| Trump says Biden is 'against God' Posted: 06 Aug 2020 01:26 PM PDT  President Trump attacked former Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday by accusing him of being "against God."
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| Most of the coronavirus tests the U.S. does are worthless. But there's a solution that could actually work — and stop the spread. Posted: 06 Aug 2020 08:48 AM PDT  Although President Trump is correct that the U.S. has conducted more tests than any other country, it's not testing enough, given the scale of its outbreak. But there might be a simple solution: new tests that prioritize speed over sensitivity.
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| A Sampling of Work From Mexico City’s Top Talents Posted: 07 Aug 2020 05:00 AM PDT |
| The Russian owner who abandoned the ship full of ammonium nitrate that caused the Beirut explosion has been questioned by police in Cyprus, reports say Posted: 07 Aug 2020 03:47 AM PDT  Igor Grechushkin was questioned by Cyprus police on Thursday over the MV Rhosus, the ship that carried ammonium nitrate to Beirut, local reports say.
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| ICE detained hundreds of Mississippi chicken plant workers. Now managers are charged Posted: 06 Aug 2020 01:59 PM PDT  The indictments mark the first criminal action prosecutors have taken against company managers after ICE took close to 700 workers into custody last year during a massive raid on food processing plants.
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| Manchin counters Obama on eliminating filibuster: 'I will do everything I can to prevent it' Posted: 06 Aug 2020 03:48 PM PDT  Former President Barack Obama has called on the Senate to do away with the filibuster, but that won't happen if West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin has anything to say about it.
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| California hotel brawl near Disneyland involves about 100 people, police say Posted: 06 Aug 2020 09:24 AM PDT  A brawl at a hotel near Disneyland on Wednesday involved as many as 100 people and two people were hospitalized, police said.
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| CNN’s Poppy Harlow Confronts Larry Kudlow With All the Times He’s Been Wrong About the Coronavirus Posted: 07 Aug 2020 08:49 AM PDT  White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow doesn't have the best track record when it comes to predictions. And CNN anchor Poppy Harlow was more than ready with the receipts when he came on her show to talk about the coronavirus fallout Friday morning. Harlow began her interview by asking Kudlow if he and President Donald Trump are "worried" about the slowdown in the recovery. "I don't know that there's a slowdown. These job numbers will go up and down," Kudlow replied. When Harlow noted that only 1.8 million jobs were added in July compared to 4.8 million in June, he said, "That is true, and it's going to be uneven as it always is." Kudlow continued to push the administration's argument that a $600 weekly federal unemployment benefit has been a "disincentive" for Americans to go back to work. And when Harlow asked for evidence, he pointed to a University of Chicago study that supposedly supports that claim. "But, Larry, the University of Chicago survey, it doesn't conclude what you're arguing," Harlow said. "I know you don't want to incentivize people to go to work when it's a dangerous situation for them to go because the virus is not under control," she added, noting that she talked to the author of that study who said "it's a mistake to draw the conclusion as you have been and the White House has been that right now it's a disincentive to go back to work." All Kudlow could say in response was, "We can argue one academic versus another, I think history shows this is probably not sustainable in the long term." > Asked to explain why he's been wrong about the coronavirus at every turn -- he said the virus was "contained" in February, for instance -- Kudlow takes umbrage with Poppy Harlow for "nitpicking" pic.twitter.com/bNvNP8Qj4r> > -- Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 7, 2020But the most contentious moment of the interview came later when Harlow confronted Kudlow for his rhetoric over the past several months about the pandemic itself. "I'm wondering why you have consistently downplayed the severity of the pandemic," she said. "Back on February 25th you said 'it's pretty close to airtight.' February 28th, 'It's not going to sink the American economy,' March 6th, 'Let's not overreact, America should stay at work.' And just on June 12th, 'There is no emergency, there is no second wave,' but since June 12th, 45,978 Americans have died from COVID."Kudlow attempted to defend his consistent downplaying of the virus' severity but after a few moments he just resorted to attacking his interviewer. "I kind of resent your little nitpicking here because I don't know what that has to do with today's job numbers," he said."I'm not nitpicking, Larry," Harlow replied. "I think people listen to you and the president when you say things about the pandemic." Ultimately, he may have been chastened enough to acknowledge his own fallibility when it comes to predicting the future. "I think, again, the health guidelines that we have put out are in fact working, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed, maybe prayerfully, that we've seen the worst of this extension so we'll see what happens." "We all are, Larry," Harlow said. CNN's Brianna Keilar Comes at Trump Campaign's Mercedes Schlapp for Falsely Smearing Her Military HusbandRead 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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| Biden draws distinction between diversity within Black and Latino communities Posted: 06 Aug 2020 06:00 AM PDT  In an interview with representatives from the national associations of Black and Hispanic journalists while talking about extending temporary protected status to Cubans in Florida communities who are being deported, former Vice President Joe Biden referenced what he said is a distinction between diversity within Black and Latino communities. Biden told NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro that "unlike the African-American community, with notable exceptions, the Latino community is an incredibly diverse community with incredibly different attitudes about different things. You go to Florida, and you find a very different attitude about immigration in certain places than you do when you're in Arizona."
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| Marijuana sent him to prison for decades. Now he has COVID-19 and is seeking release. Posted: 06 Aug 2020 09:33 AM PDT  Michael Thompson, 69, is serving a 40- to 60-year sentence for charges that stem from a marijuana sale in 1994. His advocates say his punishment was excessive.
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| Oklahoma won't require masks in schools, so a teacher who's a 72-year-old cancer survivor is offering students extra credit to wear them Posted: 07 Aug 2020 08:42 AM PDT  Oklahoma's board of education voted against requiring masks in schools, putting teachers and students at risk.
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| India seizes 740 tonnes of chemical that caused Lebanon blast Posted: 07 Aug 2020 01:03 AM PDT |
| #DontCallMeMurzyn: Black Women in Poland Are Powering the Campaign Against a Racial Slur Posted: 07 Aug 2020 09:25 AM PDT  "Each time I hear this word, I feel like someone was clawing at my heart."
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| Postal Service loses $2.2B in 3 months as virus woes persist Posted: 06 Aug 2020 09:16 PM PDT  The U.S. Postal Service says it lost $2.2 billion in the three months that ended in June as the beleaguered agency — hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic — piles up financial losses that officials warn could top $20 billion over two years. Later Friday, DeJoy released another memo detailing changes that reshuffle dozens of officials on his executive leadership team.
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| Take a look inside the ‘most sophisticated’ smuggling tunnel found on US-Mexico border Posted: 07 Aug 2020 10:14 AM PDT  Agents discovered a sinkhole near the tunnel in July.
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| Decades after they last saw each other, homecoming king and queen reunited by chance on a dating app Posted: 07 Aug 2020 03:00 AM PDT  They were married on the 50-yard-line at Montclair State University's football stadium — where they were crowned homecoming royalty in 1992.
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| An Air India plane carrying 190 people crashed in Calicut after overshooting the runway Posted: 07 Aug 2020 08:56 AM PDT  An Air India Express plane carrying 190 people crashed on Friday in Calicut, India. Sixteen people were killed, India's civil-aviation minister said.
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| Trump’s Last Gasp Could Be a Supreme Court Justice in January Posted: 06 Aug 2020 02:05 AM PDT  Close your eyes and picture Jan. 3, 2021: The Capitol is teeming with 35 newly sworn-in Senators, four of whom have given the Democrats a 51-50 majority with the vice president-elect's tie-breaking vote; Republican Senate rule has ended and, with their enlarged House majority, Democrats now control both branches of government for the first time in twelve years.President-elect Biden and his team are busy crafting an ambitious legislative program, dealing with transition tasks of agency appointments and anticipated judicial nominations and planning the upcoming inauguration. Democrats are happy. Exciting opportunity is in the air. But within a few days, the Democrats' party crashes to a halt with the news that a Supreme Court opening has suddenly materialized, and the opening comes from the progressive wing of the court. The immediate assumption is that the 51-50 Democratic majority will ensure that a new nominee will reflect the judicial profile of her predecessor. Not so fast: Between Jan. 3 and Inauguration Day on Jan. 20, outgoing Vice President Mike Pence will still cast tie-breaking votes. And worse, Donald Trump is the undisputed president until noon on the 20th, able to nominate SCOTUS and other judicial nominees, all lifetime appointments.Here's a Preview of America's 2020 Nightmare if Trump LosesTrump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have quietly assembled a short list of conservative SCOTUS nominees, hoping for a vacancy to arise. Should the opening develop days before the November election, or during the transition period between the election and the Inauguration, Trump and McConnell would be ready to shove through their nominee within days. McConnell's 2016 rebuke of Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland to the court—"Let the people decide!"—has been retooled to "We're still in power!"As late as Jan. 3, Trump—rejected by American voters—and McConnell, stripped of his abusive leadership powers, would likely be prepared to ram through a SCOTUS nomination that would shift the court's ideological balance to the far right for a generation to come.Should that opening occur before Jan. 3, McConnell would certainly use Senate rules and practices to schedule an up-or-down confirmation vote with his 53-47 Republican majority. And even after the new 50-50 Senate is sworn in on Jan. 3, McConnell could potentially use Vice President Pence to break any Democratic effort to organize and prevent a Republican SCOTUS confirmation.A Far-Fetched Scenario?As long as the Senate has existed, tradition and bipartisan collegiality have smoothed the transfer of power from one party to the other after an election. Leaders of both parties hashed out committee apportionment, budgets, and so on, during the November-December transition period. The opening day schedule, introduction of priority legislation, and speeches has long been regulated by tradition. After the 2000 election and its resulting 50-50 split, outgoing Democratic leader Tom Daschle and incoming leader Trent Lott worked to ease partisan differences and hand the leadership reins to Republicans. But next Jan. 3 may be wildly different. If the November election results in a 50-50 split in the Senate—an entirely likely scenario, with four Democratic pickups and a loss in Alabama—emotions may be raw and even vindictive. The past four years of bitter division and personal hostilities have created a toxic Senate environment. This scenario has happened before, though with no dire results. After the 2000 election, with a split Senate, Al Gore provided the tie-breaking vote that gave Democrats the majority for the 17 days before George W. Bush's Inauguration.Potholes in the Trump/McConnell PathSenate rules experts doubt that McConnell could attempt to force through a SCOTUS nominee in 17 days or less, citing a number of Senate procedural roadblocks, such as the requirement that a nomination must "lay over" for one week, and that the nomination must be voted out of the Judiciary Committee before Senate floor consideration. "The majority may be deterred from doing what they want by the institution's inherited rules of procedure," notes James Wallner, a senior fellow at the R Street Institute and former executive director of the Senate Steering Committee. "A last-minute effort to confirm a Supreme Court nominee would be extraordinary."However, any Senate rule can be overridden by a simple Senate majority vote, a procedure that McConnell has aggressively invoked for the Kavanaugh and Gorsuch nominations. And until noon on Jan. 20, Mike Pence can, as president of the Senate, break any tie vote, and give Republicans a continued majority status to conduct committee business. Senate precedence has given vice presidents a wide berth to exercise that vote.The potential for a last-minute conservative SCOTUS appointment by a defeated Trump and defanged McConnell is real and frightening. Perhaps one or two Republican Senators would resist such a frantic power grab. Yet despite a handful of senators who have exhibited a willingness to rise above party and challenge Trump, 50 surviving Republicans may be willing to shove through another conservative justice, or a handful of lower court nominees at the last minute. Certainly an embittered, angry, loser Trump would love nothing more than to use his last days in the White House to deal Democrats a vicious blow.The only sure prevention of this nightmare rests in a Democratic wave election on Nov. 3 that ejects not only Trump and Pence from the White House, but at least five Republican incumbents as well.And for good measure, the surprise defeat of the Trump Senate enablers who have gotten us in this mess to start with.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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| Canada 'knows the root cause': China hints at Huawei retaliation as it sentences two Canadians to death Posted: 07 Aug 2020 12:16 PM PDT  A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said Canada "knows the root cause" behind recent death sentences for Canadians facing drug charges, the latest escalation in conflict between both countries following the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou.Foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin reportedly said the judicial system in China "handles cases independently" while discussing the recent death sentences for two Canadian nationals charged in separate cases with transporting and manufacturing drugs in China.
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| Hong Kong: US imposes sanctions on chief executive Carrie Lam Posted: 07 Aug 2020 10:57 AM PDT  The sanctions on Carrie Lam and others are for "undermining" the Chinese territory's autonomy.
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| The National Rifle Association faces its worst nightmare: accountability Posted: 07 Aug 2020 06:20 AM PDT  The NRA is facing lawsuits and investigations for possible financial misconduct while losing the influence it once had on American leadership.
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| A Florida man has been arrested over claims he spat on a child's face and told him: 'You now have coronavirus' Posted: 07 Aug 2020 03:51 AM PDT  Jason Copenhaver confronted the boy after the child refused to remove his face mask in a restaurant, the Treasure Island Police Department said.
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| Old, new U.S. envoys the same - 'they bite off more than they can chew', Iran says Posted: 07 Aug 2020 04:50 AM PDT  U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Thursday that the top U.S. envoy for Iran, Brian Hook, was leaving his post and the U.S. special representative for Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, would add Iran to his role. Hook's surprise departure comes at a critical time when Washington has been intensely lobbying at the United Nations to extend an arms embargo on Iran and as the U.N. Security Council prepares to hold a vote on the U.S. resolution next week.
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| Former Saudi official accuses Mohammad bin Salman of 'sending hit squad' to kill him Posted: 06 Aug 2020 02:24 PM PDT  A former senior Saudi intelligence official has claimed that Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman sent a hit squad to Canada in an attempt to kill him. In a 107-page complaint, filed in a Washington DC court, Saad Aljabri claimed the assassins were intercepted by Canadian authorities. The incident was alleged to have happened less than two weeks after Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post columnist and Saudi dissident, was killed in the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul. Mr Aljabri, who was living in self-imposed exile in Toronto, was said to have clashed with the crown prince over issues including the decision to go to war in Yemen, and was dismissed from his cabinet role in 2015. He is suing the crown prince and 24 others for an unset amount of damages In his complaint Mr Aljabri claimed the crown prince "dispatched a hit squad" to Canada in October 2018. The complaint said: "(A) team of Saudi nationals travelled across the Atlantic Ocean from Saudi Arabia ... with the intention of killing Dr Saad."
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| Christiane Lemieux and Anthropologie Team Up for the Launch of Her Newest Collection Posted: 07 Aug 2020 11:06 AM PDT |
| Ship Called ‘Trump D’ Moored in Ukraine Brought Triple the Explosives of ‘Floating Bomb’ That Blew Up Beirut Posted: 07 Aug 2020 04:29 AM PDT  An American-owned cargo ship named after the president of the United States docked in a Ukrainian port has just offloaded 10,000 metric tons of the same chemical substance that nearly leveled the city of Beirut this week, according to the Liveuamap news source. The hangar in Lebanon only had 2,750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate, which caused catastrophic damage to the Lebanese capital. > Sea ports administration of Ukraine says that almost 10 000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate that is being stored at pier 1 and 2 of Yuzhi port near Odesa is totally safe cause of "Big-bags" pic.twitter.com/rxftR5TbKB> > — Liveuamap (@Liveuamap) August 7, 2020The ship docked in Ukraine, which was previously named Seabreeze before a Florida company registered as Pilin Fleet Management LLC purchased it in 2018, and renamed it Trump D, was registered by Marine Traffic tracking website in the Yuzhi port near Odessa on Friday.Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has now ordered "relevant checks" on the storage condition of the substance, which is primarily used for agricultural fertilizer or high-powered explosives after port officials claimed it was safely stored in "big bags." > Video that was published yesterday, both with photos became viral in Ukraine pic.twitter.com/AXeRvBJs6g> > — Liveuamap (@Liveuamap) August 7, 2020Photos online suggest that the ammonium-nitrate powder was also stored in similar "big bags" in the port of Beirut when it detonated, likely sparked by a nearby fire Tuesday afternoon. The Trump D was placed under investigation three months ago by Ukrainian prosecutors in Crimea after the previous owners were suspected of stealing sand from the Crimean coast. That investigation has since been closed without charges. The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine issued a statement ordering authorities to ensure that the ammonium nitrate is securely stored and to "carry out extraordinary measures for government supervision" for work safety and "security against manmade disasters and fires." 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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| Biden on congressional gridlock: 'If there's no way to move other than getting rid of the filibuster, that's what we'll do' Posted: 06 Aug 2020 05:55 AM PDT  In an interview with representatives of the associations of Black and Hispanic journalists, presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden showed a willingness to end the use of the legislative filibuster while maintaining it's unlikely that such a measure would be necessary if he's elected in November. He said that he expects the Democratic Party to win five to six seats in the Senate as well as the White House. Biden's response is part of an interview that will air Thursday at the combined convention of the National Association of Black Journalists and National Association of Hispanic Journalists. The convention is being held online this year due to the coronavirus.
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| Utah protesters face charges with potential life sentence Posted: 06 Aug 2020 01:36 PM PDT  Some Black Lives Matter protesters in Salt Lake City could face up to life in prison if they're convicted of splashing red paint and smashing windows during a protest, a potential punishment that stands out among demonstrators arrested around the country and one that critics say doesn't fit the alleged crime. Prosecutors said Wednesday that's justified because the protesters worked together to cause thousands of dollars in damage, but watchdogs called the use of the 1990s-era law troubling, especially in the context of criminal justice reform and minority communities. "This is so far beyond just the enforcement of the law, it feels retaliatory," said Madalena McNeil, who is facing a potential life sentence over felony criminal mischief and riot charges.
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| Mauritius facing catastrophe as oil starts leaking from a shipwreck near pristine coral reefs Posted: 07 Aug 2020 08:56 AM PDT  The island nation of Mauritius is facing an environmental crisis after a huge container ship ran aground and started to leak oil into an area home to some of the finest coral reefs in the world. Efforts to pump oil out of the ship have failed, and now there are fears that the carrier could start to break up, leading to an even greater leak and causing catastrophic damage on the island's pristine coastline. "We are in an environmental crisis situation," said the environment minister, Kavy Ramano, The carrier MV Wakashio, which belongs to a Japanese company and flew a Panamanian-flagged, was en route from China to Brazil when it ran aground near Pointe d'Esny on the island's southeastern coast on 25 July. The vessel's crew have been evacuated safely and the container was not carrying a cargo load when wrecked. However, the 1,000ft vessel was carrying 90 tonnes of lubricant oil, 200 tonnes of diesel and 3,800 tonnes of bunker fuel, according to local media outlets. Now the oil is spreading out of the ship rapidly, according to Sunil Dowarkasing, Greengate Consulting, a Mauritian environmental consultancy, who was on the beach in sight of wreck. "It's really very bad because now despite all the measures, the oil has already reached the shores of Mauritius and polluted the shorelines. You can see fish dying. The situation is out of control," Mr Dowarkasing told The Telegraph. Mr Dowarkasing said that the wreck was near four major wildlife and maritime sanctuaries, which contained flora and fauna unique to the island. He added that there was a 100-year-old 'brain' coral nearby in the Blue Bay Marine Park. "Thousands of species around the pristine lagoons of Blue Bay, Pointe d'Esny and Mahebourg are at risk of drowning in a sea of pollution, with dire consequences for Mauritius' economy, food security and health," Happy Khambule from Greenpeace Africa told The Telegraph in a statement. Mauritius, which lies some 600 miles east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, is a major tourist hotspot and tax haven for international corporations and African oligarchs. The country of 1.2m depends on its seas for food and for tourism, boasting some of the finest coral reefs in the world. The Mauritian government has asked the French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion for assistance. "This is the first time that we are faced with a catastrophe of this kind and we are insufficiently equipped to handle this problem," said fishing minister, Sudheer Maudhoo.
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| Louisville caravan calls on Mitch McConnell to extend $600 supplement to jobless benefits Posted: 06 Aug 2020 03:49 PM PDT  A caravan of workers took to Louisville's streets Thursday to call on Sen. Mitch McConnell to extend a federal supplement to unemployment benefits.
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| Putin’s Got Big Problems in Russia’s Provinces Posted: 07 Aug 2020 01:37 AM PDT  MOSCOW—The city of Khabarovsk, a sprawling, industrial metropolis about 5,000 miles east of the capital—the Bolsheviks turned it into a hub for serving Siberian prison camps, in the middle of nowhere by design—is about as far from the seat of Russian power as geographically possible. But it's suddenly at the center of Russian politics these days. For the past three weeks, thousands of people have come out daily in Khabarovsk to protest the country's top-down rule, what President Vladimir Putin once called his "vertical of power. "Wake up, cities, our Motherland is in trouble," protesters chanted in the rain one Friday evening. Banners that read, "Putin, you lost my trust!" and "Down with the Tsar!" floated above people's heads.Despite the Kremlin's best efforts to hide them, problems have been bubbling up in Russia's provinces, transforming local issues into the most dynamic arena for dissent, protest, and opposition in the country's political system and fueling Russia's version of post-lockdown unrest. The arrest of Khabarovsk's popular regional governor sparked the anti-Putin uprising that has drawn up to 60,000 people into the streets in this usually sleepy backwater. The arrested governor was a member of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, which had for years been loyal to Putin. Yet even the party's leader, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, told The Daily Beast that the provincial protests could spread, as people are fed up with the lies and media manipulation in the Putin system. "This is a genuine, wonderful, peaceful protest, but federal television channels do not cover them, and that offends people," he said.Millions of Russians are still watching the Far East rallies online. People are outraged by unemployment, corruption, pollution, and failing government. "For as long as we have a one-party system, you will have the Khabarovsk protests," Zhirinovsky recently declared from the tribune of the State Duma. "I have suggested to them a long time ago to have at least two parties, but they want to have the majority," Zhirinovsky told The Daily Beast about Putin's United Russia party. Putin continues the tradition of single-party system that began under Lenin, Zhirinovsky said.Two thousand miles away from Khabarovsk sits another provincial city, Norilsk, with its giant factory that is the source of a fifth of the world's nickel and half of the precious metal palladium. Norilsk is the world's northernmost city and also Russia's most polluted; visitors stepping off a plane are greeted by air that leaves an unforgettable metallic taste in the mouth. But even by Norilsk's own abysmal standards, this summer was a horrific one for the environment: Its factory, Norilsk Nickel, spilled hundreds of thousands of gallons of red-hued diesel fuel into what locals now call "rivers of blood." The rain smells of chemicals. The diesel fuel spill was caused by the collapse of a rust-covered storage tank at a heat and power plant on May 29. Local bureaucrats and the factory kept quiet about the disaster for two days as the red, oily rivers spread pollutants through the fragile tundra environment in what Greenpeace would later call the "biggest environmental catastrophe in the history of Russia's Arctic." Authorities initially tried to hide the disaster, in the same way state television channels have attempted to ignore the protests in Khabarovsk. Russians only learned of the spill from social media. Six weeks later, with still no word of any official reprimand for the spill, the factory dumped another round of toxic waste—this time, intentionally—right onto the tundra.Two reporters from the independent paper Novaya Gazeta, Yelena Kostyuchenko and Yuri Kozyrev, had traveled to Norilsk after the spill to see the pollution with their own eyes. The reporters discovered a stream with orange bubbles and a lake covered in white foam, surrounded by dead trees. But it had nothing to do with the diesel spill. "Two large pipes were pumping and dumping white toxic waste with a sharp chemical smell onto the tundra when we arrived," Kostyuchenko told The Daily Beast. Novaya Gazeta's report raised the alarm with local prosecutors and police, so the factory sent a bulldozer to quickly dismantle the pipes. Then, the bulldozer accidentally crushed a police car while backing up. Environmentalists witnessed a wild scene: A huge number of Norilsk Nickel's security services were demolishing their factory's pipes in front of police and officials from the emergency ministry and Russia's natural resources regulatory agency, Rospotrebnadzor.Meanwhile, some Russian politicians started to call for the Kremlin to take control of the factory—owned by the country's richest oligarch, Vladimir Potanin—and nationalize it. Potanin, a former member of the Communist Party, obtained the Norilsk factory on the cheap during the privatization of the 1990s. Since then, he's seemed untouchable. After all, according to Kremlin-watcher Mikhail Zygar, the billionaire has always paid up for problems at the factory in the only currency that counts: loyalty to the Russian president. "People like Potanin are happy to pay for all [Putin's] projects, for anything he ever wants," said Zygar, author of All the Kremlin's Men: Inside the Court of Vladimir Putin. Soviet and post-Soviet bureaucrats have a long history of attempting to hide the truth about disasters from the public, no matter how deadly—most famously after the 1986 nuclear accident in Chernobyl. Last year, an experimental missile exploded in the Arctic, releasing radioactivity into the air, and the official reaction was silence. So, too, in the first days after the fuel spill. Officials were even reluctant to break the bad news to Putin himself. "One has to earn the right to report bad news to Vladimir Vladimirovich," said Sergei Markov, a political analyst close to the Kremlin. "It must have taken a few days before the decision-makers on various steps of power figured out who would be the one to break the news."On the fifth day after the fuel spill, four people lined up shoulder to shoulder to report the truth about the accident to Putin in an online meeting: the oligarch Potanin; Svetlana Radionova, the head of Rospotrebnadzor; Yevgeny Zinichev, the minister of emergency situations; and Viktor Uss, the Krasnoyarsk regional governor.Zinichev told the president that "the event itself, the emergency situation, was localized on June 1. We have installed booms, so there is no development." Radionova, in contrast, talked about "unprecedented" pollution. "We registered an increase by dozens of thousands of times," after the diesel fuel spilled into the rivers, she told Putin.Potanin was the last to speak. He promised to dip into his wealth and pay for the damage. The accident would cost "not a ruble from the state budget." Putin wanted to know how much, exactly, the company was going to pay. The billionaire paused.Putin pressed Potanin on how much money he was willing to pay to compensate for the damage. "Billions and billions" of rubles, or tens of millions of dollars, the oligarch finally told the president. "And how much does one reserve tank cost that you are going to replace now? If you replaced it on time, there would not have been such damage and such cost to the environment," the president replied.According to Forbes Real Time, which gauges wealth, in the weeks after the accident Potanin's net worth dropped by more than $3.6 billion, but he is currently worth $23 billion, which still allows him the title of Russia's richest man. The World Wide Fund for Nature has addressed an open letter to Potanin, calling him personally to "take the full responsibility" for polluting the Arctic. But money for the clean-up aside, Potanin is unlikely to face real repercussions for the spill. Earlier this summer Putin's inspector, Radionova, flew to Norilsk to calculate fines for the factory—but, according to Transparency International, she flew there on Potanin's own Bombardier Challenger private jet, instead of taking a regular flight. Radionova has also been accused of corruption by the foundation of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, which revealed documents for luxurious real estate in Moscow and Nice that suggest Radionova is the owner. "Such wealth cannot be explained. It is so outrageous," Navalny said in his report on YouTube, viewed by more than 3 million people. Meanwhile, experts warn that Russia is ill-equipped to prevent another environmental disaster. After the diesel spill, a member of the board of directors at Norilsk Nickel, Yevgeny Shvarts, admitted on a television talk show that the storage tank that had collapsed was the newest piece of equipment at his company. "This is terrifying: One of Russia's richest companies considers a tank made in 1985 their newest piece of equipment. That means things are much worse than we thought," the show's host, Vladimir Slivyak, told to The Daily Beast. He expressed concern that many other Russian factories are also storing diesel fuel in even older tanks: "Such accidents might take place any time." 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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| Trump ‘is so much anti-life,’ Kentucky Catholic bishop says in abortion discussion Posted: 07 Aug 2020 08:53 AM PDT  "He is only concerned about himself," the church leader said.
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| DOJ moves to seize property from Ukrainian oligarch linked to Rudy Giuliani Posted: 06 Aug 2020 02:31 PM PDT |
| Germany will test all arrivals from 'risky' countries like the US as daily new cases top 1,000 for the first time in 3 months Posted: 07 Aug 2020 03:45 AM PDT  Germany will test arrivals from most countries outside of the EU in a bid to avoid another escalation in Covid-19 infections.
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| India landslide: Dozens feared dead after flooding in Kerala Posted: 07 Aug 2020 07:55 AM PDT  Up to 20 houses are buried under debris in the state of Kerala, with rescue efforts under way.
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| Letters to the Editor: Jackie Lacey's husband has a right to protect his home. Why charge him with assault? Posted: 07 Aug 2020 03:00 AM PDT  David Lacey didn't hurt anyone when Black Lives Matter demonstrators showed up at his home shortly after 5 a.m. one morning.
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| GOP appeals after Judge dismisses lawsuit over House's proxy voting system established due to COVID-19 Posted: 07 Aug 2020 03:19 PM PDT  A federal judge tossed out a GOP-led lawsuit aiming to halt an unprecedented proxy voting system established by the House due to the COVID pandemic.
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| Trump's latest fundraising attempt is reportedly a Facebook scam against his own supporters Posted: 07 Aug 2020 12:31 PM PDT  President Trump would love to have dinner with you, for the low, low price of a $10,000 fine.The Trump campaign blitzed supporters this week asking for donations in exchange for the chance to attend a "VIP dinner" with the president in Southampton, New York on Aug. 8, but Popular Information's Judd Legum, who investigated the contest, says the fundraising attempt is a pretty blatant "scam."The ads, which reportedly cost the campaign $100,000 to run on Facebook, failed to mention that anyone residing in one of 35 states is legally barred from attending the fundraiser (or any event in the state of New York, for that matter).Since late June, visitors to New York who are coming from states with surging COVID-19 numbers have been told they need to undergo a mandatory 14-day quarantine to help prevent the virus' spread. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) has since doubled down on that requirement, imposing fines and installing checkpoints for visitors.It's unlikely that Trump, who has gone head-to-head with Cuomo throughout the pandemic, has forgotten these restrictions. Still, that didn't stop the campaign from advertising its one-of-a-kind deal to those very people."In one heavily promoted version of the ad, 73 percent of the impressions were targeted at users in states subject to New York's quarantine order," Legum writes.The Trump campaign seems to have advertised the fundraiser knowing much of its targeted audience wouldn't be in a position to actually attend, as the contest rules give the campaign permission "to suspend or cancel the Promotion" if any "viruses, bugs, unauthorized human intervention or other causes beyond Sponsor's control" interfere.Essentially, anything from the mandatory quarantine order to a fruit fly infestation could give Trump reason to bail.More stories from theweek.com Biden campaign reportedly making 'ruthless cuts' to convention speaking list The case against American truck bloat Gates Foundation donates $150 million to push coronavirus vaccine doses below $3
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| Commission rejects Trump push to add debate against Biden Posted: 06 Aug 2020 11:58 AM PDT  The nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates has rejected a request from the Trump campaign to either add an additional general election debate or move up the calendar for the contests. In a letter to Trump private attorney Rudy Giuliani, his liaison to the commission, the commission wrote that it is committed to its existing schedule of three debates between Trump and his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, saying it would consider adding a fourth debate only if both sides agree to it. Both major party nominees have agreed to participate in the three scheduled debates, the commission said.
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| Students at Georgia school snapped photos of maskless peers. Now, they face expulsion Posted: 06 Aug 2020 10:45 AM PDT  One student has already been suspended.
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