still run deep. The largest de-mining organization in the country is part of the military branch of government. The current Cambodian state has been running operations to clear the land mines since the 1990s, but the state is also rumored to grab village lands, disappear people who disagree with the ruling party, and quell legitimate protests, so de-miners carry a stigma of military corruption. After war and mass atrocity, the state loses legitimacy. And so what happens is the villagers distrust even peacekeeping efforts, so even efforts to decontaminate the country result in a kind of mistrust. When you distrust the state, you need to build state legitimacy, and de-mining offers a real opportunity for states to do so. They can rehabilitate soldiers and build relationships between villagers and soldiers. But in Cambodia, I heard from villagers that they distrusted the de-miners and found them untrustworthy. They didn't think that their land would be returned to them when the land mines were cleared, which causes some problems when it comes to information about where the land mines are. How does mine clearing with rats work?Rats are being used in de-mining because of their incredible sense of smell, relatively low cost of maintenance and ease of transport. Just like dogs, they don't detect any false positives, as a metal detector would.In the minefield, the rat is connected to two de-miners who walk on cleared corridors with the decontaminated area in between them. The de-miners step down the field in unison as the rat sniffs for mines in the pit, scratching twice when it smells TNT. Then the de-miner maps the location, and clicks a clicker, telling the rat it can go get its reward, a delicious banana. The rats don't get blown up by the mines because they're so light. The rats each weigh 1 to 3 pounds, so they are weightless to a land mine, which usually requires a minimum of 11 to 35.3 pounds of pressure to activate. How did the introduction of rats to de-mining change how it is viewed in Cambodia?Rats have successfully been used to decontaminate Mozambique in Africa, and as for their import into Cambodia, the success story really lies in the fact that the organizations using them have been able to obtain donations and become independent so that they can work on demilitarizing the de-mining industry.Rats don't fit in with the military aesthetic of de-mining, unlike dogs, which are military aid animals and have been used within militaries for centuries. The image of a soldier proudly standing next to his dog is very different from a soldier cradling a small rat in his arms. So when the villagers first saw the rat, they were a little bit puzzled, but I actually think the rat humanized the de-miners in a way that demilitarized them. When they see the rat with a soldier, it's more of this kind of absurdity. So it make them pause and think, "OK, what is a rat doing there?" Villagers have said in interviews that they wondered about it and it made them take a second glance. It undermines the kind of villainous characterization of the de-miners for the villagers. APOPO, an organization that uses the rats in de-mining, posts publicity photos where the rats snuggle with their handlers. Since then the land mine detection dog organizations have started posting photos of their dogs being playful, and pictures of the puppies. So there is an effect which pervades other organizations, and demilitarization is seen as something to be valued, even in a highly militarized industry. These are opportunities for demilitarization of de-mining for the country itself, for the state and for people's trust in authorities.This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Darcie DeAngelo, Binghamton University, State University of New York.Read more: * Rise of the super rat: rodents detect landmines, sniff out TB, find disaster victims * Cambodia has come a long way in 25 years of peace – but it's far from perfectDarcie DeAngelo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
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| Trump news: Amy Coney Barrett confirmed to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Supreme Court in 52-48 Senate vote Posted: 26 Oct 2020 05:08 PM PDT  Follow the latest updates
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| China retaliates against news media in latest feud with US Posted: 26 Oct 2020 08:18 AM PDT |
| 'Shut the eff up and follow the regulations': A close Trump ally in Congress accused of violating rules with political ads showing him in Air Force uniforms Posted: 26 Oct 2020 02:43 PM PDT  "What's particularly appalling is that we court-martial young soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines for stuff that is 1% as bad."
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| Fort Sill Just Became the First Training Base to Get the New Army Greens Uniform Posted: 26 Oct 2020 04:26 PM PDT |
