| China bars protest leaders from running in upcoming Hong Kong elections Posted: 30 Jul 2020 05:50 AM PDT  The move is seen as a further sign of Beijing's tightening hold on the city after the passage of a controversial security law.
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| Mass arrest of Black Lives Matter protesters in Omaha raises questions Posted: 29 Jul 2020 02:19 PM PDT  The mass arrests in Omaha, which were followed by a chaotic, crowded and prolonged detention process that carried well into the next day, have prompted backlash from local officials and civil rights advocates.
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| Trump loyalist who tested positive for coronavirus is America’s ‘dumbest’ congressman, says Lincoln Project co-founder Posted: 30 Jul 2020 01:14 PM PDT  The co-founder of Republican anti-Trump group The Lincoln Project has called congressman Louie Gohmert "America's craziest and dumbest congressman", following confirmation he tested positive for coronavirus.Steve Schmidt co-founded the Republican political action committee that is aiming to prevent the reelection of Donald Trump, alongside George Conway, the husband of the president's adviser Kellyanne Conway.
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| MSNBC host angers Georgia Democrat with Trump support question Posted: 29 Jul 2020 11:45 AM PDT  Georgia Democrat angered by MSNBC host with Trump support question.
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| Tennessee state senator charged with stealing federal funds Posted: 29 Jul 2020 02:01 PM PDT  A Tennessee state senator has been charged with stealing more than $600,000 in federal funds received by a health care company she directed and using the money to pay for her wedding and other personal expenses, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. A criminal complaint unsealed Wednesday charges state Sen. Katrina Robinson with theft and embezzlement involving government programs and wire fraud, U.S. Attorney D. Michael Dunavant said in a news release. Robinson, a Democrat elected to the General Assembly in 2018 from a Memphis district, is also the director of The Healthcare Institute, which provides training for jobs in the health care field, prosecutors said.
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| Letters to the Editor: If Joe Biden picks Karen Bass as his VP, L.A.'s major loss would be America's gain Posted: 29 Jul 2020 03:00 AM PDT  Karen Bass is a proactive member of Congress who serves her constituents as well. She would make an excellent vice president.
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| Man fires 'warning shots' in Miami hotel lobby after telling guests 'you all aren't social distancing' Posted: 30 Jul 2020 11:20 AM PDT  A man was arrested in Florida after firing "four warning shots" and telling a mother and her son that they weren't social distancing in a hotel lobby.
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| Unsolicited seeds sent to Americans, possibly from China, may be part of 'brushing' scam Posted: 29 Jul 2020 01:26 PM PDT |
| Detained Portland protesters have to promise to stop going to rallies if they want to get out of jail, reports say Posted: 30 Jul 2020 04:50 AM PDT  "Defendant may not attend any other protests, rallies, assemblies or public gathering in the state of Oregon," said one order, per ProPublica.
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| Protester arrested while opposing removal of Confederate statue in Georgia Posted: 29 Jul 2020 10:04 AM PDT  A protester was arrested and charged with obstruction for refusing to leave as a Confederate statue was removed a public square in the city of McDonagh, Georgia.The monument was taken down overnight on Wednesday by workers who used a crane to winch it from its pedestal in McDonagh Square.
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| Tweet that Trump will accept nomination in Charlotte is incorrect -Fox News reporter Posted: 29 Jul 2020 02:59 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) A tweet by a North Carolina television station on Wednesday that said President Donald Trump would accept the Republican presidential nomination in Charlotte, North Carolina, on the first night of the party's convention is incorrect, a Fox News reporter said on Twitter, citing unnamed sources. Fox News' White House correspondent John Roberts later said he was told that was not the case, tweeting "Sources tell @FoxNews this tweet is incorrect."
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| Holocaust survivors urge Facebook to remove denial posts Posted: 29 Jul 2020 03:58 AM PDT |
| Hong Kong students arrested on suspicion of inciting secession Posted: 29 Jul 2020 02:02 PM PDT  China's new "national security" legislation, which came into force in Hong Kong on July 1, outlaws a variety of vaguely defined offenses like "sedition" that can carry sentences of life in prison.
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| Rep. Louie Gohmert says he may have contracted the coronavirus because he wore a mask, despite the fact that he regularly refused to wear masks Posted: 29 Jul 2020 11:25 AM PDT  Overwhelming scientific evidence has shown that face masks significantly reduce the chance of a person spreading or being infected by the coronavirus.
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| Former Taiwan president dubbed 'Mr Democracy' dies aged 97 Posted: 30 Jul 2020 02:45 PM PDT  Taiwan's former president Lee Teng-hui, who defied China and earned the nickname "Mr Democracy" for the part he played in the island's transition away from authoritarian rule, died Thursday aged 97. Lee's 12 years in office from 1988 to 2000 were marked by growing cross-strait tensions as he pitched himself against Beijing, infuriating Chinese authorities for daring to carve out a separate identity for Taiwan. Despite being self-ruled since 1949, Taiwan has never formally declared independence from the mainland and Beijing has vowed to react with force if it ever does.
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| Police Find Child’s Toy Bucket in Secret Sealed Cellar Being Searched for Madeleine McCann Posted: 30 Jul 2020 02:30 AM PDT  Police and cadaver-hunting dogs are on the scene in a backyard in Hanover, Germany, where a secret sealed cellar has just been unearthed in the hunt for missing Briton Madeleine McCann. The cellar was once under a garden shed on property where German pedophile Christian Brueckner, the latest suspect in the missing-child case, once lived. The shed was torn down years ago, but neighbors said Brueckner once spent hours inside. German Police Dig Up a Backyard in Search of Madeleine McCannPolice were seen Thursday carrying out a number of items from the cellar, including blue bags of forensic evidence and a child's bucket. McCann was just shy of her fourth birthday when she was snatched from her bed while her twin siblings slept nearby at a holiday rental in Portugal in 2007. Her parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, were dining with friends a few hundred yards away when she disappeared.The case, which has been closed and reopened by Portuguese police several times, has now picked up steam after German authorities identified the convicted pedophile, who is also under investigation for raping a 72-year-old woman. British police have never lost faith in finding out what happened, spending millions of pounds over the last 13 years on an investigation called Operation Grange, through which they have translated the Portuguese dossier and interviewed many key witnesses.But it is German police who have so far advanced the search for the truth. Initially they said they were sure McCann was dead, but provided no clues to back up their line of thinking. McCann's parents have not commented on the latest development on the case, but are said to be watching closely in hopes of finally finding out what happened to their missing daughter. 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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| A Black videographer got stabbed at the Portland protests, and he says it is because he is pro-Trump Posted: 30 Jul 2020 03:13 AM PDT  The video was released on Wednesday as Oregon Gov. Kate Brown announced that federal agents would withdraw from Portland.
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| New research suggests COVID-19 can spread via aerosol transmission -- and might affect tall people more Posted: 29 Jul 2020 06:40 AM PDT  A new survey has found more evidence to suggest that people can become infected with COVID-19 through aerosol transmission, which could be prevented by wearing a mask. Carried out by data scientists in the UK, Norway, and the US, the study is one of the first to investigate which personal and work-related factors can lead to COVID-19 transmission. After surveying 2,000 people in the UK and US, the researchers found that the data from both countries suggests that aerosol transmission of the virus -- via microdroplets which are so small that they remain suspended in the air for several hours -- is very likely.
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| US to pull 12,000 troops out of Germany as Trump blasts 'delinquent' Berlin Posted: 29 Jul 2020 10:45 AM PDT  Pentagon insists move is about long-term strategy but Trump says: 'We're reducing the force because they're not paying their bills'The US is planning to pull nearly 12,000 troops out of Germany in a move the Pentagon insisted was about long-term strategy but which Donald Trump said was to punish Berlin for low defence spending.Of a total of 11,900 personnel that will be leaving Germany under the proposal, 6,400 will be returning to the US, from where they could be used for rotational deployments in eastern Europe and around the world, while 5,600 will be repositioned within other Nato countries, particularly Belgium and Italy.The defence secretary, Mark Esper, said the move would begin within weeks, but also stressed that planning for the redeployment was in its early stages and it would cost several billion dollars.He repeatedly denied that the decision was motivated by Trump's frequently expressed desire to move troops out of Germany to teach Berlin a lesson for not spending enough on defence. The Pentagon put out a statement saying the withdrawal would "strengthen Nato, enhance the deterrence of Russia" and boost the flexibility of the US military.Minutes later, the president told journalists at the White House he had ordered the troop withdrawal because Berlin was being "delinquent" by not spending enough on defence."[US troops] are there to protect Germany, right? And Germany is supposed to pay for it," Trump said. "Germany's not paying for it. We don't want to be the suckers any more. The United States has been taken advantage of for 25 years, both on trade and on the military. So we're reducing the force because they're not paying their bills."Trump wrongly claimed, as he has many times in the past, that Germany was not paying its "Nato fees". In fact, the friction between the US and Germany, as well as other European allies, is about national defence spending. The allies agreed in 2014 to spend 2% of their GDP on defence by 2024. Germany is currently on 1.5%, but Belgium, where the US will move some of its European Command (Eucom) headquarters, spends less than 1%, and Italy, to where the US will move an F-16 fighter squadron and two army battalions from Germany, spends 1.2%.Diplomats and former US officials have described Trump as fixated on Germany and its chancellor, Angela Merkel."He's obsessed with the idea that Germany is taking advantage of the US, over defence, but on trade, selling too many cars to the US for example. He has always been particularly rude to Merkel," a former White House official said.Emily Haber, the German ambassador to Washington, said US troops "have become neighbors, partners and friends while protecting transatlantic security and projecting American power and interests globally"."We have been and are proud to host US troops," Haber wrote on Twitter. "A strong, and united Nato is crucial for deterrence and power projection. Germany is a steadfast Nato ally and third largest contributor to its budget."Constanze Stelzenmüller, a senior fellow at the center on the US and Europe at the Brookings Institution, said: "I have sympathy for the criticism of Germany's low defense spending, which does set a bad example for other member states who spend even less – it's against Europe's and our own interest."Moving Eucom to Belgium actually makes sense, but I find the strategic rationale for the other movements much less persuasive."Robert Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate foreign relations committee, said: "Champagne must be flowing freely this evening at the Kremlin. The Trump administration's decision to withdraw forces from Germany is not only an affront to one of our closest allies, but will ultimately weaken US efforts to counter Kremlin aggression in Europe."Trump's relationship with Moscow, the issue that triggered his impeachment, came under renewed scrutiny earlier on Wednesday morning, when he admitted he had not confronted Vladimir Putin with intelligence suggesting Russia was paying Taliban fighters bounties for killing US soldiers in Afghanistan."I have never discussed it with him," the president told Axios on HBO. "That was a phone call to discuss other things, and frankly that's an issue that many people said was fake news."Esper argued the redeployments would make troops available to rotate in and out of the Baltic states, Poland and the Black Sea region. The defence secretary said: "it enhances deterrence, strengthens the allies, reassures." He claimed he had received "very positive feedback" from the Nato countries affected.He said US Africa Command, currently in Stuttgart, would be moved out, to a new headquarters yet to be decided.Critics of the move have said it would be very expensive, time-consuming and would damage Nato cohesion and deterrence against Russia. Rotating troops eastwards would be more expensive and build less trust in the host countries, they argue, while at the same time undermining morale by making soldiers spend more time away from their families.But retired Lt Col Daniel Davis, senior fellow at the Defense Priorities thinktank, argued that whatever the short-term justifications, pulling troops out of Germany made strategic sense."We don't have a need for that many troops," Lt Col Davis said. "Because there's no security threat that those troops actually help with, in my view. Russia is already deterred. If you took all the American troops out of Europe … that's not going to change the deterrent factor for Russia because the Nato combined militaries are far more powerful than Russia, plus they have nuclear weapons."
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| Chinese long-range bombers join drills over South China Sea Posted: 30 Jul 2020 04:27 AM PDT  China said Thursday that long-range bombers were among the aircraft that took part in recent aerial drills over the South China Sea amid rising tensions between Washington and Beijing over the strategic waterway. The exercises included nighttime takeoffs and landings and simulated long-range attacks, Defense Ministry spokesperson Ren Guoqiang said. Ren's statement appeared to distance the drills from recent accusations exchanged between the sides over China's claim to virtually all of the South China Sea, which it has buttressed in recent years by building man-made islands equipped with runways.
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| D.C. Circuit Court Agrees to Hear Case on Barr’s Decision to Drop Charges against Michael Flynn Posted: 30 Jul 2020 09:53 AM PDT  The U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia Circuit on Thursday vacated an earlier ruling by the court to dismiss the case of former national security adviser Michael Flynn.A majority of judges on the Circuit Court agreed to an en banc rehearing of the case against Flynn, meaning that all eleven of the court's judges will oversee the case.> BREAKING: DC Circuit Court vacates panel's order that the trial judge dismiss Michael Flynn's criminal charges. Full court will rehear the case pic.twitter.com/gsiIrV2LnP> > -- John Kruzel (@johnkruzel) July 30, 2020Previously, a panel of three Circuit Court judges voted 2-1 to order D.C. District Court judge Emmett Sullivan to dismiss the case against Flynn. Sullivan then filed an appeal to the Circuit Court for an en banc hearing.The Circuit Court scheduled oral arguments before the judges for August 11.Flynn in 2017 pleaded guilty on one count of lying to the FBI as part of the agency's Russia investigation. However, Flynn has since reversed that plea, and the Justice Department dropped its charges against Flynn in May of this year."The Government is not persuaded that the January 24, 2017 interview [that led to Flynn's guilty plea] was conducted with a legitimate investigative basis and therefore does not believe that Mr. Flynn's statements were material even if untrue," the DOJ said in its decision.
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| Three decades on, Iraq and Kuwait haunted by Saddam's invasion Posted: 29 Jul 2020 09:37 PM PDT  Thirty years have passed since Iraqi tyrant Saddam Hussein invaded neighbouring Kuwait, but despite hints of a diplomatic rapprochement, people in both countries say the wounds have yet to heal. On August 2, 1990, Saddam sent his military, already exhausted by an eight-year conflict with Iran, into Kuwait to seize what he dubbed "Iraq's 19th province." From Baghdad to Basra, Kirkuk to Babylon, Iraqis agree that the incursion "marked the beginning of the end."
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| Police chief explains decision to back out of Democrat convention security Posted: 30 Jul 2020 04:42 AM PDT  West Allis Police Department Chief Patrick Mitchell joins 'Fox & Friends' after backing out of a DNC security agreement over a ban on law enforcement's use of chemical irritants during protests.
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| Police agencies are withdrawing from security at Democratic Convention after a ban was imposed on pepper spray and tear gas Posted: 29 Jul 2020 03:33 PM PDT  Over 100 police agencies dropped out as security for the Democratic National Convention set to take place in Milwaukee next month, WTMJ-TV reported.
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| Spoiler alert? Kamala Harris outed as Biden's VP pick -- maybe Posted: 29 Jul 2020 02:07 PM PDT  Joe Biden's vice presidential pick has been one of Washington's best kept secrets but a supposedly accidental news publication and Biden's own teasingly displayed notes are raising expectations that the winner is Kamala Harris. Speculation over the choice of VP is a parlor game played every four years in Washington, but this time the stakes are unusually high. Biden would be 78 on taking office -- the oldest US president ever -- and he has hinted that he might not seek a second term, making his deputy the prime candidate to take on the party's nomination.
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| GM will unveil the revived, electric Hummer pickup this fall — and promises the world's first 'super truck' Posted: 29 Jul 2020 09:30 AM PDT  The all-electric pickup will have 1,000 horsepower and be able to sprint from 0-60 mph in 3 seconds. GMC also teased the Hummer SUV.
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| Israel says it arrested Hamas militant who fled strip by sea Posted: 30 Jul 2020 07:44 AM PDT |
| Barbie shuts down Donald Trump Jr.'s snide tweet about new campaign dolls Posted: 30 Jul 2020 07:57 AM PDT  Donald Trump Jr. has a theory about the new Barbie doll collection, featuring a Black female presidential candidate and her all-woman campaign team.
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| Former U.S. Marine sentenced to 9 years in Russian prison for assaulting police officer Posted: 30 Jul 2020 07:23 AM PDT  The U.S. ambassador to Moscow has called the evidence against Reed "flimsy," and the latest example of Russia treating American citizens unfairly.
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| Killer of Rafiki, Uganda's rare silverback mountain gorilla, jailed Posted: 30 Jul 2020 03:27 AM PDT  The Ugandan hunter said that he had killed the animal in self defence when he was attacked.
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| Was Belarus’ Arrest of Russian Wagner Soldiers Staged in a Ploy to Postpone Elections? Posted: 30 Jul 2020 04:04 AM PDT  MOSCOW—The videos were certainly not what Russians have come to expect from their country's secret warriors abroad: powerful men in unmarked uniforms imposing Russian influence on Syria, Ukraine, and Africa. These men were caught on camera by Belarusian security officers totally unprepared. Some were naked except for underwear, with documents, propaganda leaflets, and condoms strewn around their hotel rooms. Others wore vaguely marked uniforms. All 33 of them were military-age Russians hunkered down just outside Minsk a few days before Belarus' presidential elections.Belarusian state news agencies reported the soldiers served as Russian security contractors with Wagner, a Russian private military group close to the government. They were in the country for "destabilization" purposes before the elections, Belarusian officials said. Moscow denied any military involvement in Belarus, and some believe the mercenaries were simply using the country as a staging post on their way to or from their latest assignment. By arresting the Wagner soldiers, Belarus' embattled president Alexander Lukashenko is likely to be making many enemies in Russia. The Belarusian Security Council accused the arrested Wagner soldiers of preparing "a terrorist attack," the Russian Interfax news agency reported Thursday. The arrest and subsequent broadcast of the footage, which was aired by a Belarusian state channel, Agency of Television News, was all the more confusing as Belarus and Russia have been allies in an arrangement called the Union State for decades. Some of the men were shown in their underwear with hands twisted behind their backs. They had tattoos on their arms, and one uniform patch read: "Our business is death and the business is good." The state media report said there were more than 200 such soldiers plotting to upset the presidential elections next month. The Russian private security contractor, Wagner, has reportedly been sending combatants to eastern Ukraine, Syria, and African countries, including Libya, on deadly secret missions that give the Kremlin plausible deniability. When the Belarusian state media published the names of the 33 arrested soldiers, 17 of them matched up to a Ukrainian list of "war criminals" who fought on the Russian-backed side in the Ukraine war. Belarusian weekly newspaper Nasha Niva reported that one of the mercenaries, Andrey Bakunovich, was a commander of Wagner's group of snipers. The Belarus-1 channel quoted a source in the Belarusian intelligence agency, still called the KGB, as saying that several of the arrested private soldiers were Russian citizens who tried to avoid punishment by demonstrating their paperwork confirming they were serving in various Russian military forces. A well-known Russian nationalist novelist, Zakhar Prilepin, who fought in Ukraine, also said he recognized several of the arrested soldiers. "Hundreds of these people work in the private military forces and take part in various conflicts," Prilepin told a nationalist website, Russian Spring. The soldiers were merely using Belarus for transit on the way to foreign missions, he said. "It is going to be weird if now the Union State will start some political hysterics because of this story."But later on Wednesday, Russia's Federal Security Service, Russia's successor to the KGB, seemed to accuse Prilepin of talking too much. "I am surprised that some of our idiots confirmed that the arrested men are soldiers of our private military forces," a retired FSB general-major, Alexander Mikhailov, told reporters.The private forces known as Wagner are financed by Russian President Vladimir Putin's close friend Yevgeny Prigozhin, who owns catering companies and is known as "Putin's chef." "Whenever Putin needs to solve an issue abroad, his personal chef and close ally Prigozhin sends his soldiers," Sergey Parkhomenko, a political commentator, told The Daily Beast. "Prigozhin's corporation feeds the Kremlin and fights its wars." Longtime Belarus watchers, familiar with the almost three-decades-long rule of Lukashenko, suggested the arrests were a well-staged "performance" by Lukashenko, to perhaps win support from domestic opponents to Russia before the election on Aug. 9. For nearly 30 years, Lukashenko claimed up to 80 percent of public support, but his popularity has recently faded, along with his loyalty to the Kremlin, to Moscow's frustration.The macho leader, who is known for mocking women—and, recently, those who succumb to coronavirus—as weaklings, is now challenged by three liberal, pro-Western women in the election. For weeks, thousands of people have been protesting in Belarus, demanding to end Lukashenko's dictatorship; his approval rating has melted down to 24 percent, according to some polls. Lukashenko may be losing favor in the Kremlin, but in Putin's eyes, there is no doubt he is a better prospect than any of the liberal pro-Western female candidates.Lukashenko's longtime rival, ex-presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov, is convinced that Lukashenko and Putin had both been aware of the plans to arrest the Wagner mercenaries ahead of time. "Putin gives Lukashenko the license to stay in power and helps him with this Wagner scandal, to pretend the threat is too serious to continue the election race," Sannikov told The Daily Beast. "Putin is making a mistake, Lukashenko is a nutcase."At the meeting with the head of Belarusian KGB, Lukashenko commented on the arrests of Russian soldiers: "I'm looking at the reaction of the Russians. They are already making excuses, saying that we brought them here ourselves. Clearly, they try to, somehow, to justify their dirty intentions."Whether he was in on the plan to bring the soldiers to Belarus or not, Lukashenko is certainly trying to capitalize on the apparent Russian meddling. He could even try to postpone the election or cancel it altogether. "You and I should be worried about destabilization of the situation in our country most of all," he said after the arrests. "The issue of the presidential election is secondary."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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| Japanese court recognises ‘black rain’ victims of Hiroshima atomic bomb Posted: 30 Jul 2020 08:30 AM PDT  Nearly 75 years after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a Japanese court has ordered that 84 people who were exposed to radioactive "black rain" be made eligible for the same medical benefits as other survivors of the attack. The plaintiffs, the youngest of whom is in their late 70s, were exposed to radioactive rain immediately after the "Little Boy" uranium bomb exploded above the city on August 6, 1945, but were excluded from financial support for medical treatment because they were just outside the zone set by the government in 1976 for victims of the attack. For a few hours after the attack, rain that fell in the city and surrounding areas was black due to debris from the 15 kiloton blast and contaminated with fallout. The plaintiffs argued in court that they developed a range of illnesses, including different types of cancer and cataracts, as a result of their exposure to radiation and from food and water that had been contaminated. Ten of the people who originally filed the suit in 2015 died before Wednesday's ruling.
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| Colorado restaurant owners who defied COVID lockdown orders and reopened forced to close business for good Posted: 29 Jul 2020 05:55 PM PDT  Jesse and April Arellano, co-owners of the C&C Breakfast and Korean Kitchen in Castle Rock, join Tucker Carlson with insight on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight.'
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| Anthony Fauci said eye coverings might eventually be recommended in the US: 'You should probably use it if you can' Posted: 30 Jul 2020 08:52 AM PDT  "If you have goggles or an eye shield, you should use it," Fauci told ABC. The CDC already recommends eye protection for healthcare workers.
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| 260 Chinese boats fish near Galapagos; Ecuador on alert Posted: 30 Jul 2020 12:56 PM PDT  Some call it a floating city, a flotilla of 260 mostly Chinese fishing vessels near the Galapagos archipelago that is stirring diplomatic tension and raising worries about the threat to sharks, manta rays and other vulnerable species in waters around the UNESCO world heritage site. The Chinese fleet is "very close" to the edge of the exclusive economic zone around the Galapagos, which extends 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from the archipelago, said its governor, Norman Wray.
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| Notre Dame withdraws from hosting first presidential debate because of COVID-19 constraints Posted: 30 Jul 2020 06:46 AM PDT  The first debate between President Donald Trump and presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden will take place in Cleveland.
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| Ex-police officer in George Floyd death asks for charges to be dropped Posted: 30 Jul 2020 05:24 AM PDT  A police officer charged in connection with the death of George Floyd has applied to have his charges dropped, court documents show.Lawyers for Tou Thao, 34, have put forward a motion stating that the former Minneapolis police officer could not have known that Derek Chauvin, who knelt on Floyd's neck for almost nine minutes, was about to commit a crime.
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| Former Chinese top banker pleads guilty to massive graft Posted: 30 Jul 2020 03:02 AM PDT  A former top banker in China pleaded guilty Thursday to illegally receiving over $12 million after being caught last year in President Xi Jinping's sweeping campaign against corruption. Hu Huaibang, former party secretary and chairman of the China Development Bank, had taken advantage of his positions to illegally receive money and goods worth a total of 85.5 million yuan ($12.2 million) between 2009 and 2019, heard a court in northern Chengde city. Hu pleaded guilty at the hearing attended by more than 30 people including national, provincial and municipal people's congress representatives, the report added.
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| Senate cancels confirmation hearing for Pentagon nominee Tata as GOP senator says he'll vote no Posted: 30 Jul 2020 08:04 AM PDT  It's unclear if Tata's nomination will survive. Pentagon spokesman says Tata will continue to serve as a senior adviser to Defense Secretary Mark Esper.
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| Portugal says some EU countries breaking pact to reinstate free movement Posted: 29 Jul 2020 04:14 AM PDT |
