| ‘We’re losing, dude, and we’re going to get really hurt’: Trump Jr believes father will be defeated by Biden, report says Posted: 25 Aug 2020 03:40 PM PDT  Donald Trump Jr is reportedly concerned that his father may not win re-election come November.The New York Times reported the claim on Tuesday.
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| 2 New Jersey cops admitted they dressed in disguises and vandalized the cars of a man who filed complaints against them Posted: 26 Aug 2020 10:55 AM PDT  The two Asbury Park cops, who smashed car windows, pleaded guilty to criminal fourth-degree criminal mischief. They can't work as officers anymore.
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| RNC speaker booted after sharing a blatantly anti-Semitic message hours before the event began Posted: 26 Aug 2020 02:42 AM PDT  Republicans have frequently attacked Democrats in recent years for supposed cases anti-Semitism
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| Viral videos show Black Lives Matter protesters confronting diners in Washington, D.C. Posted: 26 Aug 2020 02:16 PM PDT  Black Lives Matter protesters faced online backlash after video captured a group confronting diners at a restaurant in Washington, D.C.
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| CDC: Maine overnight camps hosted over 1,000 kids and counselors, and only 3 contracted the coronavirus. Here is the safety plan they followed. Posted: 26 Aug 2020 11:07 AM PDT  The camps employed a multilayered plan that included early identification and isolation, quarantining, cohorting, masking, and physical distancing.
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| Their Sons Died in Accidents at Fort Hood. Now, They're Joining Forces to Call for Change Posted: 25 Aug 2020 03:44 PM PDT  Parents of troops who died recently in military vehicle accidents are joining to call for changes to safety procedures.
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| Vehicle collision with Russians injures 4 U.S. troops in eastern Syria Posted: 26 Aug 2020 02:57 PM PDT  In the most violent skirmish in months between U.S. and Russian forces in Syria, a vehicle collision in the eastern part of the war-torn country left American troops with concussions, two U.S. officials said Wednesday.
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| Israel keeps up Gaza strikes after Qatar joins mediation bid Posted: 26 Aug 2020 12:09 AM PDT  Israeli warplanes struck a Hamas target in Gaza overnight, the military said Wednesday, even as a Qatari envoy joined efforts to broker an end to the almost three-week flare-up.
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| Joe Kennedy's once-promising Massachusetts Senate primary challenge might be a bust, polls show Posted: 26 Aug 2020 12:54 PM PDT  Rep. Joe Kennedy (D-Mass.) doesn't look like he'll be getting a promotion after all.When Kennedy announced his Democratic primary challenge to Sen. Ed Markey, there seemed to be a chance his more centrist bid might pan out, and he even got House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) endorsement. But more and more polls keep putting Markey back on top, including two released Wednesday just days before primary ballots are counted.Markey, a progressive and co-author of the Green New Deal, has the support of 52 percent of likely Massachusetts Democratic Primary voters, a poll from the UMass Lowell Center for Public Opinion shows. Just 40 percent said they'd vote for Kennedy, putting Markey safely over Kennedy even if the 6 percent of undecided voters in the poll went in the challenger's favor.Another poll released Wednesday from the progressive think tank Data for Progress meanwhile gives Markey an 8-point advantage over Kennedy. Markey gets 46 percent support to Kennedy's 38 among likely Democratic primary voters, though a large 16 percent said they remain undecided.Earlier, albeit limited, polls indicated Markey and Kennedy's race was close, and some even gave Kennedy a sizable lead. Massachusetts' Senate primary election is Sept. 1, and early voting is already open.UMass Lowell surveyed 800 likely Massachusetts Democratic primary voters online from Aug. 13-21, with a 4.1 percent margin of error. Data for Progress surveyed 732 likely Massachusetts Democratic primary voters between Aug. 24 and 25 using text-to-web and panel responses, with a 4 percent margin of error.More stories from theweek.com Trump's RNC role is a much bigger mistake than Republicans realize Trump calls for drug tests before presidential debates Karen Pence is the RNC's most fascinating person
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| Trump news – live: President demands Biden takes drug test as NBA teams strike over Jacob Blake shooting Posted: 26 Aug 2020 03:45 PM PDT  Donald Trump has demanded Joe Biden take a drug test before the presidential debates, as the president announced federal law enforcement and National Guard service members will be deployed to Wisconsin ahead of a fourth night of protests in the wake of the police shooting of Jacob Blake, who has been left paralysed after an officer shot him several times in the back.NBA and WNBA players are striking in protest on Wednesday, forcing the leagues to cancel games, as law enforcement in Wisconsin confirmed Rusten Sheskey as the officer who fired seven shots at Mr Blake following Sunday's shooting.
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| A woman says that the 19-year-old Kansas House candidate who admitted to revenge porn choked and slapped her within the last year Posted: 26 Aug 2020 08:53 AM PDT  Kansas House candidate Aaron Coleman admitted to bullying and harassing girls in middle school. His ex says he assaulted her in the last year.
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| 'We appreciate you guys': Wisconsin police in armored vehicles thanked armed militia and gave them water bottles Posted: 26 Aug 2020 02:34 PM PDT  "We got to save a couple, but we'll give you a couple," a voice from the law enforcement speaker said. "We appreciate you guys, we really do."
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| Oxford coronavirus vaccine data could go to regulators this year Posted: 25 Aug 2020 12:12 AM PDT  Trial data for the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca's possible coronavirus vaccine could be given to regulators this year but corners cannot be cut to speed up approval for emergency use, a scientist leading the trials said on Tuesday. The Oxford vaccine produced an immune response in its first human trials, underlining its position as one of the leading candidates in the race to combat a virus that has led to hundreds of thousands of deaths and crippled the global economy. "It is just possible that if the cases accrue rapidly in the clinical trials, that we could have that data before regulators this year," Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, told BBC Radio of progress in larger, late-stage trials.
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| Hurricane Laura ‘will cause unsurvivable storm surge’ Posted: 26 Aug 2020 01:12 PM PDT  Hurricane Laura, heading for Texas and Louisiana, is now a Category 4 storm, weather officials say.
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| Coast Guard Watch Opens Fire After 8-Foot Shark Crashes Swim Call Posted: 26 Aug 2020 10:49 AM PDT  There is a reason the Navy and Coast Guard post armed guards on shark watch during swim calls.
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| Cissie Graham Lynch attacks trans rights in RNC speech Posted: 26 Aug 2020 06:29 AM PDT  Lynch, the granddaughter of late evangelical pastor Billy Graham, referred to transgender girls as "boys" in her Republican National Convention speech.
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| Fact-checkers shake their heads at the RNC's 'parade of dishonesty,' 'fire hose of false or misleading' claims Posted: 24 Aug 2020 11:24 PM PDT  "The first night of the 2020 Republican National Convention was a fire hose of false or misleading claims, mostly drawn from President Trump's arsenal of falsehoods," The Washington Post fact-checker team reported Monday night, focusing on a modest 19 such claims. The Associated Press concentrated on Trump's "dizzying array of misleading claims about voting fraud and health care," both pre-existing conditions and the COVID-19 pandemic."At times," The New York Times reports, "the speakers and prerecorded videos appeared to be describing an alternate reality: one in which the nation was not nearing 180,000 deaths from the coronavirus; in which Mr. Trump had not consistently ignored serious warnings about the disease; in which the president had not spent much of his term appealing openly to xenophobia and racial animus; and in which someone other than Mr. Trump had presided over an economy that began crumbling in the spring."And the "parade of dishonesty" from the RNC speakers stood "in stark contrast with last week's Democratic convention," CNN's fact-check team wrote. "While CNN also watched and fact-checked the Democrats, those four nights combined didn't have the number of misleading and false claims made on the first night of the Republicans' convention." One member of the CNN team, Daniel Dale, tweeted that the RNC's first night has been "exponentially more dishonest than the entire four nights of the Democratic convention," and "it's important for objective journalists to note how wildly imbalanced the dishonesty is between the current parties."If you are interested in reading about or second-guessing the truth-squadding of the RNC's first night, read the fact-checks at The Washington Post, AP, CNN, and The New York Times.More stories from theweek.com Black Monday for the religious right Alaska attorney general resigns after sending inappropriate texts to state employee House Democrat launches investigation into Pompeo's RNC speech
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| Passenger tramples gate attendant at Seattle airport after mask run-in, police say Posted: 26 Aug 2020 07:50 AM PDT  The Folsom, California, man faces misdemeanor assault charges, police say.
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| An RNC speaker said it would be 'smart' for the police to racially profile her biracial son because of 'statistics' Posted: 25 Aug 2020 12:27 PM PDT  Johnson said it "doesn't actually make me angry" that a police officer "would be more careful around my brown son than my white son."
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| Alaska attorney general resigns after sending flirtatious texts to junior staffer Posted: 26 Aug 2020 02:02 PM PDT  Alaska attorney general Kevin Clarkson has resigned after he admitted to repeatedly sending inappropriate text messages to a junior state employee.Alaska governor Mike Dunleavy, who appointed Mr Clarkson to his role, told reporters that the 61-year-old attorney general had resigned in a statement on Tuesday.
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| Disneyland 'ready' to reopen when California allows, parks chief says Posted: 26 Aug 2020 01:23 PM PDT  Disney's theme parks chief said the company is ready to reopen Disneyland as soon as California officials establish health and safety guidelines.
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| French government defends ‘freedom’ of topless sunbathing Posted: 26 Aug 2020 12:21 AM PDT |
| ‘Putin’s Chef’ Threatens to Destroy Alexei Navalny in the Courts if He Survives Poisoning Posted: 26 Aug 2020 06:31 AM PDT  A notorious ally of Vladimir Putin says he will use Russia's corrupt courts to destroy Alexei Navalny financially if the stricken opposition leader ever recovers from a chemical agent believed to have been slipped into his tea.Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was sanctioned by the U.S. for financing online efforts to distort the 2016 presidential election, used a company to buy out debts owed by Navalny so that he could increase the financial pressure on the anti-corruption campaigner.He chose the moment that Navalny was at his weakest—unconscious in a hospital bed—to make the announcement. "I intend to strip this group of unscrupulous people of their clothes and shoes," Prigozhin said.Navalny, the leading opponent of President Putin's government, is in a coma in a Berlin hospital, where German doctors say they found evidence of cholinesterase inhibitors in his body, which could indicate the use of weapons-grade nerve agents.Prigozhin got the nickname "Putin's chef" because of the success of his catering company, but his empire, which includes billions of dollars in Russian government contracts, stretches well beyond food preparation. The U.S. government accuses him of funding the Internet Research Agency, an online troll farm that helped to get Donald Trump elected president. Prigozhin is also accused of financing Wagner, a private army used by the Kremlin for some of its most nefarious overseas missions, but he denies any involvement.On Tuesday night, his company Concord announced that it would do everything it could to collect a court-ordered fine of 88 million rubles (around $1.2 million) that he bought from Moskovsky Shkolnik (Moscow Schoolboy), a company Navalny was found guilty of defaming in a video report, according to the Moscow Times. Prigozhin was quoted as saying on Concord's social-media accounts Wednesday, "If comrade Navalny kicks the bucket, I personally don't intend to persecute him in this world. I'll put this off for an indefinite time and then I'll compensate myself to my pleasure." He added that if Navalny survives, he would be liable "according to the full severity of Russian law" to pay off his court-ordered debt.Navalny was rushed to a hospital in Omsk last week after losing consciousness on a flight back to Moscow, after campaigning against Putin in local elections.Ivan Zhdanov, a key ally of Navalny and director of his Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), has claimed that Putin must have authorized the suspected poisoning. "He hates what the FBK does too much, exposing him and his entourage."The Kremlin brushed off the accusation as "hot air" and stood by earlier reports from a Siberian hospital where Navalny was first treated that said no evidence of poisoning had been found. 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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| Only Native American on federal death row executed Posted: 26 Aug 2020 04:27 PM PDT  Lezmond Mitchell's execution for his part in a 2001 double murder has renewed a debate over tribal sovereignty.
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| Biden seemingly didn't get a convention polling bump — and his lead is sliding in some swing states Posted: 26 Aug 2020 07:13 AM PDT  Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden shouldn't get too comfortable. It's been a few days since the end of the Democratic National Convention, and as FiveThirtyEight's Nate Silver notes, Biden hasn't seen a typical post-DNC bump in his polling numbers. And while he was once handily leading in several states Hillary Clinton surprisingly lost in 2016, those advantages are starting to slip as well.Clinton lost Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin in 2016 — three states that were usually seen as reliably Democratic before that election. Even as of late August 2016, Clinton had a clear lead over Trump in those states: 9 points in Michigan, 9.2 in Pennsylvania, and 11.5 in Wisconsin. But while Biden still has leads in those states, just as he did a month ago, those advantages have narrowed to below Clinton's margins.> Swing state polls on August 25th:> > Pennsylvania > • 2016: Hillary +9.2 > • 2020: Biden +5.7> > Michigan > • 2016: Hillary +9.0 > • 2020: Biden +6.7> > Wisconsin > • 2016: Hillary +11.5 > • 2020: Biden +6.5 > > Florida > • 2016: Hillary +2.9 > • 2020: Biden +4.8> > https://t.co/oJFSBQcvK3 https://t.co/7DibWSRCSb> > — Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) August 25, 2020Nationally, Biden still has a wide 8.8 point lead over Trump, according to FiveThirtyEight's polling average — even higher than the 5.7-point lead Clinton had at this point in 2016. But as Clinton herself has recognized, national popular votes don't matter when the Electoral College gets in the way.More stories from theweek.com Trump's RNC role is a much bigger mistake than Republicans realize Trump calls for drug tests before presidential debates Karen Pence is the RNC's most fascinating person
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| Jurassic Park or Florida? Researchers just captured 3 huge ‘alligator snapping turtles’ Posted: 26 Aug 2020 10:42 AM PDT  Awww, how cute. Not really.
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| The Best Duvet Covers That Are Also Better for the Planet Posted: 26 Aug 2020 12:58 PM PDT |
| Iran relents on IAEA inspections at two sites, ending standoff Posted: 26 Aug 2020 05:08 AM PDT  Iran said on Wednesday it was ending a months-long standoff with the U.N. nuclear watchdog by granting it access to two sites suspected of once hosting secret activities, easing diplomatic pressure on Tehran as Washington seeks to reimpose sanctions. Wednesday's breakthrough in the dispute over the sites was announced in a joint statement by Tehran and the International Atomic Energy Agency during IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi's first visit to the Islamic Republic since he took over the role in December. "Iran is voluntarily providing the IAEA with access to the two locations specified by the IAEA," Grossi and Iran's nuclear agency chief, Ali Akbar Salehi, said in the joint statement, confirming an earlier report by Reuters.
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| Fact check: 'Sharia patrol force' won't roam Minneapolis if police force is dismantled Posted: 26 Aug 2020 12:18 PM PDT  A distortion of one state representative's unfounded claims led some to believe a 'Sharia patrol force' will soon police Minneapolis. It won't.
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| India indicts Pakistani militant in 2019 Kashmir bombing Posted: 26 Aug 2020 01:46 AM PDT  India's anti-terrorism agency named a Pakistan-based militant leader as the prime mastermind of a 2019 car bombing in Indian-controlled Kashmir that killed 40 Indian soldiers and brought the nuclear-armed rivals to the brink of war. The National Investigation Agency filed a charge sheet on Tuesday that named Masood Azhar, chief of Jaish-e-Mohammed, and 19 others among the accused. "The investigation has revealed that the Pulwama attack was the result of a well-planned criminal conspiracy hatched by Pakistan-based leadership of terrorist organization Jaish-e-Mohammad," the document says.
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| Nikki Haley tried to argue the U.S. isn’t racist — but she just proved the opposite point Posted: 26 Aug 2020 02:55 AM PDT  "America is not a racist country. This is personal for me," said ex-UN Ambassador Nikki Haley
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| Jerry Falwell Jr. is leaving Liberty University with a $10.5 million golden parachute Posted: 26 Aug 2020 12:24 AM PDT  Jerry Falwell Jr. officially stepped down as president of Liberty University, the conservative evangelical Christian school his father co-founded, on Monday night, following a day of scandal and confusion over whether he had actually resigned. Falwell, 58, told The Washington Post late Tuesday that he was relieved to be free of the burden of running the university, and said the contract he negotiated in July 2019 entitles him to $10.5 million over two years, including $8 million in retirement and $2.5 million for the equivalent of two years' salary."The board was gracious not to challenge that," Falwell told the Post. "There wasn't any cause. ... I haven't done anything."Falwell's departure follows weeks (or years) of scandal culminating in a Reuters report Monday where a much younger former business partner, Giancarlo Granda, said both Falwell and his wife, Becki Falwell, had been involved in a seven-year relationship with him, Jerry Falwell watching the other two have sex. Both Falwells told the Post on Tuesday only Becki Falwell had been involved in the affair.While Jerry Falwell told the Post he was stepping down partly out of boredom with the job, he told The Associated Press on Tuesday "the only reason I resigned" is "because I don't want something my wife did to harm the school I've spent my whole life building." Becki Falwell said she wished "Christians, and people, would be as forgiving as Christ was" and her husband is.Falwell's scandals have diminished his standing in the evangelical community, and the large severance package irked his critics, including a group of Liberty alumni called Save71 that has spent the past several months calling for his ouster and replacement "with a responsible and virtuous Christian leader."Sexual indiscretion was the clear cause of Falwell's fall from grace, said Jonathan Merritt, a Liberty graduate and writer on conservative evangelical culture. "In some ways, Jerry Falwell Jr. is living the consequences of the moral hierarchy that his dad helped to put into place," he told the Post. But "evangelicals tend to have an individualistic view of sin, so when one famous leader falls from grace, they tend to see it as 'one bad apple.'"More stories from theweek.com Trump's RNC role is a much bigger mistake than Republicans realize Trump calls for drug tests before presidential debates Karen Pence is the RNC's most fascinating person
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| ‘Catch-up’ stimulus checks to be sent out soon, IRS says. Here’s who will get them Posted: 26 Aug 2020 09:23 AM PDT  About 50,000 people will receive the payments, the IRS says.
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| Live: Half a million evacuated amid fears of 'unsurvivable storm surge' when storm makes landfall as Category 4 Posted: 26 Aug 2020 05:47 AM PDT  Hurricane Laura, that is due to make landfall in Louisiana and Texas on Wednesday is predicted to be ungraded to a Category 4 hurricane later today before it hits the US.The hurricane was upgraded to a Category 3 overnight on Wednesday, but satellite images show that it has grown into "a formidable hurricane", according to the National Hurricane Centre.
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| 'Disaster inside a disaster': California wildfires and COVID-19 form twin crises Posted: 26 Aug 2020 08:30 AM PDT  "It is manifestly an unsafe situation," a veteran firefighter said.
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| China warns of 'shadow' over ties with Australia, tells it to stop whining Posted: 26 Aug 2020 12:06 AM PDT  A top Chinese diplomat in Australia warned against a "shadow" over the two nations' ties on Wednesday, saying that Beijing was disappointed by a Chinese firm's failure to win Australian regulatory approval for a takeover deal. Tension between Australia and its main export market of China has risen in recent months, particularly after Canberra called for an international inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus. Wang Xining, China's deputy head of mission in Canberra, dismissed concerns about China's attempts to influence Australian politics, saying its views were candidly presented and did not affect people's choice of a political system.
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| The Sturgis motorcycle rally that experts warned would be a coronavirus superspreader event has been linked to 100 new cases in 8 states Posted: 26 Aug 2020 11:57 AM PDT  Smash Mouth headlined a concert at the motorcycle rally in South Dakota that's led to dozens of new cases in at least eight states.
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| Court: School transgender bathroom policy unconstitutional Posted: 26 Aug 2020 10:34 AM PDT  A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that a Virginia school board's transgender bathroom ban is unconstitutional and discriminated against a transgender male student who was barred from using the boys bathrooms in his high school. The ruling is a victory for transgender rights advocates and Gavin Grimm, a former student at Gloucester High School who was required to use restrooms that corresponded with his biological sex — female — or private bathrooms. The Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that the Gloucester County School Board violated Grimm's constitutional rights when it banned him from using the boys bathrooms.
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| Letters to the Editor: Does Louis DeJoy think so many Americans are easily fooled about the Postal Service? Posted: 25 Aug 2020 03:00 AM PDT  Postmaster General Louis DeJoy expects Americans to think the removal of sorting machines will improve USPS efficiency. That's absurd.
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| Kenosha shooting: Video appears to show gunman approaching police Posted: 26 Aug 2020 09:22 AM PDT  At least two people were killed and one was injured by a gunman at a protest Tuesday night in Kenosha, Wis., over the police shooting of Jacob Blake. Video of the incident appears to show a man with a rifle falling to the ground as protesters ran toward him. He then fires multiple shots at several people nearby. The footage later shows the gunman approaching police on the scene with raised arms, though it does not show if he was detained by police.
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| A 3-pound fish was worth $1,000 for this Idaho angler, officials say. Here’s how Posted: 25 Aug 2020 03:58 PM PDT  Anglers who catch a tagged fish get $1,000 and there are 95 tagged fish still available in the "walleye lottery."
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| Congolese poacher accused of killing 500 elephants sentenced to 30 years' hard labour Posted: 26 Aug 2020 10:15 AM PDT  A poacher who is believed to be responsible for the deaths of more than 500 elephants will spend the next 30 years in forced labour after he was convicted of ivory trafficking and attempting to kill park rangers in the Republic of Congo. Mobanza Mobembo Gérard has been dubbed 'the butcher of Nouabale Ndoki' National Park, a swathe of rainforest two and a half times the size of Greater London which stretches across the Congo Republic's borders into the Central African Republic and Cameroon. It is believed that Gérard, 35, first started hunting expeditions in 2008 and soon led a team of around 25 poachers through the bush to kill hundreds of rare forest elephants with military-grade weapons. The poaching chief, who is originally from the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, was convicted last week by a court in the Congo Republic's Sangha region, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society (WSC), an NGO. The Telegraph understands that Gérard has been surrounded or imprisoned several times by rangers over the last three years but has always managed to either shoot his way out or escape prison. His trial and sentencing marked the first criminal conviction of a wildlife trafficker in the Republic of Congo. Previously, environmental crimes were tried in civil courts and incurred a maximum sentence of five years. Gérard will also be required to pay damages of $68,000 (£51,710) to injured rangers. "This detention is a major first in the battle against poaching and illegal smuggling of wildlife products," said Richard Malonga, the head of WCS Congo which works in the Nouabale Ndoki park. "This creates opportunities to criminalise acts of poaching, and punish poachers even more severely." The sentence "sends an extremely strong message that wildlife crime will not be tolerated and will be prosecuted at the highest levels," WCS regional director Emma Stokes said in a statement on Monday. Nouabale Ndoki National Park in the north of the Congo Republic was created in 1993 and was named as a UNESCO world heritage site in 2012. It is a rare sanctuary in central Africa for endangered forest elephants, gorillas and chimpanzees. A hundred years ago, there were an estimated 10 million elephants who roamed across Africa's savvanahs and forests. But thanks to the lucrative ivory trade, poaching has decimated the continent's elephant population. There are now only an estimated 350,000 elephants left in Africa and approximately 10 to 15,000 of them are killed every year for their ivory tusks. Most of the ivory is shipped to East Asia where a booming middle class use it in jewellery, ornaments and sometimes in traditional Chinese medicine. China has historically been the biggest buyer of ivory but demand there has reportedly fallen significantly since Beijing banned the ivory trade at the end of 2017. However, last week wildlife conservationists, rangers and safari tour guides told The Telegraph that poaching and bushmeat hunting has been surging across parts of Eastern and Southern Africa since the world went into lockdown to stop the spread of coronavirus. Rangers in Kenya, another major wildlife sanctuary, told the newspaper that the pandemic has wrought havoc on many rural communities who often depend on tourism revenue to put food on the table. With the tourism revenue almost completely gone, the rangers said that many people were turning to bushmeat hunting or commercial poaching to feed their families.
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