| German police halt march of 18,000 coronavirus sceptics in Berlin after Posted: 29 Aug 2020 03:40 AM PDT  German police Saturday halted a march by some 18,000 coronavirus sceptics in Berlin because many were not respecting social distancing measures. The mass protest against pandemic restrictions had been allowed to go ahead after a bitter legal battle. But it had barely begun at 9am GMT at the city's iconic Brandenburg Gate, when it was forced to stop due to a police injunction. "The minimum distancing is not being respected by most (of the demonstrators) despite repeated requests," the police said. "There is no other option than to break up the gathering." After the announcement, the demonstrators shouted "Resistance" and "We are the people," a slogan often used by the far-right, and sang the German national anthem. Police had vowed to turn out in force and strictly monitor compliance with mask-wearing and social distancing at the protest. Berlin police chief Barbara Slowik had warned that if the demonstrators did not adhere to virus safety rules, police would clear the area "very quickly". "We will not be able or willing to watch tens of thousands assemble and create infection risks," she added. Berlin city authorities had previously decided not to allow the Saturday demonstration to go ahead, fearing that the estimated 22,000 protesters would not keep a distance of 1.5 metres (five feet) apart or comply with face mask requirements. The ban sparked outrage from organisers and their supporters who flooded social media with angry messages vowing to protest anyway, with some even calling for violence. But on the eve of the demo, Berlin's administrative court sided with the demonstrators, saying there was no indication that organisers would "deliberately ignore" social distancing rules and endanger public health.
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| New Jersey mayor rescinds $2,500 police overtime bill sent to student who organized BLM protest Posted: 29 Aug 2020 04:16 PM PDT  After holding the protest in July, Emily Gil received a letter from Mayor Mario Kranjac saying she owed $2,499.26 for police overtime.
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| Man booked in slaying of 3, including Fort Hood soldier Posted: 28 Aug 2020 07:18 PM PDT |
| Does Kyle Rittenhouse Have a Self-Defense Claim? Posted: 28 Aug 2020 08:14 AM PDT  Kenosha, a city of 100,000 in Wisconsin's southeastern corner, now confronts the question of when lethal force is justified in two different cases. One, the shooting of Jacob Blake by a police officer, I addressed yesterday. The other is the case of Kyle Rittenhouse, who is alleged to have killed two people and injured one during the civil unrest this week, and who has been charged with first-degree intentional homicide, reckless homicide, and other offenses.Rittenhouse is a 17-year-old from Antioch, Ill., about a half hour's drive from Kenosha. Inexplicably, this underage police cadet from out of state wound up on the streets after curfew in a place where a riot was likely imminent, doing interviews with journalists and openly carrying an AR-15–style rifle.There can be no question that Rittenhouse and whatever adults were in charge of him made idiotic decisions. Minors should not stand guard at riots play-acting at being cops. But even people who knowingly put themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time are allowed to defend themselves against attack when they get there. So the biggest legal question is: Did Rittenhouse defend himself against attack with an appropriate amount of force, or were the people he shot the ones acting in self-defense by trying to disarm him?The very beginning of the situation is not on video that I am aware, but the complaint against Rittenhouse contains some key details from Richard McGinnis, a Daily Caller reporter who was interviewing Rittenhouse at the time:> McGinnis said that as they were walking south another armed male who appeared to be in his 30s joined them and said he was there to protect the defendant. McGinnis stated that before the defendant reached the parking lot and ran across it, the defendant had moved from the middle of Sheridan Road to the sidewalk and that is when McGinnis saw a male ([Joseph] Rosenbaum) initially try to engage the defendant. McGinnis stated that as the defendant was walking Rosenbaum was trying to get closer to the defendant. When Rosenbaum advanced, the defendant did a "juke" move and started running. McGinnis stated that there were other people that were moving very quickly. McGinnis stated that they were moving towards the defendant. McGinnis said that according to what he saw the defendant was trying to evade these individuals.After that, much of the situation was recorded, and the New York Times has done an excellent job of stitching the videos together. This Twitter thread from a co-author of the piece nicely explains the events and (for those willing to watch graphic footage) provides the key clips:> A teenager faces charges in shootings that left 2 people dead in Kenosha, WI. The @nytimes Visual Investigations team reviewed hours of livestreams to track 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse's movements during and leading up to the shootings. [THREAD] https://t.co/FRCYlS5wgH> > -- Christiaan Triebert (@trbrtc) August 27, 2020 The first video starts with people already chasing Rittenhouse, one of whom throws something at him. One person even fires a handgun in the air — and another, Rosenbaum, charges at Rittenhouse, who shoots him. After that, there are more shots from an unknown source, and Rittenhouse calls a friend on his phone and leaves.But again he's pursued, with some protesters urging others to join in, and this time he falls down. Several people move in on him, and he takes shots at three, hitting two. One is holding a handgun and survives a shot to the arm; the other has a skateboard and dies. Again there are additional mysterious gunshots after the fact.Obviously, a big unanswered question right now is how this all really got started. But as we wait for that information, let's take a gander at the Wisconsin laws at issue.There are two extremes here: justifiable use of deadly force and first-degree intentional homicide. So let's see what the law says about those two situations, bearing in mind that other charges can apply if Rittenhouse's behavior fell in between them. (There are plenty of options: Rittenhouse is charged with reckless homicide for the first fatal shooting, first-degree intentional homicide for the second, and attempted first-degree intentional homicide for the nonfatal one, in addition to charges for reckless endangerment and bearing a dangerous weapon as a minor.)Quite typically for a U.S. state, Wisconsin allows civilian use of deadly force when one "reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm." One major issue, then, will be whether Rittenhouse reasonably thought that the folks engaging with him meant to inflict serious injury, not just disarm him.But what if Rittenhouse provoked the confrontation to begin with? That's bad for a claim of self-defense, but it doesn't preclude one. Here's another excerpt from the Wisconsin statute books:> (a) A person who engages in unlawful conduct of a type likely to provoke others to attack him or her and thereby does provoke an attack is not entitled to claim the privilege of self-defense against such attack, except when the attack which ensues is of a type causing the person engaging in the unlawful conduct to reasonably believe that he or she is in imminent danger of death or great bodily harm. In such a case, the person engaging in the unlawful conduct is privileged to act in self-defense, but the person is not privileged to resort to the use of force intended or likely to cause death to the person's assailant unless the person reasonably believes he or she has exhausted every other reasonable means to escape from or otherwise avoid death or great bodily harm at the hands of his or her assailant.> > (b) The privilege lost by provocation may be regained if the actor in good faith withdraws from the fight and gives adequate notice thereof to his or her assailant.> > (c) A person who provokes an attack, whether by lawful or unlawful conduct, with intent to use such an attack as an excuse to cause death or great bodily harm to his or her assailant is not entitled to claim the privilege of self-defense.So, even if Rittenhouse bears some responsibility for the initial conflict, he can still argue that he did everything he could to escape the situation and withdraw from the fight. Both shooting incidents began with him running away.Moving to the other extreme, to prove first-degree intentional homicide, prosecutors will have to show that Rittenhouse "cause[d] the death of another human being with intent to kill that person" and will have to disprove the existence of any "mitigating circumstances" the defense asserts. If the prosecution fails at the latter task, the offense is knocked down to the second degree.Mitigating circumstances include "adequate provocation," meaning the victim did something "sufficient to cause complete lack of self-control in an ordinarily constituted person"; "unnecessary defensive force," meaning Rittenhouse "believed he . . . was in imminent danger of death or great bodily harm and that the force used was necessary to defend [himself]," even though the belief was unreasonable; and "prevention of felony," meaning he believed his actions were necessary to stop the "commission of a felony," even though the belief was unreasonable. In other words, even if Rittenhouse unreasonably thought his actions were necessary, he can get the charge downgraded, though in that case he'll still have committed a very serious offense.Rittenhouse is already a hero to some and a supervillain to others; in that sense, he is the Bernie Goetz of 2020. The highest charge against him strikes me as a stretch, but beyond that I don't have any bold opinions yet. The outcome for each shooting will depend on whether Rittenhouse reasonably feared for his life, which in turn might depend on broader context we lack thus far — and even if all three shootings were justified, there are still firearms and reckless-endangerment charges for him to contend with.Where the f*** were this kid's parents?
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| Joe and Jill Biden have been married for 43 years — here's a timeline of their relationship Posted: 28 Aug 2020 12:33 PM PDT  Joe and Dr. Jill Biden have been at each other's sides through successes and failures, joyful celebrations and devastating losses.
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| Stolen Fortnite accounts are being sold on the black market for hundreds of dollars Posted: 29 Aug 2020 05:05 AM PDT  Hackers are using tools that allow them to see if login credentials from past data breaches allow them access to Fortnite accounts.
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| Sarah Palin can sue New York Times for defamation: court ruling Posted: 28 Aug 2020 03:06 PM PDT  A federal judge on Friday rejected the New York Times' bid to dismiss Sarah Palin's defamation lawsuit over a 2017 editorial she said falsely linked her to a mass shooting. U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan said that while much of Palin's case was circumstantial, it was strong enough for a jury to find the Times and former editorial page editor James Bennet acted with "actual malice by clear and convincing evidence." Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate and former Alaska governor, sued over a June 14, 2017 editorial published after an Alexandria, Virginia, shooting that wounded four people, including then-House Majority Whip Steve Scalise.
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| Arrest made after firefighter’s wallet stolen as he battled wildfires, CA officials say Posted: 28 Aug 2020 03:42 PM PDT  The thief drained the bank account of the firefighter after the wallet was lifted from his vehicle. officials said.
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| Portland protesters occupied mayor's presumed condo complex Posted: 29 Aug 2020 01:51 PM PDT  Police declared a riot at another protest after a fire was set at the police union building.
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| Kenosha police union gives its version of Blake shooting Posted: 28 Aug 2020 03:33 PM PDT  The Kenosha police union on Friday offered the most detailed accounting to date on officers' perspective of the moments leading up to police shooting Jacob Blake seven times in the back, saying he had a knife and fought with officers, putting one of them in a headlock and shrugging off two attempts to stun him. The statement from Brendan Matthews, attorney for the Kenosha Professional Police Association, goes into more detail than anything that has been released by the Wisconsin Department of Justice, which is investigating. The Sunday shooting of Blake, a Black man, put the nation's spotlight on Wisconsin and triggered a series of peaceful protests and violence, including the killing of two people by an armed civilian on Tuesday.
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| In pictures: Thousands gather for historic March on Washington Posted: 28 Aug 2020 03:04 PM PDT  Some 50,000 supporters packed DC's National Mall to demand racial justice and urge people to vote.
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| A California chicken processing plant was shut down after a coronavirus outbreak infected 358 workers and killed 8 Posted: 28 Aug 2020 02:03 PM PDT  Heath officials said testing was insufficient so Foster Farms' outbreak became the "most severe and long-lasting" in Merced County.
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| Kenosha police chief explains why suspect was able to walk away after allegedly shooting 3 people Posted: 28 Aug 2020 01:40 PM PDT  At a press conference on Friday, Kenosha, Wis., Police Chief Dan Miskinis responded to a question about why suspect Kyle Rittenhouse was able to walk by law enforcement after allegedly shooting three people in the aftermath of Jacob Blake being shot by police.
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| 6 health benefits of turmeric and how to add it to your diet Posted: 28 Aug 2020 11:24 AM PDT  Most of turmeric's health benefits come from its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties which can potentially ward off heart disease.
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| Sleepy Donald closes out the RNC Posted: 27 Aug 2020 09:20 PM PDT  After four nights of scalding and often shouted slash-and-burn attacks directed at Joe Biden and the Democratic Party, it was quite a shock on Thursday night when Donald Trump nearly lulled America to sleep with his Republican National Convention speech on the south lawn of the White House.It's not that Trump delivered a soothing address filled with warmth and good feeling. During long passages he savaged Biden as a Trojan Horse who would deliver America-hating socialists and anarchists to power. Those were the more lively sections of the speech. The trouble is that the charges against Biden had been made at the convention by many others before Trump, sometimes in identical language.But even when the precise words weren't recycled, they still felt like retreads because the speech was mind-numbingly repetitive. How many times did Trump say that if Biden is elected the Democrats would come for America's guns? That it was time to bring jobs back from China? That the stakes in the election couldn't be higher? It's as if the authors of the address thought everything in it was so important it needed to be reiterated two or three times.And then there were the lists. Lists of personages and events from American history at the beginning of the speech, and then again at the end of the speech. Lists, sprinkled throughout, of all the ways America is gloriously exceptional. Lists of Trump's wonderful, stupendous accomplishments. Lists of the wonderful, stupendous things he will accomplish if he's re-elected. The last of these lists made the latter half of the speech sound more like an interminable State of the Union address than a nomination acceptance.And all of it was delivered in the slurring, monotonous drone that Trump adopts whenever he's reined in by written remarks on a teleprompter. Throughout the second half of the address, you feel him breaking away from the script for a word here, a phrase there, like he was dying to turn the occasion into one of his vulgarity- and mockery-infused campaign rallies where he riffs for 90 minutes about his enemies.Or maybe he was just trying to keep himself awake. I know the feeling.More stories from theweek.com Trump's RNC polling bounce more about 'subtraction on the Biden side,' pollster suggests 5 more scathingly funny cartoons about the Republican National Convention Many uninsured coronavirus patients reportedly don't qualify for Trump's coverage program because of other illnesses
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| Australia open to talks over where NZ mosque shooter serves life sentence Posted: 27 Aug 2020 07:55 PM PDT  Australia's prime minister said on Friday he was open to discussions over whether Australian mass killer Brenton Tarrant, jailed for life without parole this week for the New Zealand mosque shootings, should serve his sentence in his home country. Scott Morrison told broadcaster Channel Seven he had not received a formal request from New Zealand for such a transfer, although New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters suggested it after Tarrant was sentenced on Thursday. "We'll have an open discussion and look at the issues around this," Morrison said, adding that the views of the affected families would need to be considered first.
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| Dramatic last-second launch abort grounds spy satellite Posted: 29 Aug 2020 04:17 AM PDT  The "hot-fire abort" derailed plans for three launches in just two days from Florida's Space Coast.
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| Prominent lawyer in Haiti is shot and killed at his home Posted: 29 Aug 2020 10:45 AM PDT |
| Fact check: Jacob Blake did not 'brandish' knife, get gun before Kenosha police shooting Posted: 28 Aug 2020 08:33 AM PDT  There was no gun involved. Police did find a knife in the SUV, but authorities haven't said if Blake held it at some point.
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| Cops found a barefoot missing Memphis girl in Biscayne Park. She led them to her sister. Posted: 28 Aug 2020 03:00 AM PDT  Biscayne Park Detective Rodney Schwartz rode his police motorcycle over to Griffin Boulevard early Tuesday morning after being told about a young girl who was "wandering aimlessly." When he found her, Sandra Bates, 13, was barefoot and disheveled and had that "thousand-yard stare," Schwartz said. Schwartz's search through databases was fruitless.
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| Riot in Sweden after anti-Muslim Danish leader banned Posted: 29 Aug 2020 07:24 AM PDT  At least 10 people were arrested, and several police officers injured, in violence which broke out in southern Sweden after an anti-Muslim Danish politician was blocked from attending a Koran-burning rally, police said Saturday.
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| First confirmed case of COVID-19 reinfection is ‘not surprising,’ doctors say Posted: 29 Aug 2020 09:12 AM PDT  Researchers in Hong Kong confirmed the first known case of coronavirus reinfection, but many doctors and public health officials say it isn't that surprising given what we know about waning immunity from other coronaviruses.
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| US election 2020: Donald Trump's convention speech fact-checked Posted: 28 Aug 2020 08:38 AM PDT  President Trump made claims about the economy, coronavirus, law and order and the border wall - we've fact-checked them.
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| U.S. military identifies two soldiers killed in Black Hawk training crash Posted: 29 Aug 2020 01:41 PM PDT |
| Byron Allen’s $10 billion racial discrimination lawsuit against Charter Communications allowed to proceed Posted: 28 Aug 2020 11:22 PM PDT  Byron Allen's $10 billion racial discrimination lawsuit filed against Charter Communications will proceed after a district court judge ruled in his favor in a motion to dismiss. Allen's Entertainment Studios Networks, Inc., which is the parent company of theGrio, announced on Friday that Federal District Court Judge George H. Wu once again denied Charter Communications' motion to dismiss the suit in which Allen accused the cable company of violating the Civil Rights Act of 1866. Judge Wu had previously ruled in Allen's favor back in October 2016, which Charter later appealed.
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| California residents didn't want controlled burns near their homes. Some of those homes then burned in a wildfire. Posted: 29 Aug 2020 12:48 PM PDT  Experts say prescribed burns are key to avoiding destructive wildfires. But the concerns of some homeowners sometimes stands in the way.
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| Kenosha residents say the way police handled the 2 shootings this week tell you all you need to know about whether the city is racist Posted: 28 Aug 2020 02:40 PM PDT  Kenosha, Wisconsin, has been thrust into the national reckoning on racism and police brutality after the shootings of Jacob Blake and protesters.
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| 7 suspected rebels, 1 Indian soldier killed in Kashmir Posted: 29 Aug 2020 12:53 AM PDT  Seven suspected rebels and an Indian army soldier were killed in two gunbattles in Indian-administered Kashmir in the last 24 hours, officials said Saturday. Three militants and a soldier died early Saturday after troops and police launched a search operation in a village in southern Pulwama district, said Col. Rajesh Kalia, an Indian army spokesperson. Four militants were killed and another was arrested during the operation, a police statement said.
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| Researchers at the University of Arizona say they stopped a coronavirus outbreak before it spread by testing students' poop Posted: 29 Aug 2020 04:09 AM PDT  Researchers at the University of Arizona say they may have prevented an outbreak of COVID-19 using wastewater-based epidemiology.
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| GOP official warns that a single law is going to delay election results in Midwest swing states Posted: 28 Aug 2020 02:00 AM PDT  The top Republican election official in Ohio on Thursday said that other Midwestern states where the presidential election was decided four years ago are in a "really terrible situation" because they have so far not allowed mail-in ballots to be processed in an expedited way.
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| Amazon driver hits 73-year-old man in the face after being 'asked to wear a face mask' while delivering packages Posted: 28 Aug 2020 12:26 PM PDT  An Amazon delivery driver allegedly assaulted a 73-year-old man that asked him to put on a face mask before entering a condo.The alleged assault was caught on surveillance video. Ray Breslin, who asked the driver to stay out of the building until he had a mask, returns from their discussion wearing a mask.
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| Havana announces curfew to curb new coronavirus peak Posted: 27 Aug 2020 06:45 PM PDT |
| Map: State-by-state breakdown of coronavirus travel restrictions Posted: 28 Aug 2020 12:32 PM PDT  U.S. states and territories are making new rules for travelers. Find which ones across the United States have implemented travel restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19.
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| Turkey and Greece staring into 'the abyss' as tensions in Mediterranean risk spiraling into conflict Posted: 29 Aug 2020 04:20 AM PDT  As warships bristling with 21st century weapons systems prowled the eastern Mediterranean, Turkey's president drew on a rather earlier era to underline his latest round of sabre-rattling towards Greece. Recep Tayyip Erdogan chose the anniversary of a battle that took place near 1,000 years ago as an opportunity to warn the Greeks that they would be swept aside if they stood in the way of Turkish ambitions in the region. At the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, the Turkish Seljuk Empire beat Christian Byzantine forces, capturing the Byzantine emperor and forcing entry into the great hinterland of Anatolia. The battle is celebrated as marking the birth of the state of Turkey; nearly a millennium later, President Erdogan was in bellicose mood. "Turkey will take what is its right in the Mediterranean, in the Aegean and in the Black Sea," he said during the speech on Wednesday. "If anyone wants to stand before us and face the consequences, they are welcome to. If not, stay out of our way and we will continue with our work."
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| Derek Chauvin, former officer accused in George Floyd's death, wants murder charges dismissed Posted: 29 Aug 2020 01:01 PM PDT  Attorneys for Derek Chauvin, former Minneapolis officer accused of killing George Floyd, have asked a judge to dismiss the murder charges against him.
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| The Pine Gulch fire in Colorado is the largest in the state's history, ripping through more than 139,000 acres Posted: 28 Aug 2020 11:16 PM PDT  Three major fires burn in Colorado, with the Pine Gulch fire reaching over 139,000 acres, the largest in the state's history.
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| Letters to the Editor: An eviction apocalypse looms for California, but not in L.A. Here's why Posted: 28 Aug 2020 02:59 PM PDT  The state's emergency measure against eviction expires Sept. 1, but L.A.'s tough ordinances will continue to provide protection, Councilman Mitch O'Farrell writes.
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| Most Americans think the US has handled the coronavirus pandemic badly, according to an international poll rating Trump and Johnson's response worst Posted: 28 Aug 2020 04:59 AM PDT  The Trump administration and Boris Johnson's UK government were both rated negatively in a new poll of 14 countries.
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| As political conventions go virtual, so does the chatter Posted: 28 Aug 2020 10:25 AM PDT  Dwight Van Lierop was unimpressed by the opening nights of this week's Republican National Convention, where speaker after speaker extolled the record and character of President Donald Trump in terms that didn't always match reality. Then Burgess Owens spoke. Van Lierop, who is white, was impressed.
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| Thai submarine purchase hits rough seas Posted: 28 Aug 2020 10:13 AM PDT  Thailand's intention to buy two more submarines from China has run into vociferous resistance, with the country's main opposition party questioning the need to go ahead with the acquisition against the backdrop of the economic slump.
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| Azerbaijan accuses Moscow of arming Armenia since July clashes Posted: 29 Aug 2020 07:40 AM PDT |
| Python caught near Georgia home, leading to concerns of invasive species spreading Posted: 28 Aug 2020 09:18 AM PDT  News of the discovery prompted anger on social media.
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