| "I don't recall": Pence tells Fox News he can't remember if he was on standby for Trump Posted: 01 Sep 2020 11:21 PM PDT  Mike Pence gives a halting and evasive answer when pressed about reports on Trump's mysterious visit to Walter Reed
|
| Portland's police chief called out elected officials for not stopping violence in the city, after rioters threw burning debris at the mayor's apartment building Posted: 02 Sep 2020 04:33 AM PDT  Protests have been held nightly in the city since the police-involved killing of Black man George Floyd in Minnesota at the end of May.
|
| International Criminal Court officials sanctioned by US Posted: 02 Sep 2020 10:03 AM PDT  The chief prosecutor at the Hague-based ICC, Fatou Bensouda, is among those sanctioned.
|
| University of California system can no longer consider SAT, ACT results in admissions, judge rules Posted: 02 Sep 2020 09:12 AM PDT  A judge in California ruled that the system's "test optional" policy unfairly disadvantaged students with disabilities who could not access the SAT and ACT.
|
| US Army pursues new mid-range missile, as tactical missile upgrade hits delay Posted: 02 Sep 2020 11:56 AM PDT  A recent strategic fires study is prompting the Army to go after a near-term, mid-range missile prototyping effort. But meanwhile, its cross-domain capability upgrade for the Army Tactical Missile System is delayed due to technical problems.
|
| Bindi Irwin reflects on the moment she discovered she was pregnant Posted: 02 Sep 2020 08:59 AM PDT  "Discovering that I was going to become a mother will forever be a moment where time stood still," the daughter of the late Steve Irwin wrote.
|
| Former friend of Melania Trump says the first lady painted a rosy picture of facilities holding migrant children Posted: 01 Sep 2020 09:37 PM PDT  First lady Melania Trump knew exactly what she was doing when she wore a jacket that read "I DON'T REALLY CARE, DO U?" while traveling to and from a Texas facility holding migrant children, her former friend and adviser Stephanie Winston Wolkoff says.In her new book, Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship with the First Lady, Winston Wolkoff said this attire was chosen specifically to "get the media's attention. Otherwise, no one would have covered the story."The trip took place in June 2018, and Winston Wolkoff said she later spoke with Trump about what she saw at the facility. The first lady told her people were going "crazy about the zero-tolerance policy at the border," but it wasn't as horrible as it sounded.Stating that she was directly quoting Trump, Winston Wolkoff writes that Trump said the children she met were "brought in by coyotes, the bad people who are trafficking, and that's why the kids were put in shelters. They're not with their parents, and it's sad. But the patrols told me the kids say, 'Wow I get a bed? I will have a cabinet for my clothes?' It's more than they have in their own country where they sleep on the floor. They are taking care nicely there."Winston Wolkoff writes that Trump went on to say mothers taught their children to tell border agents, "I'm going to be killed by gangs!" so they would be allowed into the United States. "They are using that line and it's not true," she said Trump told her. "They don't want to stay in Mexico because Mexico doesn't take care of them the same as America does."Speaking with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on Tuesday night, Winston Wolkoff said these were the first lady's exact words, and there is "no way to fabricate any of my story."More stories from theweek.com Pelosi says San Francisco salon 'owes me an apology for setting me up' The poisonous lessons of a potential Trump victory CDC 'urgently' tells states to get coronavirus vaccine distribution running by Nov. 1
|
| 2 pythons weighing 100 pounds collapse ceiling in Australia Posted: 01 Sep 2020 07:05 AM PDT  An Australian returned home and was surprised to discover that his kitchen ceiling had collapsed under the weight of two large pythons apparently fighting over a mate. David Tait entered his home in Laceys Creek in Queensland state on Monday and found a large chunk of his ceiling lying on his kitchen table. "I knew we hadn't had rain, so I looked around to find what had caused it," Tait told Nine Network television on Tuesday.
|
| U.S. Republicans criticize Pelosi over hair appointment Posted: 02 Sep 2020 02:58 PM PDT  U.S. Republicans criticized House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday for going to a hair salon in San Francisco in an apparent violation of the city's coronavirus pandemic regulations, but the Democratic leader said she had been told by the salon the appointment was allowed. Pelosi briefly addressed the issue to reporters in San Francisco, saying, "I take responsibility for falling for a set-up." Under strict rules to combat the coronavirus pandemic, hair salons in San Francisco were still prohibited from admitting customers on Monday, when Pelosi had her appointment, although salons elsewhere in the state and across much of the country were already open.
|
| Residents in Kenosha are dismayed at law enforcement's response to the Jacob Blake shooting and protests: 'They just let the fires burn' Posted: 31 Aug 2020 11:45 PM PDT  During nights of civil unrest, parts of the city burned as armed citizens attempted to protect their properties from being destroyed.
|
| Beijing pillories Pentagon report on Chinese military ambitions Posted: 02 Sep 2020 04:28 AM PDT  China on Wednesday condemned a Pentagon report for claiming Beijing wants to double its stockpile of nuclear warheads within a decade as it seeks to deter the United States from any intervention linked to Taiwan.
|
| Moon booster rocket fired up in critical test Posted: 02 Sep 2020 02:30 PM PDT  Engineers in Utah fire up a booster rocket that will help send astronauts back to the Moon.
|
| 73-year-old woman uses American flag to defend family from intruder, Utah cops say Posted: 02 Sep 2020 07:27 AM PDT  "I whooped his a-- and I'll whoop it again."
|
| U.S. Attorney General Barr says antifa 'flying around' U.S. to incite violence Posted: 02 Sep 2020 02:32 PM PDT  U.S. Attorney General William Barr on Wednesday said the Justice Department was monitoring the protest movement antifa, saying that it is at the heart of violence in cities around the country. "I've talked to every police chief in every city where there has been major violence and they all have identified antifa as the ramrod for the violence," Barr said in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "We see some of the purchases they are making before the riots of weapons to use in those riots," Barr added.
|
| Nancy Pelosi says she was victim of 'setup' in hair salon mask dispute Posted: 02 Sep 2020 01:56 PM PDT  * House speaker says San Francisco salon owes her apology * Pelosi was photographed in salon without a face covering * Coronavirus – latest updates * See all our coronavirus coverageNancy Pelosi has claimed to have been "set up", after she was photographed in a San Francisco hair salon without a face covering, breaking the city's coronavirus prevention rules."I take responsibility for trusting the word of the neighborhood salon that I've been to many times," the House speaker said on Wednesday afternoon, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle. "It was a setup, and I take responsibility for falling for a setup."Salons in San Francisco have been closed during the coronavirus pandemic, with limited outdoor operations beginning only on Tuesday.Security camera footage obtained by Fox News showed Pelosi, the House speaker and the most powerful Democrat in Washington, walking through the e Salon SF with a mask around her neck. The footage was filmed on Monday.Pelosi has regularly told US citizens to wear masks and follow guidelines intended to limit the spread of coronavirus.The salon's owner, Erica Kious, said one of her hairstylists who rented a chair at the business opened it specially for Pelosi's appointment."It was a slap in the face that she went in, you know, that she feels that she can just go and get her stuff done while no one else can go in, and I can't work," Kious told Fox News."We have been shut down for so long, not just me, but most of the small businesses and I just can't – it's a feeling … of being deflated, helpless and honestly beaten down."Kious said that according to her interpretation of coronavirus safety precautions, blow-drying hair was prohibited."I have been fighting for six months for a business that took me 12 years to build to reopen," she said. "I am a single mom, I have two small children, and I have no income. We're supposed to look up to this woman, right? It is just disturbing."A spokesman for Pelosi, Drew Hammill, said: "This business offered for the speaker to come in on Monday and told her they were allowed by the city to have one customer at a time in the business."The speaker complied with the rules as presented to her by this establishment."Donald Trump weighed in, tweeting that Pelosi was "being decimated for having a beauty parlor opened, when all others are closed, and for not wearing a mask – despite constantly lecturing everyone else".Trump has recommended that people wear masks and has occasionally worn one himself. He has also resisted calls for a national mask mandate and last week staged a Republican convention at which coronavirus prevention measures were at best inconsistently observed.Pelosi, who has called Trump's stance on masks "cowardly", fired back."I think that this salon owes me an apology for setting me up," she said, adding that she had been "inundated" with comments from people in the hair service industry, thanking her "for calling attention to this" and saying "We need to get back to work"."Many [are] annoyed at the setup," she said, "that was there for a purpose that has nothing to do with ending the crisis."Pelosi said she had worn her mask round her neck because she had "just had my hair washed. I don't wear a mask when I'm washing my hair. Do you wear a mask when you're washing your hair? I always wear a mask … And that picture is when I just came out of the bowl."
|
| Criminal charges loom in California boat fire that killed 34 Posted: 01 Sep 2020 01:48 PM PDT  Nine days after the scuba boat Conception went down in flames with 34 people trapped below deck in one of the deadliest disasters in California maritime history, a federal grand jury began looking into whether a crime had been committed. Now, a year after the Sept. 2 tragedy, investigations into the cause of the pre-dawn blaze and whether someone is to blame are still ongoing, though court documents say criminal charges are imminent. The captain of the boat, who could face an unusual federal manslaughter charge, was briefed in July on the evidence prosecutors have against him.
|
| Spurned by allies, Saudi rethinks chequebook diplomacy Posted: 01 Sep 2020 07:53 PM PDT  From Pakistan to Lebanon, Saudi Arabia is scaling back its famed chequebook diplomacy, a longstanding policy of splashing petro-dollars in exchange for influence, which observers say has yielded few tangible gains.
|
| Broiling heat wave expected in California Posted: 01 Sep 2020 10:42 PM PDT  California's last heat wave, less than three weeks ago, coincided with two of the state's three largest fires.
|
| US soldiers jailed for Venezuela coup attempt seek pardon Posted: 02 Sep 2020 05:08 AM PDT  Two US special forces soldiers jailed in Venezuela for trying to overthrow President Nicolas Maduro are seeking an official pardon for early release, The Telegraph has learned. Former US Green Berets Luke Denman and Airan Berry were given 20 years each for their role in a botched operation to kidnap Mr Maduro and bring him to the US for trial. The court hearing against them earlier this month took place behind closed doors with no lawyers present. However, the families of the two men were already in talks with Mr Maduro's officials with a view to pleading for clemency. In July they asked Bill Richardson, a former Democrat senator and diplomatic trouble-shooter for President Clinton, to make a private visit to Caracas to lobby on their behalf. He runs his own non-profit organisation, the Richardson Centre, which works to secure the release of US citizens detained around the world.
|
| Biden suggests having a live fact-checker during presidential debates Posted: 02 Sep 2020 11:28 AM PDT  While making remarks on Wednesday in Wilmington, Del., former Vice President Joe Biden suggested he would like a crawl during the televised presidential debates that fact-checks him and President Trump.
|
| Special Report: Pentagon's latest salvo against China's growing might - Cold War bombers Posted: 01 Sep 2020 03:58 AM PDT  On July 21, two U.S Air Force B-1B bombers took off from Guam and headed west over the Pacific Ocean to the hotly contested South China Sea. The sleek jets made a low-level pass over the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and its escorting fleet, which was exercising nearby in the Philippines Sea, according to images released by the U.S. military. The operation was part of the Trump administration's intensifying challenge to China's ruling Communist Party and its sweeping territorial claims over one of the world's most important strategic waterways.
|
| Boston University won't notify professors if a student in their class tested positive for the coronavirus, and faculty and students are not happy about it Posted: 01 Sep 2020 10:56 PM PDT  A Boston University professor accused the administration of taking an "individualized" approach to a "community health problem in too many ways."
|
| Who were the Khmer Rouge? Posted: 02 Sep 2020 04:42 AM PDT  The Khmer Rouge's interrogator-in-chief Kaing Guek Eav, better known by his alias Duch, died Wednesday in Cambodia's capital at the age of 77.
|
| A "Corn Moon" rises tonight — and it only happens every 3 years Posted: 01 Sep 2020 12:18 PM PDT  Don't miss tonight's full moon, which has a special twist this year.
|
| Mayor one-ups Black Lives Matter rally with his own plans Posted: 02 Sep 2020 10:47 AM PDT  Atlantic City is attempting to co-opt plans by protesters to paint "Black Lives Matter" on the seaside gambling resort's famous Boardwalk by doing the same thing in a place of its own choosing — on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, in front of its civil rights memorial. Mayor Marty Small, who is Black, said at a news conference Wednesday that painting the historic Boardwalk is illegal and that the city will host a community event about 90 minutes after the scheduled start time of the protest rally that was to include the Boardwalk painting. "Painting on the Boardwalk is prohibited."
|
| The Trump administration's mission to wall off the Chinese internet has officially killed a US-Hong Kong undersea cable project from Facebook and Google Posted: 01 Sep 2020 05:00 AM PDT  A DOJ committee formally recommended in July that the Hong Kong part of the network be iced on national security grounds.
|
| 60 percent of Americans say federal government's coronavirus response is making the pandemic worse Posted: 01 Sep 2020 08:57 AM PDT  The U.S.'s COVID-19 response has fallen far behind most of the rest of the world's — and many Americans think the federal government is largely to blame.In contrast to President Trump's false insistence that the U.S. has one of the world's lowest mortality rates from coronavirus, a New York Times analysis published Tuesday shows the U.S. actually accounts for more than its population's share of COVID-19 deaths. And Americans largely recognize the U.S.'s failures, with 60 percent of them saying the federal government's COVID-19 response is actually making the pandemic worse, an Axios-Ipsos poll has found.Just 39 percent of Americans say the federal government is making America's coronavirus recovery better, the poll found, though there's a sharp divide between parties. Only 19 percent of Democrats say the federal government is making things better, while 80 percent say things are getting worse. Independents largely agree, with 68 percent say the government isn't helping. Meanwhile 74 percent of Republicans say the federal government is improving things, while 25 percent say it's actively worsening the pandemic, the poll found.Beyond just his response, Americans don't even trust Trump to give them accurate information regarding the coronavirus, the Axios-Ipsos poll says. But things aren't much better for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden — 31 percent of Americans say they trust Trump for accurate COVID-19 information, while 46 percent say they trust Biden.The Axios-Ipsos poll surveyed 1,100 adults from Aug. 28-31, with a margin of error of 3.3 percentage points.More stories from theweek.com The poisonous lessons of a potential Trump victory Nate Silver's analysis of Biden's Electoral College chances renews calls to repeal it altogether Biden calls for officers who shot Jacob Blake and Breonna Taylor to be charged
|
| COVID-19 death tied to Sturgis Rally reported in Minnesota Posted: 02 Sep 2020 02:12 PM PDT  A Minnesota man who attended the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota last month has died of COVID-19, officials reported Wednesday.
|
| China’s Horrifying War on Uighur Women Posted: 02 Sep 2020 03:30 AM PDT  China's abuse of Uighur Muslims is finally getting some much-needed global attention, with reports of millions herded into political-reeducation camps that recall history's worst atrocities. Now, a groundbreaking new report by Adrian Zenz, a senior fellow at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, reveals that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been systematically targeting Uighur women in a draconian birth-control campaign.Chinese officials have been ruthless in their pursuit of limiting new Uighur births. Uighur women are subjected to forced pregnancy checks, medication that stops their menstruation, forced abortions, and surgical sterilizations.The Chinese government has a long history of perpetrating such horrors on its own citizens. The "one-child policy" was infamously enforced, before eventually being loosened at the end of 2015 to allow couples to legally conceive two children. But even as the CCP regime was easing reproductive restrictions on Han Chinese, it was drastically increasing systematic control of Uighur women in Xinjiang, a province in Western China. Since 2017, the CCP has systematically detained over 1.8 million Uighur Muslims in "political reeducation" camps, and used them for forced labor.Zenz's research reveals that birth-control violations are punishable by extrajudicial internment in "training" camps, and evidence from the leaked "Karakax List" document states that such violations were the most common reason for internment. According to Zenz's report, "in 2014, 2.5 percent of newly placed IUDs [intrauterine birth-control devices] in China were fitted in Xinjiang. In 2018, that share rose to 80 percent, far above Xinjiang's 1.8 percent share of China's population. Between 2015 and 2018, Xinjiang placed 7.8 times more new IUDs per capita than the national average."A Uighur woman reported that in 2018, she was offered "free" surgical sterilization and threatened with internment if she refused. According to her Uighur doctor, her fallopian tubes were cut in the resulting tubal-ligation procedure, making her sterilization irreversible — a common experience for Xinjiang's minorities.China's goal, it seems, is to eradicate future generations of Uighurs by maliciously and ruthlessly controlling Uighur reproduction. This, in itself, is nothing new. The Chinese Communist Party has waged a long and dreadful war against women, more specifically against baby girls. Through the coercion of the one- and two-child policies, it created a gender imbalance as stark as 120 boys for every 100 girls. Families in China often had to seek the approval of local family-planning officials just to have a child, even if they hadn't already reached the one-child cutoff. To meet quotas and restrict population growth, women were subject to forced abortions, and men and women to forced sterilizations.Where the CCP applied the one- and two-child policies relatively equally, however, the Uighurs are being targeted for their membership in a particular religious and ethnic group, making their mistreatment even more pernicious.On July 2, after Zenz's report was released, members of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, noting as much, sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arguing that the U.S. may have grounds to publicly and formally declare an atrocity to be occurring. They claim that forced sterilization and forced abortion constitute attempts by the CCP to limit, and maybe even eventually exterminate, the Uighur population.Limiting births on the basis of membership in a particular group may be enough to prove the CCP's intent to commit genocide against the Uighurs — a legal standard that must be met in order for Pompeo to take such a step. Furthermore, officials responsible for human-rights violations against Uighurs may be subject to targeted sanctions like the ones now being applied to senior CCP official Chen Quanguo. As the architect of the surveillance state that made it possible for over 1 million Uighurs to be held in reeducation camps, as well as for similar rights violations in Tibet, Chen is finally facing repercussions for his actions. He and three other CCP officials were sanctioned just last month. Other officials responsible for the injustices uncovered by Zenz may be similarly vulnerable to sanctions.Secretary Pompeo should establish a new position within the Department of State to coordinate the U.S.'s diplomatic, political, and legal response to the gross violations of universally recognized human rights in Xinjiang. This person would play a similar role to that of the Special Coordinator for Tibet and would ensure that the U.S. government is responding as effectively as possible to the crisis in Xinjiang.China's draconian and systematic abuse of Uighur women must be stopped, and the global community should boldly call on the Chinese Communist Party to end its persecution of Uighurs and other ethnic and religious minorities in China altogether. Any holistic strategy to meet the challenges the CCP's actions increasingly pose to the world has to be built on a strong moral foundation, and speaking up strongly and clearly for the Uighurs is the right place to start.Olivia Enos is a senior policy analyst at The Heritage Foundation's Asian Studies Center. Chelsea Patterson Sobolik is the policy director for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.
|
| Iran hails support for nuclear deal against US Posted: 02 Sep 2020 02:14 AM PDT  Iran's President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday hailed the show of unity by parties to a 2015 nuclear deal, after they defeated US efforts to restore international sanctions.
|
| Israeli flight attendant says "shalom" to UAE, bye to airline Posted: 02 Sep 2020 01:03 AM PDT |
| Elvis Presley landmark Graceland in Tennessee hit with 'Defund the Police' graffiti Posted: 02 Sep 2020 05:14 AM PDT  Graceland, the Elvis Presley estate and signature landmark, was hit overnight with "Defund the Police" and "BLM" (Black Lives Matter) graffiti.
|
| Florida couple arrested after shooting at Black father, son returning U-Haul Posted: 01 Sep 2020 05:28 PM PDT |
| Miami says it didn’t know he lived there before demolishing his home. Is the city lying? Posted: 02 Sep 2020 11:53 AM PDT  After the city of Miami demolished Liberty City resident Michael Hamilton's home last week, he slept in his yard for two days.
|
| Republican Sen. Joni Ernst promoted a far-right conspiracy theory that falsely claims coronavirus cases are inflated by healthcare providers Posted: 02 Sep 2020 01:54 PM PDT  Sen. Joni Ernst questioned whether the confirmed number of COVID-19 cases in the US are being overcounted.
|
| DC task force targets monuments, prompting fierce blowback Posted: 01 Sep 2020 09:05 PM PDT  A task force commissioned by the Washington, D.C., government has recommended renaming, relocating or adding context to dozens of monuments, schools, parks and buildings because of their namesakes' participation in slavery or racial oppression. Among the targets are the Washington Monument and Jefferson Memorial.
|
| Bethenny Frankel shares selfie to show lines on forehead: 'No work on this face' Posted: 01 Sep 2020 09:42 AM PDT  When critics claimed a recent filter-free selfie proved she had fillers, Botox and more, the former "Real Housewives" star shot back with evidence to the contrary.
|
| Indian special forces member killed in China border showdown Posted: 01 Sep 2020 12:45 PM PDT  A Tibetan-origin soldier with India's special forces was killed in the latest border showdown with Chinese troops on their contested Himalayan border, a Tibetan representative said Tuesday.
|
| Solomons province pushes for independence in 'China switch' fallout Posted: 01 Sep 2020 07:36 PM PDT |
