| Mogadishu attack: Somali troops end deadly siege at Elite Hotel Posted: 16 Aug 2020 12:39 PM PDT  At least 10 people are dead after al-Shabab militants stormed the Elite Hotel in the capital.
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| The Russia-Obsessed Media Does Its Best to Ignore Clinesmith’s Guilty Plea Posted: 16 Aug 2020 03:30 AM PDT  As news broke Friday that John Durham's criminal probe into the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation had resulted in a former FBI lawyer being charged with doctoring FISA evidence used against the Trump campaign, the formerly Russia-obsessed mainstream media did its best to look the other way.Kevin Clinesmith, who first worked on the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane team and then under special counsel Robert Mueller — only to be fired in February 2018 after it was revealed he sent anti-Trump messages — will plead guilty to one count of making false statements. Clinesmith's admission came after Justice Department inspector general Michael Horowitz faulted him in a December report for doctoring an email to state that former Trump-campaign national security adviser Carter Page was "not a source" for the CIA — when in fact the email from a CIA official stated the opposite.Clinesmith's plea is not an indictment, but a "criminal information," in which the defendant seeks to avoid being charged by a grand jury. As National Review's Andy McCarthy has pointed out, such a move is often made under a cooperation agreement, suggesting that Clinesmith could be working with Durham.Despite the plea's status as the first major development in Durham's investigation, the media barely batted an eye, abandoning the Russia saga after providing wall-to-wall coverage of Michael Flynn's plea deal with Robert Mueller in December 2017."I think really the most important thing right now is to stay humble, and keep your eyes and your ears open, in terms of what you think you understand about Mike Flynn in this scandal," MSNBC host Rachel Maddow said in her opening monologue the night Flynn, Trump's former national-security adviser, pled guilty to lying to the FBI.But on her show Friday, Maddow, who breathlessly covered "Russia-gate" night after night for two years, totally ignored the Clinesmith news. And she wasn't the only one. CNN's Anderson Cooper failed to cover the plea deal during his two hours of Friday-night programming. Cooper's colleague Don Lemon, who also covered the Russia probe and Flynn's plea relentlessly, couldn't find time to cover Clinesmith's plea during his 10 p.m. time slot.Instead of ignoring the news altogether, Maddow's colleague Chuck Todd reacted to the development by belittling Durham's probe in general, wondering aloud whether the investigation is aimed at "creating confusion about investigating the investigators." MSNBC legal analyst Andrew Weissmann decided to challenge the news head on.Weissmann claimed on Twitter that Clinesmith's altering of the email was not "material" to the indictment, because Durham did not say whether Carter Page had, in fact, been a "source" for the CIA in the court document. That Page provided information to the CIA, and was praised by the agency for doing so, is beyond dispute, whether Durham mentioned it in his indictment or not.> Clinesmith is charged with adding the words "not a source" to an email about Carter Page, but no where does the charge say that is false, i.e. that Page was a source for the CIA. Without that, how is the addition "materially" false? Compare with Barr's materiality std for Flynn.> > -- Andrew Weissmann (@AWeissmann_) August 14, 2020The attempt to compare the Flynn guilty plea to Clinesmith's, however, does call into question the media framing of both stories.Elite political reporters and pundits focused their writing and broadcasting on Flynn's guilty plea for months and jumped to far-reaching conclusions about what it meant for the future of Trump's presidency. When Clinesmith's plea was announced Friday, our opinion leaders and news gatherers collectively decided to fit the latest development into the framework they'd developed over the better part of two years, rather than revise their conclusions in the face of new facts.Take New York Times reporter Adam Goldman, who broke the Clinesmith story, for example.Goldman emphasized Friday that "prosecutors did not reveal any evidence in charging documents that showed Mr. Clinesmith's actions were part of any broader conspiracy to undermine Mr. Trump." But in the 23rd paragraph, Goldman mentions that "Mr. Clinesmith had provided the unchanged C.I.A. email to Crossfire Hurricane agents and the Justice Department lawyer drafting the original wiretap application."Taken together, the two statements raise serious questions. If Clinesmith "provided the unchanged" email to other FBI officials, those officials must have been aware that he doctored his email to the FISA court. In other words, when they received the un-doctored email proving that Page had long cooperated with the federal government and chose to say nothing, they became part of a "broader conspiracy."Goldman proved much more willing to assign blame to a broad and nebulous group of actors when Flynn pled guilty in December 2017, calling the news "a politically treacherous development for the president and his closest aides."Goldman went on to write that Flynn's plea implied "that prosecutors now have a cooperative source of information from inside the Oval Office during the administration's chaotic first weeks." But a similar hypothesis about the far-reaching implications of Clinesmith's guilty plea was not advanced in Goldman's most recent report.Other outlets have engaged in similar efforts to downplay the seriousness of Clinesmith's wrongdoing by framing the plea as a single act of unintentional malfeasance. The notion that the Crossfire Hurricane team accidentally failed to mention Page's work for the CIA to the FISA Court is facially absurd. The CIA sent a memo to the team detailing the agency's relationship with the former Trump aide before the FBI filed their first FISA application to surveil Page; the FBI didn't mention it on that first application or their three subsequent application renewals.NPR's justice correspondent Carrie Johnson headlined her report on the Clinesmith plea: "Case Linked To Alleged Abuse Of Surveillance Power." The label "alleged" has been inaccurate since December 2019, when Horowitz released a report detailing "at least 17 significant errors or omissions" in the FBI's FISA applications used against Carter Page. Johnson also reported that the former FBI lawyer had "allegedly doctored an email." In the very next paragraph, she quotes — without a hint of irony — Clinesmith's lawyer, who told her that "Kevin deeply regrets having altered the email."Johnson was not so timid when speculating about the implications of Flynn's guilty plea: After quoting then-White House special counsel Ty Cobb, who argued that Flynn's decision to plead guilty did not implicate additional officials, she explained that "Flynn's plea agreement and cooperation with Mueller would seem to signal the opposite — that the investigation has now reached into the Trump White House itself, and that it still has a long way to go before wrapping up."The Associated Press's 2017 article on Flynn took a similar angle, warning that the development "could be an ominous sign for a White House" and hypothesizing that "if the Trump transition made secret back-door assurances to Russian diplomats, that could potentially run afoul of the Logan Act" — without mentioning that no one has ever been successfully prosecuted under the law since its passage in 1799.But in their report on Clinesmith's plea, the AP opted against commenting on what the development meant for the Russian collusion narrative and chose instead to comment on its utility as a prop that might "lift Trump's wobbly reelection prospects" by exposing what the Trump administration "see[s] as wrongdoing."
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| What is a fire tornado? 'Extreme fire activity' sparks rare weather warning at Loyalton Fire near Reno. Posted: 16 Aug 2020 05:03 PM PDT  Fire tornadoes are formed similarly to tornadoes caused by severe thunderstorms, except extreme heat from a wildfire is the cause.
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| Portland police declare riot, use smoke to clear crowd Posted: 15 Aug 2020 09:35 PM PDT  A riot was declared in Oregon's biggest city as protesters demonstrated outside a law enforcement building early Sunday, continuing a nightly ritual in Portland. Officers used crowd control munitions to disperse the gathering outside the Penumbra Kelly building. Protesters had thrown "softball size" rocks, glass bottles and other objects at officers, police said on Twitter.
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| Trump vows 'snapback' to force return of UN Iran sanctions Posted: 15 Aug 2020 04:44 PM PDT  US President Donald Trump vowed Saturday to use a controversial technique to unilaterally reinstate UN sanctions on Tehran, a move with huge repercussions for the Iran nuclear deal.
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| Oklahoma State sorority house reports 23 positive coronavirus cases Posted: 16 Aug 2020 07:54 AM PDT  Greek life has been a source of numerous coronavirus cases in the last few weeks as the nation debates the reopening of schools for in-person learning.
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| Angola orders Brazil evangelical churches to close Posted: 15 Aug 2020 11:40 AM PDT  Prosecutors seize buildings run by the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, alleging corruption.
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| Kamala Harris' time in Montreal: 'You saw a politician establishing herself' Posted: 15 Aug 2020 07:00 AM PDT  Sen. Kamala Harris, Joe Biden's vice presidential pick, went to high school in Montreal, where she learned to negotiate the straits of a diverse culture.
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| Eight killed in armed group attack in southern Colombia Posted: 16 Aug 2020 09:23 AM PDT |
| Rare 'fire tornado' springs from blazes spreading rapidly across Northern California Posted: 16 Aug 2020 01:19 PM PDT  A rare "firenado" sprung from a California forest fire this weekend and lead the National Weather Service (NWS) to warn residents of "extremely dangerous fire behaviour".Since Friday, the Loyalton fire has burned more than 20,000 acres north of Lake Tahoe. As of Sunday morning, zero per cent of the forest fire has been contained, according to Tahoe National Forest.
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| Islamic State has gained its first outpost in southern Africa after the capture of strategic port in Mozambique Posted: 16 Aug 2020 08:54 AM PDT  Government troops abandoned Mocimboa da Praia last week but reinforcements have been rushed to the area to recapture the city from the insurgents.
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| Israel shuts Gaza fishing zone after overnight fighting Posted: 15 Aug 2020 11:27 PM PDT  Israel closed the Gaza Strip's offshore fishing zone Sunday following a night of cross-border fighting with Palestinian militants, the most intense escalation of hostilities in recent months. Palestinian militants in Gaza fired two rockets into southern Israel after Israeli airstrikes targeted sites belonging to the territory's militant Hamas rulers. The military said the Iron Dome aerial defense system intercepted the two rockets that militants in Gaza launched at southern Israel.
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| Coronavirus updates: Teacher creates database of school closings, cases, deaths; Birx says wear a mask 'inside, outside, every day' Posted: 15 Aug 2020 05:55 PM PDT  The prospect of safely reopening U.S. schools amid the COVID-19 pandemic has faced a torrent troubling news in recent days. Latest news.
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| Thousands of volunteers neck-deep in oil battle noxious fumes amid cleanup efforts Posted: 15 Aug 2020 09:47 AM PDT  "It's a people's factory, a mobilization zone for Mauritians," said environmental activist David Sauvage.
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| Chicago mayor: 'We're never going to get everything that we need from the federal government' Posted: 16 Aug 2020 10:15 AM PDT |
| Saudi-led coalition downs ballistic missile aimed at kingdom: SPA Posted: 16 Aug 2020 06:47 AM PDT |
| First major Mediterranean cruise liner sets sail since pandemic Posted: 16 Aug 2020 11:24 AM PDT  The first major cruise ship to resume tours of the Mediterranean since the coronavirus pandemic hit Europe set sail from the Italian city of Genoa on Sunday, as the industry tries to regain ground after a bruising hiatus.
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| Kabul begins release of final 400 Taliban prisoners called for in US agreement Posted: 16 Aug 2020 10:07 AM PDT  Afghanistan has released the first 80 of a final 400 Taliban prisoners, paving the way for negotiations between the warring sides in Afghanistan's protracted conflict, the government said Friday.
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| Donald Trump vows to push through 'snapback' sanctions on Iran Posted: 16 Aug 2020 04:26 AM PDT  U.S. President Donald Trump said that he intended to push through a "snapback" of sanctions on Iran, a day after the UN Security Council rejected a U.S. effort to extend a UN arms embargo on Tehran. "We'll be doing a snapback," Trump said during a news conference at his New Jersey golf club on Saturday. "You'll be watching it next week." The U.S. president was apparently referring to the contentious argument that the U.S. remains a "participant" in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal - despite having withdrawn from it in 2018 - and can therefore unilaterally force a return to sanctions if Washington considers that Iran has violated the terms of the deal. The nuclear deal, which was signed in July 2015, has been under massive pressure since the U.S. withdrawal, although major signatories including the UK, France and Germany remain committed.
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| Germans are 'waking up' to anti-Black racism after George Floyd protest Posted: 16 Aug 2020 01:30 AM PDT  "Policing starts with stops and ID'ing but can also end in death," said activist Tahir Della.
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| New Zealand: Jacinda Ardern delays election over coronavirus fears Posted: 16 Aug 2020 04:07 PM PDT  Jacinda Ardern has postponed September's election until October following new coronavirus cases.
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| Trinidad and Tobago ramps up measures against coronavirus Posted: 15 Aug 2020 04:47 PM PDT  Trinidad and Tobago's government will implement tougher measures aimed at reducing the spread of the coronavirus after the number of infections increased in August, the prime minister said on Saturday. "Given how the virus has been behaving in other populations worldwide... we expect that we will be able to control the level of infection in a situation where our parallel (health) system would be able to cope," Prime Minister Keith Rowley told reporters. "The time for persuasion has now passed and we will take such action," Rowley said.
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| Black Portland reflects on role of white allies in movement Posted: 16 Aug 2020 08:30 AM PDT  More than two months of intense protests in Portland, Oregon — one of America's whitest major cities — have captured the world's attention and put a place that's less than 6% Black at the heart of the conversation about police brutality and systemic racism. Since May, nightly demonstrations in Oregon's largest city have featured overwhelmingly white crowds — from middle-aged mothers marching arm in arm to the mayor getting tear-gassed by federal agents to teenagers dressed in black smashing police precinct windows and tossing fireworks at authorities. The weeks of often-chaotic protests have transformed Portland into a microcosm of the national debate on race and police brutality.
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| Now Is Not the Time to Silence America’s Best Global Press Ambassadors Posted: 16 Aug 2020 03:30 AM PDT  At a time when access to accurate information is more critical than ever, leadership at Voice of America (VOA), the government-funded international news broadcaster, is actively undermining America's ability to reach those around the globe who need it most.VOA produces journalism in 46 languages around the globe, providing news through an American lens about the critical issues of the day. VOA frequently hires international journalists because they not only have a mastery of critical languages but also are knowledgeable of the journalistic landscape and have sources in the countries VOA serves. Often, their reporting is among the only news that reaches beyond the iron curtain of propaganda in despotic strongholds such as Russia or Venezuela, providing impartial news about the world and their home countries that is untainted by local regimes.But the new head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, Michael Pack, who oversees VOA, has quietly refused to sign international journalists' contract renewals, forcing the impacted journalists to leave the country within 30 days unless they have already found a new job that provides a visa.Dozens of VOA employees now find themselves in limbo. Already, many have found their contracts have not been renewed, with no explanation given, often with only a few days' notice that they will soon need to leave the country. Journalists from places such as Iran face severe persecution for their work for the American government; sending them back puts their lives at great risk because of their commitment to our values.In a press release last month, CEO Pack has couched his non-decision in a broad accusation against VOA, citing "systemic, severe, and fundamental security failures" within the agency. But if this is the cause for Pack's decision to allow the contracts to expire, he should say so; instead, not only the press and the American people but also his employees are met with silence. The lack of specificity and evidence to support his claims make the accusations seem illegitimate.The organization has faced criticism, most recently over its reporting related to coronavirus that was perceived by many conservatives and the Trump administration as too soft on China for refusing to interrogate China's falsified coronavirus death count. But this concern has also been applied, with no less egregious examples, to many news organizations at home and abroad. The answer shouldn't be to strip bare the department in the dead of night.The White House's concerns about VOA -- real as they are -- are endemic to the current media environment, not a foreign influence threat metastasizing within the agency. The growth of and threat from foreign propaganda within American media is a topic that VOA covered in detail not even two months ago. What the concerns demand is reform -- thoughtful leadership that can reinvigorate an organization that has been broadcasting an American viewpoint to those suffering under the yoke of repressive governments dating back to Nazi Germany.In a moment where America is pulling back from its global leadership mantle, VOA serves as an indispensable communication outlet charged with "telling America's story." This is particularly true in places where hostile foreign governments actively spread disinformation about the United States. Reducing the international staff of VOA will undermine America's ability to broadcast our values and promote freedom as autocratic and anti-democratic forces gather steam around the globe.The urgency to act is critical. The loss felt by a gutting of our international journalistic capabilities will surely be felt in the years and decades to come -- but the window to act to address it is quickly shrinking. With foreign journalists already in limbo, and with only a 30 days before deportations can begin, Congress must act immediately.Leaders from Capitol Hill have come to the aid of the embattled agency in recent months. In defending the agency, they not only pointed out the bravery of journalists who face down dictators within their home countries but also called on the guiding principles set forth for VOA to "act as a bulwark against disinformation through credible journalism."Four Republicans signed on to this letter: Senators Marco Rubio, Lindsey Graham, Jerry Moran, and Susan Collins. They urged CEO Pack to not "invest in an enterprise that denigrates its own journalists and staff to the satisfaction of dictators and despots, nor can it be one that fails to live up to its promise of providing access to a free and independent press."Achieving these goals -- to the frustration of dictators and America's adversaries around the globe -- requires the aid of VOA's indispensable foreign journalists, a point the staff at VOA have made repeatedly. Particularly when those who want to create false, negative perceptions of America have spared no expense to co-opt, bribe, and otherwise entice journalists, now is no time for America to voluntarily surrender the moral high ground that our democratic press freedoms afford.The most compelling advantages America has in the global war against disinformation and propaganda is the freedom of our voices and the righteousness of our cause. These exist in spite of the problems we have domestically and within our own journalistic ranks. What sets us apart is our capacity to improve, to better live up to our ideals. This differentiator is no less accurate in describing what currently ails VOA.Senators Rubio, Graham, Moran, and Collins should take a stand for these ideals, and actively push back against Pack's irresponsible approach. As members of the president's party, they are the only ones in a position to apply the kind of pressure that could avoid hamstringing America's international legacy and global reception. Never has it been more important to tell America's story, and do it in a way that reflects the truth to a world desperately in need of it.
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| 3 men beat security guard who told them to wear masks at gas station, MO cops say Posted: 16 Aug 2020 08:07 AM PDT  The guard shot one suspect who is in critical but stable condition, police say.
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| Philippine security forces 'alert' for reprisals after militant held Posted: 14 Aug 2020 10:05 PM PDT  Philippine security forces were on alert Saturday for possible reprisal attacks after arresting a key leader of an Islamic State-linked militant group accused of kidnapping and beheading several foreigners.
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| Kamala Harris pick gives Joe Biden a chance to fix missteps in outreach to Black voters, Black leaders say Posted: 15 Aug 2020 06:02 PM PDT  Although Biden has made several gaffes when talking about race, some experts believe the comments will not dissuade Black voters from supporting him.
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| Australia surfer saves wife by punching shark Posted: 15 Aug 2020 04:38 AM PDT  A husband leapt on to the shark as it attacked his wife off Port Macquarie, New South Wales.
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| An angry bull chased a crew of firefighters down a Los Angeles road while they were responding to the Lake Fire Posted: 15 Aug 2020 10:00 PM PDT  The Ventura County Fire Department called the bull "Ferdinand," and said firefighters had been clearing the roads when the bull gave chase.
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| Lebanon faces 'biggest danger', needs elections, says patriarch Posted: 16 Aug 2020 03:18 AM PDT  Lebanon's top Christian cleric called on Sunday for early parliamentary elections and a government formed to rescue the country rather than the ruling "political class" after the vast explosion in Beirut's port threw the nation into turmoil. Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai, who holds sway in Lebanon as head of the Maronite church from which the head of state must be drawn under sectarian power-sharing, warned that Lebanon was today facing "its biggest danger". "We will not allow for Lebanon to become a compromise card between nations that want to rebuild ties amongst themselves," Al-Rai said in a Sunday sermon, without naming any countries.
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| This Secret Society of Priests Still Won’t Recognize Pope Francis Posted: 16 Aug 2020 02:07 AM PDT  ROME—Father Jeremy Leatherby of Sacramento, California, surely knew what was coming when he continued to preach to the faithful that Pope Benedict XVI, who retired in 2013, is still the one true pope. Since the election upon Benedict's retirement of Jorge Bergoglio, now Pope Francis, Leatherby has shunned the new pontiff and continued to only refer to Benedict as the church's true leader in mass. Last week, after several warnings, he was charged with schism, defrocked and excommunicated from the Catholic Church."I continue to regard Benedict as retaining the Office of Peter, as mysterious as that might be," he wrote in an open letter to the Sacramento diocese, referring to the belief that all new popes replace the original pope Peter. "Therefore, I do not regard Bergoglio as the Supreme Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church."Steve Bannon, Cardinal Burke, Minister Salvini, and the Plot to Take Down Pope FrancisLeatherby's story is somewhat complicated by allegations of a breach of his vow of celibacy through romantic affairs with at least two adult women, one of whom he publicly confessed his love to in a now rather embarrassing video that has been widely circulated. In it, he begins by addressing an unidentified woman: "Hey, Baby Doll. I love that without mascara that you are still strikingly beautiful," the priest says into his phone camera as he drives his car at night. "I love that. I love it, like, a lot. A lot a lot. I loved it earlier when I saw you, and you didn't have it on, and I loved it all night long."In fact, the local bishop Jaime Soto, who cut Leatherby loose, had already banned him from public mass over that offense, though the case had not yet been put before any sort of Vatican or even local diocese board for judgement. But Father Leatherby continued to preach to the anti-Francis flock, going door-to-door, to private homes where worshipers wanted to celebrate mass "in union with Pope Benedict, not with Pope Francis," he wrote in a letter addressing his excommunication. "Many who have joined me hold, like I do, that Benedict remains the one true Pope."His excommunication, which the church views as latae sententiae or self-inflicted "by his words and actions," may seem extreme, but it is likely meant as a warning to other anti-Francis clergy, Vatican analysts say. He is by far not the only Catholic priest who refuses to accept the current pope, and who, in doing so, continue to sow division in the church at large. Mike Lewis, who runs the Catholic website "Where Peter Is," wrote last week about full seminaries that consider themselves "Francis-free zones." In an article in America Magazine for Jesuits, he pointed to popular anti-Francis voices that seek to push the opposition to this pope, including Michael Voris of Church Militant and the very popular YouTube commentator Taylor Marshall, whose tweets and vlogs have a cult following of their own. The Plot to Bring Down Pope FrancisThe Pope's Dirty PastWriting for Catholic News Agency, the editor-in-chief J.D. Flynn says that such a formal declaration of a priest's excommunication is a rare phenomenon. Bishop Soto, whom Leatherby also apparently shunned over his loyalty to Francis, had written to Leatherby giving him one more chance to repent and get in line and stop referring to Benedict in mass. But the priest refused and the excommunication was made public. The Catholic News Agency was able to see a copy of the letter in which Soto wrote that he had heard tapes of the illicit sermons and received a number of testimonies reporting that Leatherby had not only defied his order not to offer mass over the women issue, but had also "preached against the Holy Father and omitted the inclusion of his name and mine from the Eucharistic prayer."Leatherby acknowledged everything in his response letter. "Bishop Soto's sentence of excommunication against me is consistent with my relationship with Jorge Bergoglio (Pope Francis), with whom I cannot morally, spiritually or intellectually, in good conscience, align myself," he wrote.Becky Jennings, a volunteer and parent at the school where Leatherby worked, told Flynn that Leatherby had fostered a cult-like following of anti-Francis worshippers. Jennings told CNA that while she had originally liked his rigidity and strict adherence to Catholic doctrine, she then grew wary. "In retrospect, there were a lot of things that should have been red flags," Jennings told CNA. "There were cult-like elements with Fr. Leatherby and his 'family'."Leatherby comes on the heels of several other instances of anti-Francis resistance. In 2019, 19 priest and bishops signed a letter accusing Francis of heresy, which followed a letter two years earlier signed by 62 priests and theologians that charged that Francis "effectively upheld 7 heretical positions about marriage, the moral life, and the reception of the sacraments, and has caused these heretical opinions to spread in the Catholic Church," in his writings as pontiff, especially his exhortation on marriage and family called "Amoris Laetitia."The movement against Francis has been fanned by the former Vatican nuncio to Washington, D.C., Monsignor Carlo Maria Viganò, who remains in hiding after penning a damning 11-page letter and joining forces with American cardinal Raymond Burke and anti-Francis Catholic Steve Bannon whose joint cause to create an alternative to Francis has been renewed after an Italian judge overturned an earlier ruling to stop his alt-right university for like-minded thinkers, which he hopes to build in an ancient monastery outside of Rome. Though held up by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, renovations are said to be underway.Francis has never directly addressed those who do not recognize him as the leader of the Catholic Church, but he said in June, "There are always those who destroy unity and stifle prophecy," alluding to the naysayers and critics but clearly choosing to instead turn the other cheek and rise above it. Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Exclusive: China continues to harass exiles on British soil, claim victims Posted: 15 Aug 2020 10:09 AM PDT  China is suspected of orchestrating a sinister campaign to suppress prominent critics living in Britain from speaking out against the ruling Communist Party by harassing, intimidating, and surveilling them while they are in the UK, the Telegraph can reveal. Simon Cheng Man-kit, a former British consulate employee in Hong Kong who was tortured by Chinese secret police, said he had been followed at least three times in the last two weeks. Mr Cheng, who has been granted asylum in the UK, has been vocal about eroding freedoms in Hong Kong. A threatening email also arrived in Mr Cheng's inbox this week. "Chinese agents will find you and bring you back," read the subject line. In the body, the message said: "Only a matter of time." The email alias was 'CY Leung', the name of Hong Kong's former chief executive who pro-democracy protesters accused of cosying up to Beijing. Azis Isa Elkun, a British Uighur who has campaigned from the UK about China's internment camps for Muslim minorities, revealed he had been sent messages from his mother, apparently under duress. He believes it is a warning to remain silent. Frances Eve, deputy director of research for Chinese Human Rights Defenders, a network of advocacy groups, said: "These kinds of threats are definitely to try to silence them from using their voices outside of China to raise awareness of these human rights violations. It's intimidation. It can take different forms, but the purpose is to silence them."
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| Forecasters watching two new tropical waves that have formed in the Atlantic Posted: 16 Aug 2020 07:26 AM PDT  Forecasters are monitoring two new tropical waves in the Atlantic Ocean, the National Hurricane Center said Sunday morning as two other systems, what was left of previous Tropical Depression Josephine and Post-Tropical Cyclone Kyle, lost steam.
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| Bolsonaro 'led Brazilian people into a canyon', says ex-health minister Posted: 15 Aug 2020 01:00 AM PDT  Luiz Henrique Mandetta accuses president of playing a 'pivotal' role in steering economy towards catastropheHistorians will savage Jair Bolsonaro for leading Brazilians into a deadly "canyon" with his shambling, self-interested and anti-scientific response to Covid-19, according to his former health minister.In an interview with the Guardian, Luiz Henrique Mandetta accused the Brazilian president of playing a "pivotal" role in steering Latin America's largest economy towards a catastrophe. Bolsonaro played politics with citizens' lives at a time of global crisis, he said, as Brazil's death toll rose to more than 105,000. Only the US has suffered more deaths.Mandetta, who has hinted he will challenge Bolsonaro for the presidency in 2022, became a household name in the early stages of this year's pandemic. He drew praise from left and right for his accessible, science-based alerts over the threat of coronavirus during daily press conferences.A 55-year-old orthopedic doctor, Mandetta was elected to congress in 2010 and has faced criticism for opposing the Mais Médicos (More Doctors) health scheme that sent Cuban doctors to remote and deprived parts of Brazil. He was named health minister in November 2018, shortly after Bolsonaro's shock election.But he was sacked in mid-April after publicly challenging Bolsonaro's sabotaging of social distancing. Speaking from his base in the midwestern city of Campo Grande, he said the two had not spoken since.On the day Mandetta was fired Brazil's Covid-19 death toll stood at about 2,000. Four months later it has risen to over 105,000 with the former minister one of many who blames Bolsonaro for the tragedy's scale.Bolsonaro has repeatedly downplayed the pandemic, undermined containment measures and attended protests and barbecues, using face masks incorrectly, if at all.Mandetta said the fight against Covid-19 had been fatally compromised by Bolsonaro's "utter contempt for science" – which saw him belittle the disease as a "little flu" and trumpet ineffective treatments such as the antimalarial drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine."It's interesting that he totally rejects science and mocks all those who speak of science. Yet when there's any prospect of a vaccine he's the first to come knocking on science's door ... as if a vaccine would redeem him from his shambling march through this epidemic."Mandetta also attacked Bolsonaro's "complete sabotage" of the health ministry. After Mandetta and his team were evicted, another health minister, Nelson Teich, took charge but lasted less than a month after also clashing with the president over Covid-19. Since May the ministry has had an army general with no medical experience as its stopgap leader.Mandetta – who said he felt anguished and impotent about the situation – claimed that by forcing out specialists and surrounding himself by yes men Bolsonaro had lost touch with reality."When you're in a situation where you surround yourself with people who say what you want to hear and not what is the truth … the leader ends up blinding himself to what is happening," he said. "He listens but doesn't hear. He looks but doesn't see."The ex-minister suspected Bolsonaro's refusal to comfort grieving families reflected guilt over the realisation his actions had cost lives."He led the Brazilian people into a canyon in quick march and people have fallen off and died – and having to recognize that this was a mistake, that this caused pain, I think must be politically tricky for him right now."Perhaps once the tragedy was over Bolsonaro might publicly express remorse, Mandetta said. But how could Brazilians believe the words of a man who had "openly criticized those who sought to save lives"?He warned that without an urgent change in direction the average number of daily deaths – which has been close to or above 1,000 for nearly three months – was only likely to fall in late September.Mandetta, who is from the rightwing party Democratas, has declined to confirm he will run for president but said Brazil needed a leader who could "pacify" the country after Bolsonaro's "toxic" term."I hope the leader who emerges victorious in 2022 is capable of rebuilding Brazil's broken social fabric, giving this country a sense of unity … and accepting that it just isn't normal to go around saying Brazilians like to roll around in the sewage."Mandetta predicted Bolsonaro would eventually pay a political price for "making a beeline down the path of denial". But on Friday one of Brazil's top pollsters found the president's approval rating had risen to its highest level since he took office in January 2019.
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| Can Trump do the impossible? He thinks so Posted: 15 Aug 2020 10:17 AM PDT  Maybe it was the beautiful sunset, or the crowd of tough-looking men cheering his name, or even some reassurance from secret polling, but Donald Trump did not sound like a president who risks humiliation in less than 80 days.
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| Oklahoma high school student knowingly went to class with coronavirus, officials say Posted: 16 Aug 2020 10:46 AM PDT  The school district said the Westmoore High School student was asymptomatic and believed it was safe to attend the first day of classes.
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| The couple blamed for an Islamic State attack on their wedding Posted: 16 Aug 2020 04:19 PM PDT  An Islamic State bomb devastated the happiest day of Rehana and Mirwais' life - then they were blamed.
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| A parasite feasts on a fish's tongue until it's gone. Don't worry, humans can't get it. Posted: 15 Aug 2020 08:37 AM PDT  When it latches itself onto the fish's tongue, it feeds on the tongue's blood vessels until it replaces the tongue. But it's nothing to worry about.
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| Iranian commander says Tehran's approach to UAE will change after Israel deal Posted: 16 Aug 2020 02:41 AM PDT |
| A North Carolina man was charged with murder in the shooting death of his 5-year-old neighbor Posted: 15 Aug 2020 08:43 AM PDT  Cannon Hinnant's father told local news the child was riding his bike outside when he was shot in the head.
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| He calls himself a ‘witch’ and a ‘god.’ He’s been arrested in the missing mother case Posted: 16 Aug 2020 02:53 PM PDT  An Alabama resident who claims to be a witch, a god and the last person to see missing mother Leila Cavett alive now sits in Broward County Main Jail.
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