| Native American protesters blocked the road leading up to Mount Rushmore and faced off with the National Guard in the hours before Trump's fiery speech Posted: 04 Jul 2020 02:22 AM PDT  The protesters were sprayed with pepper spray and 15 people were arrested during the demonstration on Friday.
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| Judge blocks Portland police from using physical force against journalists Posted: 03 Jul 2020 05:49 AM PDT  As protests originally sparked by the death of George Floyd continue in Portland, Oregon, a US District Court has issued a two-week restraining order barring the Portland Police Bureau from arresting journalists and legal observers or using force against them.The order comes after the police arrested journalists who were covering a protest on Tuesday. One of them, Lesley McLam, was taken into custody.
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| Why U.S. F-35s, Stealth Bombers and Attack Drones Could Fail in a War Posted: 04 Jul 2020 01:00 AM PDT  Fighter jets, stealth bombers, attack drones and air-traveling missiles all need to "operate at speed" in a fast-changing great power conflict era. What that means is that "sensor to shooter" time (how fast data can go from a sensor to a war-fighter) needs to be drastically sped up. Without that speed, warfighters won't be able to react as quickly to threats and it will be harder to win.
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| 'How the hell are we going to do this?' The panic over reopening schools Posted: 04 Jul 2020 04:00 AM PDT  The CDC issued additional guidance this week on safely reopening schools, with infections spiking in the South and West.
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| Copenhagen's Little Mermaid labelled 'racist fish' Posted: 03 Jul 2020 03:24 AM PDT  Denmark woke up on Friday to the words "racist fish" scrawled across the base of the "Little Mermaid", the bronze statue honouring Hans Christian Andersen's famous fairy tale that perches on a rock in the sea off a pier in Copenhagen. "We consider it vandalism and have started an investigation," a spokesman for the Copenhagen police said. Protesters of the Black Lives Matter movement around the world have in recent months rallied against statues of historical figures who played a role in racist oppression, such as slave traders and colonialists.
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| Vanessa Guillen: Woman charged over missing soldier 'killed with hammer' Posted: 02 Jul 2020 10:15 PM PDT  Cecily Aguilar is accused of helping to dismember and bury the body of a missing Fort Hood soldier.
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| For nearly 160 years, St. George has been known as Utah's 'Dixie.' The name is all over the city. Is it time to change? Posted: 02 Jul 2020 10:48 PM PDT  The word "Dixie" is everywhere in St. George, Utah. The controversy over its Confederate ties is back in the public eye — but it's not a new debate.
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| Two women fight for lives after driver ploughs into preparations for anti-racism rally in Seattle Posted: 04 Jul 2020 06:52 AM PDT  SEATTLE (AP) _ Two women were struck by a car whose driver sped through a protest-related closure on a freeway in Seattle, authorities said early Saturday. A 24-year-old woman from Seattle suffered critical, life-threatening injuries and a 32-year-old woman from Bellingham had serious injuries, Washington State Patrol Capt. Ron Mead said. The driver, a 27-year-old man from Seattle, was in custody, Mead said, adding that impairment was not considered a factor. Charges remain under investigation, as does the motive and point of entry onto the interstate, but Mead said the unnamed man faced multiple felony charges and was suspected to have come on the wrong way on a ramp. Mead said troopers did not know whether it was a targeted attack. Video on social media showed a white car traveling at a high rate of speed navigate around two vehicles positioned across the lanes as a barrier. The car careened toward a small crowd of protesters on the freeway, striking two people who flew into the air before landing on the ground. A nearly two-hour-long Facebook livestream captioned "Black Femme March takes I-5" from Diaz Love ended abruptly; with about 15 seconds left, shouts of "Car!" can be heard as the camera starts to shake before screeching tires and the sound of impact are heard. The Associated Press could not immediately reach her. Seattle has been the site of prolonged unrest following the May 25 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which sparked nationwide protests. Dozens of people were arrested this past week in connection with protests as demonstrations continue after authorities cleared the "Capitol Hill Occupied Protest" zone Wednesday morning. Mead said at the press conference that protesters had shut down the interstate for 19 days in a row. He emphasized that the freeway is "simply not a safe place" for pedestrians, and said he hoped protesters would cease what he termed "unlawful behavior" in blocking the interstate. "My hope is, as a result of this tragedy, protesters will reconsider their desire to be on the interstate because I cannot guarantee their safety, plain and simple," Mead said. Protesters were on the freeway for more than an hour before the car drove around the blockade around 1:36 a.m., Mead said. The state patrol tweeted out two pictures of the driver's car, a white Jaguar with significant damage to its bumper and windshield. Seattle police tweeted that they were assisting with the scene, as southbound lanes of the freeway remained closed for investigation.
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| 5 Americans who flew by private jet to Italy were reportedly denied entry due to the EU ban on visitors from countries with high coronavirus infection rates Posted: 04 Jul 2020 04:47 AM PDT  Officials on the island of Sardinia expressed frustration at having to exclude the US travellers after their long flight, said reports.
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| 'A dereliction of duty': Former CIA director says Trump has gone 'Awol' in handling of coronavirus Posted: 03 Jul 2020 04:46 PM PDT  Donald Trump has gone "Awol" in his leadership of the US through the coronavirus pandemic, former CIA Director and Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has said in a scathing attack on the president."This president has essentially gone Awol from the job of leadership that he should be providing a country in trouble," Mr Panneta told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Wednesday, branding the situation a "major crisis".
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| It Would Cost Trillions: The Day North Korea Collapses Posted: 03 Jul 2020 02:30 AM PDT  The prospect of a peaceful Korean Unification, however remote it seems, would be a historical event worth planning for. While preparing for the worst, we should hope for the best. Hoping for the best means there is a scenario where North Korea's collapse and regime change occur miraculously, opening doors to South Korea and the West to take over North Korea in what one hopes would be a peaceful absorption. As unlikely as this sounds, it is important to remember that it is not without historical precedent.
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| Mexico logs 6,740 new coronavirus cases, passes Italy's total Posted: 03 Jul 2020 05:23 PM PDT  Mexico on Friday reported 6,740 new coronavirus infections, taking the country's total to 245,251 cases, more than Italy and the ninth-highest tally worldwide, according to a Reuters count. Mexico's health ministry also reported 654 more fatalities, bringing the total to 29,843 deaths, just a few behind France which currently has the fifth-highest death toll. Friday's new cases were just one less than the record number reported on Thursday in Mexico.
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| Japan flooding: Many feared dead in flooded care home Posted: 04 Jul 2020 07:39 AM PDT  Fifteen people are believed dead and nine are missing on the island of Kyushu amid devastating rains.
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| Thomas Jefferson alongside Black great-grandson holds 'a mirror' to U.S. Posted: 04 Jul 2020 02:37 PM PDT  Shannon LaNier, a TV host in Houston, is pictured in a photo in Smithsonian Magazine alongside his direct ancestor, Thomas Jefferson.
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| Concern over coronavirus mars Trump's Mount Rushmore trip Posted: 03 Jul 2020 08:23 AM PDT  President Trump will visit Mount Rushmore in South Dakota for a Fourth of July celebration, despite controversy about large crowd gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic.
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| Northeast Indian state bans sale of dog meat amid protest Posted: 04 Jul 2020 02:54 AM PDT |
| Michael Cohen may have violated the terms of his prison release by eating out at a restaurant in Manhattan Posted: 04 Jul 2020 06:50 AM PDT  The New York Post obtained photos showing Cohen, Trump's former lawyer, eating out with his wife and another couple in Manhattan Thursday night.
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| The One Reason Donald Trump Needs to Fear Joe Biden (And Could Lose) Posted: 04 Jul 2020 11:00 AM PDT  Likeability matters. It's not everything, of course, and Joe Biden has weaknesses. But the 2020 contest is not a race between two people with similar high negative ratings, and that may matter to the public in November — it certainly could help explain Biden's lead in the polls.
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| Black family sues Hilton after white clerk calls police over hotel's own billing mistake Posted: 03 Jul 2020 01:02 AM PDT  A billing mistake by the hotel results in a dispute that led to police being called to the Hampton Inn. Now the guests are suing.
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| CNN reporter mugged at knifepoint live on air in Brazil Posted: 03 Jul 2020 01:31 AM PDT  A CNN journalist was mugged at knifepoint during a live broadcast in Brazil.Bruna Macedo and her team had set up near the Bandeiras Bridge in Sao Paulo on Saturday to report on rising water levels in the Tete River due to heavy rain.
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| Rocket Lab vehicle fails to reach orbit, loses payload of satellites Posted: 04 Jul 2020 03:39 PM PDT |
| Suicide attempts, fights aboard rescue boat carrying 180 migrants Posted: 03 Jul 2020 05:01 PM PDT  After suicide attempts, fights erupting on board, and migrants jumping into the sea, charity SOS Mediterranee launched an emergency alert on Friday, demanding to be allowed to immediately disembark at a safe port. The humanitarian group, whose vessel the Ocean Viking has been at sea for over a week with 180 migrants aboard, said it could no longer guarantee the safety of the migrants or crew and called a state of emergency in an unprecedented step. The boat, which has been in limbo in the Mediterranean south of Sicily, has been waiting for over a week for permission from Italy or Malta to offload the migrants at a safe port.
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| Sikh pilgrims in deadly Pakistan train crash Posted: 03 Jul 2020 07:10 AM PDT  At least 21 die as an express train hits a van carrying the pilgrims near the city of Lahore.
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| Iraq sets up border posts to try to prevent Turkish advance Posted: 03 Jul 2020 08:02 AM PDT  Iraqi troops were enforcing positions along the border with Turkey, officials said Friday, to prevent Turkish forces from advancing deeper into Iraqi territory after two weeks of airstrikes as Ankara continues to target Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. Security officials said Ankara has established at least a dozen posts inside Iraqi territory as part of a military campaign to rout members of the Kurdistan Worker's Party, or PKK, who Turkey says have safe havens in northern Iraq.
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| Russia Has a Nuclear Missile That Can Kill Nearly Anything on the Planet Posted: 04 Jul 2020 07:00 AM PDT  How? Think range.
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| Trump news - US president struggles with series of words during Mount Rushmore speech as Pence calls him 'my father' in campaign ad Posted: 04 Jul 2020 06:49 AM PDT  Donald Trump accused "angry mobs" of trying to erase US history by removing statues in a dark and divisive Independence Day speech on Friday evening from Mount Rushmore.Painting himself as a bulwark against left-wing extremism, the US president barely mentioned the coronavirus pandemic, despite the country that setting a new record for confirmed new cases, as he struggled to correctly pronounce a series of words.
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| Epstein confidant Ghislaine Maxwell will reportedly give names Posted: 03 Jul 2020 07:12 PM PDT  Ghislaine Maxwell faces decades behind bars following her arrest by the FBI; reaction from Fox News contributor Tammy Bruce and Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett.
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| Scientists are studying poop to understand how COVID-19 spreads Posted: 03 Jul 2020 02:53 AM PDT  "One of the very few positive things that could come out of COVID-19 is that we recognize that there is data within our wastewater," said one researcher.
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| Locals remain anxious amid India-China border stand-off Posted: 03 Jul 2020 12:46 AM PDT  Even as tensions are rising, locals along the border are worried their land is at stake.
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| COVID-19 should make us give Andrew Yang’s ‘get $1,000 every month’ a second look | Opinion Posted: 03 Jul 2020 02:31 PM PDT  On a bitter cold spring night 14 months ago, back in a more magical time when all things seemed possible in the 2020 president race, I stood on the steps leading down to Washington's great Reflecting Pool waiting to hear from the most unlikely and arguably intriguing Democrat of all, the businessman and political neophyte Andrew Yang.
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| Do cloth face masks really work? We did an experiment to find out Posted: 03 Jul 2020 05:02 AM PDT  ABC30 teamed up with a Fresno State microbiologist in an attempt to settle the great mask debate.
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| Duterte pleads for calm after police fatally shoot troops Posted: 03 Jul 2020 07:51 AM PDT  The Philippine president flew to the country's volatile south on Friday to plead with military forces not to retaliate following the fatal police shootings of four soldiers, including two officers, in violence the army chief called "a rubout." President Rodrigo Duterte pledged an impartial government investigation of Monday's violence in southern Jolo town and promised in a late-night address to military commanders, including army generals, that anyone found guilty will be punished. Duterte asked commanders to ensure their forces remain calm and added that police, like government troops, perform a vital role in maintaining law and order.
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| More bodies found at Myanmar jade mine disaster Posted: 03 Jul 2020 02:21 AM PDT  Rescuers Friday pulled several bodies from the scene of a landslide which killed over 160 jade miners in northern Myanmar, many of them migrant workers seeking their fortune in treacherous open-cast mines near the China border. The disaster -- the worst in memory to strike Myanmar's notoriously dangerous jade mines -- ocurred on Thursday when a hillside collapsed in heavy monsoon rains. "The search and rescue missions continued today and we now have 166 bodies," the Myanmar Fire Services Department said in a Facebook post, raising the overnight toll by four.
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| Explainer: Strike capability, other military options on table after Japan's Aegis U-Turn Posted: 02 Jul 2020 07:14 PM PDT  Japan's decision to scrap two Aegis Ashore ballistic missile defence systems means it must find other ways to defend a 3,000-kilometre archipelago along Asia's eastern edge. In a surprise decision, defence minister Taro Kono recently halted the 2025 deployment of Aegis Ashore because booster rockets used to accelerate SM-3 Block IIA interceptor missiles might fall on communities in northern Akita and southern Yamaguchi prefectures. The expense of Aegis Ashore project also affected Kono's decision.
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| Coronavirus outbreak among students at University of Washington's frat houses Posted: 03 Jul 2020 01:28 PM PDT  The school said Friday that it confirmed that at least 89 fraternity house residents, along with four other students, have tested positive for COVID-19.
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| Nagaland dog meat: Animal rights groups hail ban as 'major turning point' Posted: 03 Jul 2020 06:20 PM PDT  Animal rights groups say a ban on the sale of dog meat in Nagaland is a milestone.
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| Texas Gov. Moves to Stop COVID-19 but It’s Already Out of Control Posted: 03 Jul 2020 12:54 AM PDT  Democratic officials angry at Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's handling of surging coronavirus numbers in the state this week had one lackluster place to voice their frustrations about the rapidly escalating public health crisis killing their constituents: a Zoom press conference."While some states followed the advice of public health experts, Texas did not," Dallas-area State Rep. Toni Rose said from a webcam on Wednesday, a photograph of the Texas Capitol superimposed behind her. It was certainly not the first time Democrats in the state had inveighed against a pandemic approach criticized by some as too reckless, and followed months of power struggles between local and state leaders in Texas over lockdowns, masks, and more.But the politics of the COVID-19 situation in the state—Democrats yelling into the void, at least until Gov. Greg Abbott ordered mask use in hot zones across the state Thursday—had already given way to hard numbers, not just of cases, but also of hospitalizations, with the state's medical system suddenly under pressure that seemed unthinkable even a few weeks ago."If rates [of infection] continue to increase 50 percent week over week, you can only do that for so long," said Dr. David Lakey, vice chancellor for health affairs and chief medical officer at the University of Texas system and a member of the Texas Medical Association COVID-19 Task Force.He added that chief medical officers across the state, at least this week, are "really busy, but they're managing it." The fear, he explained, is what next week, or the week after, will look like. And while beds, ventilators, and ICU rooms are holding up overall so far, "they're starting to see some challenges in staff," like respiratory therapists and nurses. As those challenges rise with the climbing hospitalizations, staffers have gotten sick or been forced to quarantine after exposures. And the numbers are getting more ominous. Texas broke another record for daily new cases on Tuesday, at 8,076 infections, according to state data. The previous record, on Monday, was 6,975. Days earlier, the record was 5,996. On June 16, the state broke the 4,000-mark for the first time.As Democratic State Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, who represents San Antonio, said during the press conference, Gov. Greg Abbott "gambled" with Texas lives with an aggressive reopening, and "we have lost."After a slew of mayors and judges tried to drag their feet on the governor's swift reopening plan earlier this spring, the state's attorney general sent letters to leaders in Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio warning that rules stricter than the state's might be met with legal action. As the surges worsened across the state, though, Abbott gave his tacit consent for local officials to impose masking requirements on businesses, and urged individual Texans to mask up. 'If People Die, People Die': Texas COVID Hot Spots Keep Getting WorseThis week, Abbott went much further, shutting down bars statewide and suspending elective medical procedures in eight counties. Bar owners who previously said they supported Abbott's reopening turned against the governor, with some protesting in front of the state Capitol holding signs that read "Bar Lives Matter." And on Thursday, Abbott made a remarkable turnaround, ordering residents to wear face masks in all counties with at least 20 COVID-19 cases, and empowering local authorities to break up gatherings of more than 10 people.But conversations with health experts and medical professionals in the state suggested the emerging crisis at medical facilities in Texas was already deeply advanced.Texas Medical Center, the world's largest medical complex, indicated last Thursday that its base intensive care capacity hit 100 percent and that it was "on pace to exceed an 'unsustainable surge capacity' of intensive care beds by July 6," The Houston Chronicle reported this week. Last week, the Texas Children's Hospital in Houston began admitting adult patients because of the surge, according to the paper. Internal communications at Houston hospitals revealed a lack of space and therapeutic drugs as the region's medical facilities worked to treat more than 3,000 COVID-19 patients, including about 800 in intensive care, NBC News and Propublica reported Wednesday.Meanwhile, as of Tuesday, about 75 percent of Tarrant County's intensive care unit beds were occupied, The Fort Worth Star-Telegram first reported.At recent hospitalization growth rates, facilities in Tarrant and Dallas counties could reach their surge capacities in as few as four weeks, according to Rajesh Nandy, an associate professor of biostatistics and epidemiology in the University of North Texas's School of Public Health."The simplest way to look at is this: Let's say the trend doesn't change, and hospital capacity stays the same as it is currently. Under those assumptions, it would be two to three weeks before they're operating at max capacity," Nandy, whose team has studied local and national COVID-19 data since the pandemic began, told The Daily Beast on Wednesday. "It probably would be three to four weeks when we'd be overloaded even with surge capacities. At that point, we'd have to consider creating new facilities at convention centers."Despite those warnings, Dallas-area hospitals have repeatedly said they don't need to prepare a pop-up facility at a nearby convention center, with the chair of the Texas Medical Associations' board of trustees telling the newspaper that there are "a number of safety valves that could be pushed."Still, said Nandy: "Our health-care system will be overwhelmed if it continues like this."And ragged, frustrated medical providers all over the state have said they're anxious about the days to come."We are in an entirely different place now than what we were just four weeks ago," said Dr. Pritesh Gandhi, an Austin-based primary care doctor and the associate chief medical officer at People's Community Clinic, which serves uninsured and underinsured Central Texans. "In the last few days, our clinic has seen three or four times as many patients for drive-through testing than we had weeks ago, and it's reflective of massive community spread." Gandhi, a Democratic candidate for Texas' 10th Congressional District, called the medical community's efforts to provide care for Texans during the past month of surges "extraordinarily challenging" and said it has been "complicated by failures at both the federal and state level.""We're testing more, having more positives, having more symptomatic patients, doing more drive-through testing," Gandhi told The Daily Beast on Wednesday. "Staff are getting sick, just like anywhere else."Gandhi, and the group of Democratic state representatives who held the press conference, decried an undercurrent of "science denialism" and "hostility towards public health" perhaps best embodied by an interview Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick gave to Fox News hours earlier. He said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease expert in the country—and the face of the federal response to the pandemic—was "wrong every time on every issue.""He doesn't know what he's talking about!" Patrick told Fox News on Tuesday evening. "I don't need his advice anymore."Dr. Lakey—a former commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services who was appointed by former Texas Gov. Rick Perry—was more forgiving of Abbott than others in the state. He said he doesn't envy those, like the governor, who've had to navigate the middle ground between complete statewide shutdowns and complete light-switch openings."It's a very fraught time in public health," said Lakey. "No one has a crystal ball. There's no perfect plan.""You make your plan, and then you have to be ready to adjust your plan," said Lakey. "That's not a sign of failure, it's a sign that you're looking at the data and trying to make the best decision."But both Rose and Rep. Donna Howard, who represents Austin, said their constituents would likely benefit from a second statewide shutdown, and that Abbott's decisions had been deeply damaging. Martinez-Fischer emphasized that stay-at-home orders were a tool that should never have been taken out of local hands."We know that it worked before," said Howard. "That contained the spread before. We have to do what we have to do here, and unfortunately shutting down may be our only option."Whether or not that's true, it remains unclear if Abbott would do it, as he's said "closing down Texas again will always be the last option." Then again, many public health experts question whether it would be necessary.As Lakey noted: It's no longer March. Those trying to battle the crisis in Texas have the benefit of months of nationwide observation, studies about intubation, clinical trials, and promising therapeutic treatments like Remdesivir. And the mask order could help turn the tide."We have learned from that experience and are bringing those lessons to the response," said Lakey. Still, he and others point to the myriad unknowns in the coming days, from July 4 weekend celebrations to college students possibly returning to campuses in just a few weeks.As Gandhi said on Wednesday, "We're angry and we're exhausted because of the incompetence." "It didn't have to be like this."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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| Supreme Court school voucher ruling threatens American unity and public education Posted: 03 Jul 2020 05:18 AM PDT |
| Kim Jong Un urges North Koreans to keep up virus fight Posted: 02 Jul 2020 10:38 PM PDT  North Korean leader Kim Jong Un urged officials to maintain alertness against the coronavirus, warning that complacency risked "unimaginable and irretrievable crisis," state media said Friday. Despite the warning, Kim reaffirmed North Korea's claim to not have had a single case of COVID-19, telling a ruling party meeting Thursday that the country has "thoroughly prevented the inroad of the malignant virus" despite the worldwide health crisis, the Korean Central News Agency said. Outsiders widely doubt North Korea escaped the pandemic entirely, given its poor health infrastructure and close trade and travel ties to China, where the coronavirus emerged late last year.
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| Iran's Military Is Armed to the Teeth with Lots of Missiles Posted: 04 Jul 2020 06:30 AM PDT  And it has built the region's largest missile force.
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| LGBT Pride activists protest in Paris against racial injustice Posted: 04 Jul 2020 12:12 PM PDT  A pared-down LGBT Pride march drew thousands of people to the streets of Paris on Saturday, without the colourful trucks blasting out techno music but with powerful slogans demanding racial equality and protesting against police violence. The French capital's official Pride parade was postponed to November because of the coronavirus epidemic, but organisers decided to hold a march they said should be more politically driven and support the "Black Lives Matter" movement. "Because of COVID, the normal Pride parade had to be cancelled, but we managed to organise a Pride that is more political," a drag king and illustrator who gave her name as Saint Eugene told Reuters TV.
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