| Senate GOP, White House reach tentative $1 trillion pact to break coronavirus aid logjam Posted: 23 Jul 2020 07:33 AM PDT  The latest talks show some signs of resolving intraparty clashes that have kept negotiations at a dead stop for weeks.
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| CCTV shows suspects in fishing trip 'massacre' following victim into Florida dollar store Posted: 23 Jul 2020 10:32 AM PDT  CCTV footage from a Florida convenience store has shown the suspects arrested in connection with a fishing trip "massacre" in the same store as one of the victims just before they were murdered.
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| Court orders 4th sentencing for actress in 2010 fatal crash Posted: 24 Jul 2020 09:39 AM PDT  A former "Melrose Place" actress who has already served a sentence for a fatal drunken driving crash could go back to prison. The complicated legal history of the case against Amy Locane includes three sentences imposed by two judges, as well as numerous appeals. It stems from a crash in March 2010 that killed Helene Seeman and seriously injured her husband, Fred, as they turned into their driveway in Montgomery Township in central New Jersey.
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| Tom Cotton Introduces Bill to Prohibit Federal Funding for Schools Using ‘1619 Project’ Curriculum Posted: 23 Jul 2020 12:26 PM PDT  Senator Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) introduced a law on Thursday that would prohibit federal funding for schools that incorporate curriculum from the New York Times's "1619 Project."The 1619 Project, named after the year when colonists first brought slaves to the U.S., attempts to retell American history by emphasizing the importance of slavery in the country's earliest years. However, historians have criticized the project for basic "factual errors" and a " displacement of historical understanding by ideology." (One example of such an error in the project is the assertion that the colonies revolted from British rule in order to preserve slavery.)"The New York Times's 1619 Project is a racially divisive, revisionist account of history that denies the noble principles of freedom and equality on which our nation was founded," Cotton said in a statement. "Not a single cent of federal funding should go to indoctrinate young Americans with this left-wing garbage."According to Cotton, the bill would not affect federal funding allocated to low-income or special-needs students.The Times has announced plans to incorporate material from the project in public school curricula. Districts in several major cities including Chicago, Ill., and Washington, D.C., have adopted some of these materials.Writer Nikole Hannah-Jones won a Pulitzer Prize in April for her lead essay for the project.
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| Donald Trump Admits He ‘Often’ Retweets Without Thinking in Barstool Sports Interview Posted: 24 Jul 2020 01:15 PM PDT  President Donald Trump got just about as introspective as he's capable of getting during an interview with Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy this week at the White House.The interview included such hard-hitting questions as "Do you love doing Twitter?""There are times when I love it," Trump said with a smile. "Too much sometimes, right?" After getting his social-media guru Dan Scavino to confirm his current total number of followers, the president boasted about his "very big voice" in the face of "fake news," adding, "It's been very important for me." Then Portnoy, who made sure to point out that his nickname is "El Presidente," asked if the actual president ever tweets something out and then wakes up the next day and thinks, "Aw man, I wish I didn't send that one out." "Often," Trump replied. "Too often." He then went on to explain that "in the old days," people would write a letter and then put it in a drawer and decide the next day if they actually wanted to mail it. "But we don't do that with Twitter," he said. "We put it out instantaneously, we feel great, and then you start getting phone calls." When his staff asks him questions like, "Did you really say this?" Trump said that his first response is often, "What's wrong with that?" "You know what I find? It's not the tweets, it's the retweets that get you in trouble," Trump added. He didn't mention any specific examples, but it's quite possible the recent video of a supporter repeatedly shouting "White power!" may have been on his mind (among his other infamously bigoted or conspiratorial retweets). Portnoy then asked Trump how exactly he ends up retweeting so many "crazy" people. "You don't even look, you just press retweet, you just fire from the hip!" he said."Well, you see something that looks good and you don't investigate it," Trump replied, "and you don't look at exactly what is on the helmet, which is in miniature, and you don't blow it up. But I have found, almost always, it's the retweets that get you in trouble." "I've seen that a little bit with you," Portnoy agreed before moving on to bait Trump into trashing Dr. Anthony Fauci. Barstool Sports Employees of Color Go to Extremes to Get Founder Dave Portnoy's Half-Assed Apology for RacismInside Barstool Sports' Culture of Online Hate: 'They Treat Sexual Harassment and Cyberbullying as a Game'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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| 'How long did you serve, Tucker?' Another woman who lost her legs in Iraq backs Tammy Duckworth over Carlson's snark Posted: 23 Jul 2020 07:26 AM PDT  Despite their heroic military careers, Tammy Duckworth, Marissa Strock and many more American women like them continue to endure indignities on the home front.
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| Hawaiian Airlines flight attendant dies after testing positive for COVID-19 Posted: 24 Jul 2020 03:36 PM PDT  A Hawaiian Airlines flight attendant died after testing positive for COVID-19 earlier this month in California.
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| A Texas hospital is so overrun with coronavirus cases that officials say it will send the patients least likely to survive home to die Posted: 24 Jul 2020 05:42 AM PDT  Starr County health officials said the county's only hospital doesn't have space and a committee would review which patients are most likely to die.
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| Genetic impact of African slave trade revealed in DNA study Posted: 24 Jul 2020 01:20 PM PDT  The consequences of rape, maltreatment, disease and racism are revealed by the findings.
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| Two of the ISIS terrorists dubbed the Beatles admit involvement in captivity of Kayla Mueller, James Foley Posted: 23 Jul 2020 01:00 PM PDT  In exclusive interviews, the two men, Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, for the first time admitted their involvement in the captivity of Mueller.
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| 5 Seattle media outlets have to hand over their unpublished photos from a George Floyd protest to help police investigate suspected crimes, judge rules Posted: 24 Jul 2020 04:00 AM PDT  The Seattle Police Department subpoenaed five media outlets for their footage from a May 30 protest to aid its probe into alleged violence.
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| Alabama prison officers ‘use cruel and unusual punishment’ on inmates, DOJ says Posted: 24 Jul 2020 07:15 AM PDT  Alabama prisons have used "cruel and unusual punishment" on inmates by allowing correctional officers to perform routine beatings, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said following an investigation."Our investigation found reasonable cause to believe that there is a pattern or practice of using excessive force against prisoners in Alabama's prisons for men," Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband for the department's Civil Rights Division said.
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| GOP relief bill has less unemployment aid and $20 billion for farmers Posted: 23 Jul 2020 02:04 PM PDT  The Republican coronavirus relief bill includes no local aid, smaller unemployment benefits and $20 billion for farmers.
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| The 5 Best Leaf Vacuums for Yard Cleanup Posted: 24 Jul 2020 12:15 PM PDT |
| Always rocky, China-US relations appear at a turning point Posted: 24 Jul 2020 01:00 AM PDT  Four decades after the U.S. established diplomatic ties with Communist China, the relationship between the two may have reached a turning point. China ordered the closing of the U.S. Consulate in the southwestern city of Chengdu on Friday, in rapid retaliation for the closing of its consulate in Houston. Two weeks ago, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi asked aloud if relations could stay on track.
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| Trump swings at Republican leader Liz Cheney over her criticisms of his administration Posted: 23 Jul 2020 10:55 AM PDT  Liz Cheney, the highest-ranking Republican woman in Congress, has faced a series of attacks from other Republicans close to Donald Trump.
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| The coronavirus curves are starting to flatten — again. But complacency now could prove deadly. Posted: 23 Jul 2020 12:08 PM PDT  There's no evidence from the rest of the world that relying on people to behave themselves can actually suppress the coronavirus to a manageable level, as opposed to merely slowing its spread. So far, only lockdowns have done that.
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| Judge Rules Michael Cohen Was Retaliated Against Over Trump Tell-All, Sends Him Home Posted: 23 Jul 2020 08:49 AM PDT  A Manhattan federal judge on Thursday ordered Michael Cohen to be released from prison this week after finding that authorities "retaliated" against the former Trump lawyer for writing a tell-all book about the president. "I make the finding that the purpose of transferring Mr. Cohen from furlough and home confinement to jail is retaliatory," U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein stated Thursday, adding that "it's retaliation because of his desire to exercise his First Amendment rights to publish a book and to discuss anything about the book or anything else he wants on social media and with others."Cohen, who was sentenced in 2018 to three years in prison after pleading guilty to lying to Congress about hush-money payments and plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, was allowed in May to serve the remainder of his time behind bars in home confinement due to concerns about the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Trump Seethes About Michael Cohen's Early Release and New Tell-AllBut on July 9, he was ordered back to prison after questioning an agreement that barred him from publishing a tell-all book, his legal team said. The order prompted Cohen to sue Attorney General William Barr and the Bureau of Prisons director last week. During a virtual hearing, Hellerstein ruled that Cohen could return to home confinement without restrictions based on his First Amendment rights. The judge agreed with Cohen's legal team that the former Trump lawyer was sent back to prison as an act of "retaliation" over his upcoming book. Hellerstein said that during his 21 years on the bench, he had never "seen such a clause," adding, "How can I take any other inference but that it was retaliatory?" Cohen will be released to home confinement at his Upper East Side home at 2 p.m. on Friday after he is tested for the coronavirus. His son has been tasked with bringing him home. While Cohen will be allowed to serve his time at home, the judge stressed that he will still have a number of restrictions on his movements and future employment. The decision to allow Cohen to return home comes just one day after prosecutors alleged Cohen was "combative" during a July 9 meeting—and that's what landed him back at Otisville Federal Correction Institution. "He was antagonistic during a meeting with probation officers at which he was supposed to sign the agreement that would have allowed him to complete the remaining portion of his criminal sentence in home confinement," prosecutors wrote in a Wednesday court filing, adding that Cohen "took issue with nearly every provision in the agreement." Under that agreement, Cohen could have "no engagement of any kind with the media, including print, tv, film, books, or any other form of media/news." Prosecutors said in a filing that he is "free to work on his book while incarcerated." In Cohen's lawsuit, the former Trumpkin said his "graphic" book would show "Trump's personality and proclivities, his private and professional affairs, and his personal and business ethics."Trump's Lawyer Threatens Michael Cohen as He Remains in JailCohen's lawyers argued that the U.S. Bureau of Prisons violated the former Trump lawyer's First Amendment rights by throwing him back in prison. He is "currently imprisoned in solitary confinement because he is drafting a book manuscript that is critical of the President of the United States—and because he recently made public that he intends to publish this book shortly before the upcoming election," they said.His lawyers sought a temporary restraining order allowing for Cohen's release, which Hellerstein agreed to on Thursday. During the hearing, Hellerstein also stressed he was highly skeptical of the prosecution's argument that Cohen was not locked up for his book. Despite largely siding with Cohen's defense team, Hellerstein did say that both sides need to work together in the coming days to negotiate restrictions on the former Trump lawyer's relationship with the media. 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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| Astrophysicists published the largest 3D map of the universe ever made, filling in 11 billion years of history Posted: 24 Jul 2020 07:29 AM PDT  It's the most comprehensive 3D map of the cosmos to date, covering millions of galaxies and supermassive black holes.
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| U.S. authorities say 18 Portland protesters face federal charges Posted: 24 Jul 2020 11:12 AM PDT  The U.S. Justice Department on Friday said it has arrested 18 people and charged them for alleged crimes committed during recent anti-racism protests in Portland. In a statement, the department said all 18 had made a first appearance in federal court and were released pending jury trials or other court proceedings. Billy Williams, the Portland United States Attorney, said that five people were charged for allegedly committing crimes including assaulting a federal officer, trespassing and creating a disturbance during protests on the night of July 20-21.
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| Covington Catholic Student Settles Defamation Lawsuit with Washington Post Posted: 24 Jul 2020 09:52 AM PDT  Nicholas Sandmann, the Covington Catholic High School student who sued major news outlets in the aftermath of their coverage of a controversial interaction he and several of his classmates had with a Native American activist, said Friday that he has settled his libel lawsuit against the Washington Post."On 2/19/19, I filed $250M defamation lawsuit against Washington Post. Today, I turned 18 & WaPo settled my lawsuit," Sandmann wrote in a tweet Friday morning, adding that he thanks his lawyers, his family, and "millions of you who have stood your ground by supporting me.""I still have more to do," Sandmann added.Sandmann sued the Post and other major news outlets after their coverage portrayed Sandmann and his classmates as racist and aggressive towards Nathan Phillips, an elderly Native American man, during a confrontation near the Lincoln Memorial on January 18 of last year.Viral video of the incident showed Sandmann, who was 16 at the time, and Phillips standing face to face as Phillips loudly beat on a drum inches away from the Kentucky high schooler's face while Sandmann smirked. NBC asserted that Sandmann "blocked" Phillips and "did not allow him to retreat" during their interaction. Longer versions of the video showed that Phillips approached Sandmann, who stood mostly still during the incident. Before the encounter between Sandmann and Phillips members of the Black Hebrew Israelites, a militant black nationalist group, began a confrontation with the teenagers, taunting and shouting slurs at them.Sandmann and his classmates wore "Make America Great Again" caps and were attending the annual anti-abortion March for Life, while Phillips was participating in the Indigenous Peoples March.Also on Friday, Sandmann tweeted a veiled warning to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey."The fight isn't over. 2 down. 6 to go. Don't hold your breath @jack," Sandmann wrote.In January, CNN settled Sandmann's multimillion-dollar defamation lawsuit against them for an undisclosed amount of money. The suit cited the "emotional distress Nicholas and his family suffered" due to the network's coverage of the encounter. Sandmann also has ongoing lawsuits against ABC, CBS, NBC, the New York Times, Gannett, Rolling Stone, and several other news outlets.
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| San Diego shipyard inks $10 million contract for Bonhomme Richard firefighting and cleanup Posted: 23 Jul 2020 10:36 AM PDT  NASSCO San Diego will continue to aid cleanup through November.
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| The body of professional poker player Susie 'Q' Zhao has been found charred in a Michigan park Posted: 24 Jul 2020 07:11 AM PDT  Police are treating Zhao's death as a homicide, and say it is possible her death was connected to her career.
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| Pakistan returns 200-year-old temple to Sikhs in southwest Posted: 23 Jul 2020 05:40 AM PDT  A 200-year-old Sikh temple that served as a school for Muslim girls for seven decades was returned to the Sikh community in Quetta, enabling them to worship there for the first time in 73 years, officials said Thursday. The temple stood empty for a year or two when most Sikhs left Pakistan for neighboring India after the British partitioned the subcontinent into separate nations in 1947, following two centuries of colonial rule. Under the government's guardianship, a school was later set up in the temple building, which remained functional until recently, when Sikhs won a legal battle to have the property returned, temple custodian Govind Singh said.
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| Singapore man admits being Chinese spy in US Posted: 24 Jul 2020 06:36 PM PDT  A court hearing is the latest incident as tensions rise between the US and China in recent days.
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| Republicans face unemployment renewal 'time crunch of their own making' Posted: 24 Jul 2020 08:52 AM PDT  Republicans have wrapped a week of coronavirus relief bill discussions seemingly no closer to an agreement.The GOP has spent the week discussing the next CARES Act and the unemployment boost that expires at the end of the month, but haven't yet agreed with a party-wide approach to replace it. As Bloomberg's Steven Dennis writes, it's "a time crunch of their own making" that Democrats have had no problem calling out.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), usually careful to strategically time moves within the congressional calendar, announced Tuesday what appeared to be the party's unified agreement on what it wanted in the next coronavirus relief bill. It included another round of $1,200 stimulus payments, and no mention of the $600/week unemployment boost Americans had gotten since early in the pandemic. But a meeting of Senate GOP leaders and Trump administration officials signaled there wasn't much agreement between the Senate and Trump, or between the senators themselves. The disconnect is making McConnell's discussion delay look like "a significant miscalculation," Dennis writes.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) criticized the Republicans' infighting on Friday. "We had expected to be working throughout this weekend to find common ground on the next COVID response package," they said. "It is simply unacceptable that Republicans have had this entire time to reach consensus among themselves and continue to flail."More stories from theweek.com The coming Republican power grab on the Supreme Court Trump says he 'often' regrets his tweets New Lincoln Project ad presents brutal timeline of Trump's coronavirus response
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| Triple tropical trouble: Douglas, Gonzalo and Tropical Depression 8 threaten US, Caribbean Posted: 23 Jul 2020 02:03 PM PDT  Three storms are threatening havoc: Hurricane Douglas in the Pacific, tropical depression in the Gulf of Mexico, Tropical Storm Gonzalo in the Atlantic.
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| Miami's mayor asks people to wear face masks in their own homes to reduce the spread of coronavirus within families Posted: 24 Jul 2020 04:06 AM PDT  Miami Mayor Francis Suarez warned that the family home had become the largest source of COVID-19 cases in the badly hit state.
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| German court convicts former concentration camp guard, 93 Posted: 22 Jul 2020 11:20 PM PDT  A German court on Thursday convicted a 93-year-old former SS private of being an accessory to murder at the Stutthof concentration camp, where he served as a guard in the final months of World War II. He was given a two-year suspended sentence. Bruno Dey was convicted of 5,232 counts of accessory to murder by the Hamburg state court, news agency dpa reported. Because he was only 17, and later 18, at the time of his alleged crimes, Dey's case was heard in juvenile court.
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| The Media Can’t Stop Misleading on Guns Posted: 23 Jul 2020 01:58 PM PDT  With the possible exception of religion, there is no issue in American political life that is as poorly covered as guns. At RealClearPolitics, John Lott reports that legacy media outlets often quite literally allow anti–Second Amendment activists to write their news stories on gun policy. Politico hasn't quite done that today, but . . . well, I'm not sure having reporters dutifully repackaging Everytown USA press releases is any better.Politico's piece is headlined "Blocked gun sales skyrocket amid coronavirus pandemic." I have been curious to find out how the anti–Second Amendment crowd would spin the recent spike in gun sales -- which has been especially concentrated among new owners and women -- and I now have my answer:> Internal FBI data reveal a jarring new stat: The number of people trying to buy guns who can't legally own them has skyrocketed. That came as part of a surge in gun purchases in the first three months of 2020, compared to the same time period in 2019. And the change has raised concerns about gun safety.Reporters who lard up their pieces with adjectives such as "jarring," "massive," "whopping," and "raised concerns" are usually trying to convince readers of something that isn't true. And so it is here. Indeed, all this Politico piece tells us is that the National Instant Criminal Background Check System is working exactly as intended.Groups such as Everytown spend a lot of time trying to convince Americans that their country doesn't have a background-check system at all. They're good at it, too; millions of voters seem to be under the impression that criminals can walk into a Walmart and walk out with an AR-15. And yet suddenly Everytown is upset that "jarring" numbers of people are being denied guns by the FBI. Isn't that the point of the system?And about those numbers . . . the piece goes on:> In March 2019, the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) ran background checks on 823,273 attempted gun buys (the system immediately greenlights the vast majority of transactions). This past March, however, NICS processed more than 1.4 million background checks — a massive spike. The most dramatic shift, though, might be in how many people the system blocked from buying guns.> > In March 2019 and February 2020, the NICS system blocked about 9,500 and 9,700, respectively. But in March 2020, it blocked more than double that amount: a whopping 23,692 gun sales.What these stats show is that very few prohibited Americans attempt to buy guns from dealers (this number is even lower than typically suggested, because many of them aren't attempting to hoodwink the FBI but are simply ignorant of the law), and that this is as true in 2020 as it was in 2019. The rejection rate in February 2019 was 0.6 percent and in February 2020 it was 0.68 percent. In March 2019, the rejection rate was 1.15 percent, and it was 1.64 percent in March 2020. As a 2019 Government Accountability Office report inidicates, the number of rejected applications has consistently been around 1 percent for years. Remaining around the historical average is neither "whopping," "jarring," nor "massive," despite the framing of the piece.The piece goes on:> NICS's website says it only blocks gun sales for a narrow number of reasons: because the would-be purchaser has been involuntarily committed to a mental institution, for instance, or because the potential buyer is subject to a restraining order for stalking an intimate partner.Actually, NICS says nothing of the sort on its website. Rather, it offers eleven rather broad grounds and circumstances in which a person can be denied a gun. We know they are broad because no other constitutional right has anything close to as many restrictions on it. I can assure you that if the FBI had eleven reasons to deny women abortions, Politico wouldn't be characterizing them as "narrow" constraints.Politico finishes off the short piece off by quoting a couple of completely baseless statements from Everytown president John Feinblatt:> "This FBI data confirms our fear that America's background check system is completely overwhelmed, which means that more guns are slipping through the cracks and being sold to prohibited purchasers," John Feinblatt, the president of Everytown, said in a statement. "Mitch McConnell can stop this by taking action to close the Charleston loophole, but he's too scared of the gun lobby's waning political power to do anything, even as gun violence rises in the midst of a pandemic."There is no evidence to bolster the assertion that the system is "completely overwhelmed" or that more people are "slipping through the cracks." In fact, the FBI spokesperson says in the piece that the NICS "has reallocated resources to address the incoming volume of NICS transactions."Also, there's no such thing as the "Charleston loophole." I realize that activists such as Feinblatt think every gun purchase in America reflects a "loophole" that needs to be closed, but the three-day waiting limit on checks was purposely written into the 1998 law -- which makes it the opposite of a loophole. The provision was added to the law to ensure that the FBI couldn't arbitrarily deny Americans their Second Amendment rights. The Charleston church shooter obtained his gun -- despite his drug use -- not because of problems with the law but because of a data-entry error. If that is distressing to Feinblatt and his organization, perhaps he should ask the Democratic House to stop ignoring FBI requests for more NICS funding.The simple truth is that these numbers reflect an established pattern: When gun purchases rise -- probably initially owing to the helplessness felt by many people during the COVID-19 lockdown, and later compounded by the lawlessness that erupted in big cities -- other numbers will rise with them. Ultimately, Feinblatt's objection isn't to more background checks; it's to more gun ownership. That's his job, so it's to be expected. But what's the media's excuse?
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| U.S. clears way for drugmakers to share COVID antibody capacity Posted: 23 Jul 2020 02:12 PM PDT  In a letter to Lilly, Amgen, AbCellera Biologics, AstraZeneca Plc, Roche Holding's Genentech unit and GlaxoSmithKline Plc, the DOJ said demand for monoclonal antibodies targeting COVID-19 is likely to exceed what one firm could produce on its own. The drugmakers are in various stages of developing experimental monoclonal antibodies - manufactured proteins designed to bind to a targeted cell, neutralize it and mark it for destruction by the immune system - for treatment, or even prevention, of COVID-19.
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| Top pediatrician says open schools for younger kids Posted: 23 Jul 2020 03:01 PM PDT  A top pediatrician told Congress that schools should reopen for younger kids in parts of the country next month.
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| 'This is not new, and that is the problem': AOC gives powerful speech against misogyny in response to being called a 'f***ing b****' by GOP lawmaker Posted: 23 Jul 2020 09:48 AM PDT  US Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez delivered a speech condemning Republican lawmaker Ted Yoho, who has been accused of accosting the New York Democrat and calling her a "f***ing b***" on the steps of the House of Representatives.Speaking from the House floor on Thursday, she said that his language reflects a "culture of lack of impunity, of accepting of violence and violent language against women, and an entire structure of power against women" –including other abuses against her from Republican officials, including Donald Trump.
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| Florida tops 400,000 coronavirus cases after governor says state is moving in 'better direction' Posted: 24 Jul 2020 11:46 AM PDT  The somber milestone follows the U.S. topping 4 million confirmed coronavirus cases nationwide.
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| Pompeo: U.S. engagement with China has failed Posted: 23 Jul 2020 02:20 PM PDT  The secretary of state decried China as a dishonest global player and brutal domestic regime.
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| NASA will launch a balloon the size of a football stadium into the stratosphere Posted: 24 Jul 2020 08:47 AM PDT  NASA will launch a telescope named ASTHROS and a balloon the size of a football stadium so researchers can study the formation of stars.
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| Democratic headquarters in Arizona county burns down, arson suspected Posted: 24 Jul 2020 05:49 PM PDT  Fire department officials said the investigation was still ongoing, but that they eliminated the possibility that it was an accident.
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| German court convicts men over 2018 gang rape of 18-year-old Posted: 23 Jul 2020 05:28 AM PDT  The case, in which most of the 11 defendants were Syrian, added to tensions in Germany over migration. Prosecutors say the woman was offered an Ecstasy tablet in a disco in the southwestern city of Freiburg and her drink was spiked with an unknown substance, leaving her unable to fend off the assailants. The Freiburg state court convicted most of the defendants, who were aged 18 to 30 at the time of the time of the assault in October in 2018, of rape, news agency dpa reported.
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| Ahead of hearing with big tech CEOs, Cicilline says a Biden presidency would lead to regulation next year Posted: 23 Jul 2020 02:00 AM PDT  A top Democrat leading an antitrust investigation into the nation's top technology companies said Wednesday his committee will release a report by the end of August with recommendations on legislation that Congress could pass into law as soon as next year.
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| Mexican minister quits after clash over navy's anti-drugs role Posted: 23 Jul 2020 09:55 AM PDT  Mexico's communications and transportation minister said on Thursday he was resigning because he disagreed with President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's decision to hand control of ports to the navy as the government seeks to curb drug trafficking. Anxious to stop chemicals used to make narcotics entering the country, Lopez Obrador wants the navy to oversee ports and customs facilities, a decision that the outgoing minister, Javier Jimenez Espriu, was not in agreement with. "We had a dispute that happens between free men," Lopez Obrador said in a video announcing Jimenez Espriu's exit.
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| Here's the Lineup of Bases Next to Get the Army Greens Uniform Posted: 23 Jul 2020 05:02 PM PDT  Army uniform officials have released an updated plan to field the new World War II-style Army Green Service Uniform.
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| Doctors are posting bikini selfies in protest of a study that said it is 'unprofessional' for female medics to share bikini photos online Posted: 24 Jul 2020 08:08 AM PDT  Three male researchers created fake social media profiles to collect photos of female doctors in bikinis for the 2019 study.
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| Does Tucker Carlson hate America? Posted: 24 Jul 2020 04:51 AM PDT  Tucker Carlson is only capable of two facial expressions. One is a deeply furrowed brow that narrows his eyes to a point at which they almost disappear, not dissimilar to the face a child makes when they are hangry, or lost, or both. He uses this expression when he is describing the point of view of someone with whom he disagrees. The other is a wide-eyed look of pleading which sends his eyebrows rising at least an inch in the other direction. It is an expression meant to portray logic and reason, of why-do-you-hate-America indignity. He uses it chiefly when describing his own views and solutions to the problems facing the country.All of this is to say that if eyes are windows to the soul, Carlson's spirit is black and white. He is a binary man whose whole career has been defined by his opposition to, and his apparent hatred of, other people and ideas. And at a time when America is more polarised than ever, he is having a moment.
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| Taliban propose potential Afghan talks timeline as violence soars Posted: 23 Jul 2020 10:04 AM PDT  The Taliban are prepared to hold peace talks with the Afghan government next month straight after the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, the insurgents said Thursday, provided an ongoing prisoner swap has been completed. The development comes amid soaring violence that has threatened to derail US-backed efforts to bring Kabul and the Taliban to the negotiating table and seek an end to Afghanistan's nearly 19-year-old war. The Taliban are "likely ... ready to begin intra-Afghan negotiations immediately after Eid in case the process of the release of the prisoners is completed," the insurgents' political spokesman Suhail Shaheen said on Twitter.
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| Fact check: Five Guys employees terminated, suspended, after refusing service to police Posted: 23 Jul 2020 11:04 AM PDT |
| 'Virtually the entire apparel industry' — from Gap to H&M to Adidas — are profiting from forced Uighur labor, activists say Posted: 23 Jul 2020 08:35 AM PDT  Vast swathes of the fashion industry complicit in China's mass repression of the Uighur Muslims, says a coalition for human rights groups.
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| The millionaire Republicans campaigning to oust Trump Posted: 24 Jul 2020 06:30 AM PDT  A growing number of wealthy conservative Americans are hoping to oust President Trump in November's election.
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| Chinese researcher charged with US visa fraud is in custody Posted: 24 Jul 2020 01:42 PM PDT  A Chinese researcher accused of concealing her ties to the Chinese military on a visa application she submitted so she could work in the U.S. was booked Friday into a Northern California jail and was expected to appear in federal court Monday. Sacramento County jail records show Juan Tang, 37, was being held on behalf of federal authorities after she was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service. The Justice Department on Thursday announced charges against Tang and three other scientists living in the U.S., saying they lied about their status as members of China's People's Liberation Army.
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| Water wars: Mekong River another front in U.S.-China rivalry Posted: 23 Jul 2020 11:56 PM PDT  The Mekong River has become a new front in U.S.-China rivalry, environmentalists and officials say, with Beijing overtaking Washington in both spending and influence over downstream countries at the mercy of its control of the river's waters. It's a confrontation in which the Trump administration - which has largely maintained funding for an Obama-era environmental and development programmes in the Lower Mekong - is losing ground. The two powers' struggle recently moved into the realm of science - with the U.S. and Chinese governments each touting different reports about whether China's 11 dams on the river were harming nations downstream.
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| Tropical Storm Gonzalo forecast to become 2020's first Atlantic hurricane of the year Posted: 23 Jul 2020 08:07 PM PDT  The storm is forecast to bring gusty winds and tropical downpours to the Windward Islands this weekend, and it's not the only game in town.
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