| Sarah Huckabee Sanders says Trump doesn't expect to have a transfer of power because he's going to win the election Posted: 25 Sep 2020 07:51 AM PDT  The former White House press secretary also said many Americans would be "questioning the final result" because of an increase in voting by mail.
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| Louisville police chief under fire for email saying BLM members should be washing her car Posted: 25 Sep 2020 09:47 AM PDT  Police chief called protesters 'woke' in bitter email to staff last month, causing anger
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| Buffalo police no longer have to display their names on badges in a policy change designed to protect officers Posted: 25 Sep 2020 09:23 AM PDT  The Buffalo mayor said that some officers were targeted and threats were made against their families. Now badges will display only a number.
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| A BMW hit a Tesla and left, Miami Beach cops say. But that’s not why a man was arrested Posted: 24 Sep 2020 05:00 AM PDT  A hit-and-run in Miami Beach early Thursday ended with a BMW crashed in front of one of the city's most well-known buildings and the arrest of a passenger who, police say, carried a loaded rifle.
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| Kremlin says EU move not to recognise Lukashenko amounts to meddling in Belarus Posted: 25 Sep 2020 04:09 AM PDT  Russia said on Friday that the European Union's decision not to recognise Alexander Lukashenko as the legitimate president of Belarus contradicted international law and amounted to indirect meddling in the country. Lukashenko, in power since 1994, was inaugurated on Wednesday in a secretive ceremony after weeks of huge protests. Russia is a close ally of Belarus and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday that the move not to recognise him would complicate the EU's dialogue with Belarus, but not affect Belarusian ties with Moscow.
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| US military increasingly using drone missile with flying blades in Syria Posted: 25 Sep 2020 07:52 AM PDT  'Ninja bomb', which uses 100lb of dense material and six attached blades, has been deployed in targeted assassinations The US military is making increasing use in Syria of a gruesome and secretive non-explosive drone missile that deploys flying blades to kill its targets.Described as less likely to kill non-combatants, the so-called ninja bomb – whose development was first disclosed last year – has been used a number of times in the last year to kill militants in Syria, including those linked to aal-Qaida, most recently earlier this month.Officially designated as the Hellfire AGM-114R9X – usually shortened to R9X and sometimes know as the "Flying Ginsu" – the weapon has been increasingly deployed in targeted assassinations by the US Joint Special Operations Command.The missile, believed to have been first used in 2017 to kill al-Qaida's then No 2 leader, Abu Khayr al Masri, in Idlib province, first came to wider attention when its existence was disclosed by an article in the Wall Street Journal last year.The weapon uses a combination of the force of 100lb of dense material flying at high speed and six attached blades which deploy before impact to crush and slice its victims.Video that emerged in June this year, posted by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, appeared to show the remains of one of the missiles used in a strike on a vehicle, also in Syria's Idlib that killed a Jordanian and Yemen, both reportedly members of Hurras al-Din, a group affiliated with aal-Qaida.The weapon is believed to have been developed during the administration of Barack Obama at a time when the US policy of targeted drone assassinations attracted considerable criticism for the number of civilian casualties caused by the strikes.Since its deployment it has been used sparingly, apparently most often in Syria.According to the New York Times the most recent use of the missile was on 14 September, when it was reportedly used to kill Sayyaf al-Tunsi, a Tunisian.Observers have speculated that the increasing use of the weapon in Syria – which increasingly has targeted leadership members of al-Qaida's affiliates – has been driven by the complexities of operations in Syria where the US is required to work around a large Russian engagement.The bladed, non-explosive version of the Hellfire missile is the latest iteration of a weapon that has undergone several variations since it was used to weaponize previously unarmed Predator drones in around 2000.The first Hellfires were designed as tank busters with a powerful shaped charge, used in Afghanistan for which they were regarded as not entirely suitable.A later version was developed that carried a heavier explosive warhead , but which led in turn to issues with civilian casualties, leading to the development of the R9X.Up until May last year, it is believed that the weapon had been used no more than half a dozen times. But since then it appears to have been used increasingly more often.The new missile appears designed for use in circumstances where a more conventional explosive missile might not be considered for fears of killing non-combatants.While conceding that the weapon appeared to be less dangerous to civilians, Iain Overton of Action on Armed Violence warned against the impression that it was a "more humanitarian weapon"."This weapon, whilst only used only a handful of times, does appear to have less wide-area effects than other air-dropped explosive weapons."However, the vast majority of the US explosive arsenal does, all too often, cause terrible collateral damage. Given Trump's administration also authorised the use of the largest non-nuclear explosion in the history of the world in Afghanistan, it's important to be wary of the PR optics that the US military is now using 'humanitarian' weapons."Overton also underlined issues with a targeted assassination campaign – using any weapons – that had little oversight."This new weapon, framed as an alternative to larger bombs, might be sold as almost ethical, but if it side-steps due judicial process, and is as susceptible to wrong targeting as other strikes, it is no more than an assassin's blade wielded by a state rarely held to account for its actions."
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| Pakistan PM condemns 'Islamophobic' Charlie Hebdo cartoons Posted: 25 Sep 2020 11:42 AM PDT  Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday condemned the fresh publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed by a French satirical weekly, urging UN efforts against what he called rising Islamophobia.
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| Anwar Ibrahim: A long-held dream to lead Malaysia Posted: 24 Sep 2020 11:58 PM PDT  After a decades-long quest to become premier, Mr Anwar may finally rise to the top job.
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| Girls say they were restrained, sexually abused and deprived of food at religious boarding school Posted: 25 Sep 2020 09:51 AM PDT  More than a dozen people reported abuse at a religious boarding school in rural Missouri before the owners' daughter launched a campaign that got action.
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| Federal judge delivers a blow to AG Barr in the battle against former FBI deputy director McCabe Posted: 25 Sep 2020 04:00 PM PDT  A federal judge has ruled that Andrew McCabe's lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice can continue
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| ‘Unlike anything we’ve seen in modern history’: Attacks against journalists soar during Black Lives Matter protests Posted: 24 Sep 2020 06:15 AM PDT  Arrests of US journalists halfway through 2020 outnumber number of jailed reporters in China in 2019
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| CNN’s Brianna Keilar Fires Back at Tucker Carlson and Kayleigh McEnany Posted: 25 Sep 2020 01:20 PM PDT  CNN's Brianna Keilar spent more than 10 minutes of her broadcast on Friday dismantling the smears she has received from both Fox News and the Trump White House this week."Yesterday, White House Press Secretary implied that I am responsible for two police officers being shot in Louisville," the anchor began. "She is lying to Americans again, and I'll address that in a moment. But first, I'm not the Brianna that the White House should be focused on right now. Breonna Taylor is."After recapping for viewers the devastating details of that police shooting, which left the 26-year-old EMT from Kentucky dead without any of the three officers being held responsible, Keilar said, "The White House wants us talking about racism and the justice system because they use it as a springboard to scare Americans about looting, aided by Fox News running episodes of violence on an incessant loop, that their hearts and minds won't be able to look past the fear to see injustice."> "I'm not the Brianna that the White House should be focused on right now. Breonna Taylor is." > @brikeilarCNN responds to Press Sec. Kayleigh McEnany's remarks about her. pic.twitter.com/dR40GxR4u7> > — CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom) September 25, 2020This brought her back to the lies that McEnany told about her from the White House press room on Thursday. The press secretary attacked Keilar for calling into question the Kentucky attorney general's assertion that "mob justice is not justice." But as the CNN anchor explained, she was highlighting in her comments his "purposeful use of that Trump talking point" equating Joe Biden supporters with the so-called "mob" of protesters."That's an appalling statement from Brianna Keilar at CNN," McEnany said. "Hours later, after this comment was made on CNN, two police officers were shot. This is not justice."Kayleigh McEnany Grilled on Trump's Sudden Embrace of Mail-In VotingKeilar proceeded to connect the dots between Tucker Carlson, who she said first took her words "out of context" on his Fox News show earlier in the week, and McEnany who brought them into her official White House press conference."Tucker Carlson, whose own company argues that his show is so full of it that viewers shouldn't be expected to believe what he tells them," Keilar said, referring to the recent defamation lawsuit that Fox News won by arguing that "given Mr. Carlson's reputation, any reasonable viewer 'arrives with an appropriate amount of skepticism' about the statements he makes.""Any reasonable viewer," she repeated. "But not Kayleigh McEnany. The press secretary left no doubt that Fox News primetime shows are just a propaganda arm for this administration."Tucker Carlson Argues That Breonna Taylor and George Floyd Had It ComingResponding directly to McEnany's claims, Keilar said, "At no time did I suggest that violence is justice, and I can't believe I even have to explain that. But the alternative is letting someone like Kayleigh McEnany misquote and manipulate what you say. McEnany, who repeatedly lies to the American people."After playing a series of clips in which the press secretary delivered obvious lies about President Donald Trump and the coronavirus to reporters and the public, Keilar cut to video footage of the president "repeatedly encouraging violence" against journalists and others."That is not real leadership," she said. "Real leadership is calm. Real leadership is steady in moments of crisis. It is not hysterical. It is not exploitive. It is not dishonest."CNN's Brianna Keilar Comes at Trump Campaign's Mercedes Schlapp for Falsely Smearing Her Military HusbandRead 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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| Volkswagen to compensate victims of Brazil dictatorship - report Posted: 23 Sep 2020 09:30 PM PDT  German carmaker Volkswagen will pay about 36 million reais ($6.5 million) in compensation to more than 60 former employees who were persecuted during Brazil's 1964-1985 military dictatorship, media reported on Wednesday. Volkswagen is due to sign the settlement deal in Sao Paulo on Thursday, according to a report by German broadcasters NDR, SWR and the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung. Volkswagen was not immediately available to comment.
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| She said she was raising money for murder victims. Instead she went shopping, cops say Posted: 25 Sep 2020 12:30 PM PDT  "It's not Christmas yet, but the Grinch has come to town."
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| Wildfires taint West Coast vineyards with taste of smoke Posted: 23 Sep 2020 09:02 PM PDT  Smoke from the West Coast wildfires has tainted grapes in some of the nation's most celebrated wine regions with an ashy flavor that could spell disaster for the 2020 vintage. Wineries in California, Oregon and Washington have survived severe wildfires before, but the smoke from this year's blazes has been especially bad — thick enough to obscure vineyards drooping with clusters of grapes almost ready for harvest. Day after day, some West Coast cities endured some of the worst air quality in the world.
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| Feds air FBI agent’s gripes about Flynn probe Posted: 25 Sep 2020 04:30 AM PDT  The official public release of such candid assessments from inside a federal investigative team is extraordinarily rare.
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| Temp worker tossed Pennsylvania ballots Trump complained about, official says Posted: 25 Sep 2020 02:47 PM PDT  The Justice Department announced an inquiry into the discarded ballots on Thursday, which was promoted by the White House and the president's re-election campaign.
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| Louisville protesters faced off with an extremist militia on the 2nd day of unrest following no charges for the police involved in Breonna Taylor's killing Posted: 25 Sep 2020 10:40 AM PDT  Protesters in support of Black Lives Matter were met with counter-protesters including an armed extremist anti-government group.
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| LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and his billions are disrupting the Democratic Party Posted: 24 Sep 2020 10:57 AM PDT  LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman is one of the Democratic Party's most prominent donors — but what does it mean to disrupt an election?
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| Hotel Rwanda 'hero' admits forming armed group behind deadly attacks Posted: 25 Sep 2020 02:28 AM PDT  Paul Rusesabagina, the polarising hero of the "Hotel Rwanda" film, admitted to a Kigali court on Friday that he had formed an armed group but denied any role in their crimes. Mr. Rusesabagina is famed for his depiction in the movie in which he is shown to have saved hundreds of lives during the 1994 genocide, which left some 800,000 dead. After years in exile, where he has become a fierce government critic, he appeared under arrest in Rwanda last month, after apparently being lured into a private jet under false pretences. In recent years Mr Rusesabagina co-founded the Rwandan Movement for Democratic Change (MRCD), an opposition party based abroad. While he has previously expressed support for the National Liberation Front (FLN), which has claimed responsibility for a series of attacks in Nyungwe, near the border with Burundi, his exact role has been unclear. "We formed the FLN (National Liberation Front) as an armed wing, not as a terrorist group as the prosecution keeps saying. I do not deny that the FLN committed crimes but my role was diplomacy," he said. "The agreement we signed to form MRCD as a political platform included the formation of an armed wing called FLN. But my work was under the political platform and I was in charge of diplomacy." This is a breaking news story. More to follow.
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| The Pentagon is eyeing a 500-ship Navy, documents reveal Posted: 25 Sep 2020 10:27 AM PDT  The Pentagon is weighing a dramatically different fleet that relies heavily on unmanned ships and submarines.
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| Kodak Black wants out of his hellacious Kentucky prison, stat, new lawsuit says Posted: 24 Sep 2020 08:10 AM PDT  Being behind bars is certainly no fun, but for Kodak Black it's hell, a new suit claims.
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| 'The Five' react to Trump blasting mail-in ballots Posted: 24 Sep 2020 02:40 PM PDT  The president rails against mail-in voting when asked about peaceful transfer of power
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| Mary Trump sues family for fraud: "Fraud was not just the family business — it was a way of life" Posted: 24 Sep 2020 08:12 PM PDT  Trump claims that she was deluded into forfeiting her inheritance following the death of her grandfather and father
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| Democrats, not Republicans, are hypocrites on filling SCOTUS seat Posted: 25 Sep 2020 01:00 AM PDT  Democrats accuse Republicans of being hypocrites in the issue of the vacant seat on the Supreme Court, but it is Democrats are are full of hypocrisy.
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| Suspect in Louisville police shooting charged with assault and wanton endangerment Posted: 24 Sep 2020 11:35 AM PDT  Police claim video footage shows Mr Johnson shooting at the officers
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| FBI chief says U.S. 'Antifa' demonstrators are targets of multiple probes Posted: 24 Sep 2020 12:08 PM PDT  At a hearing of the Republican-led Senate Homeland Security committee, Christopher Wray said that the Bureau had seen "organized tactical activity at both the local and regional level." Wray added that the bureau is conducting multiple investigations "into some anarchist violent extremists, some of whom operate through these nodes." Antifa, short for anti-fascist, is an amorphous movement "who believe in active, aggressive opposition to far right-wing movements," according https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounders/who-are-antifa to the Anti-Defamation League, which tracks extremists.
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| Smoke from California's wildfires likely killed more than 1,200 people – nearly 50 times the number who perished in the flames Posted: 24 Sep 2020 12:55 PM PDT  Researchers at Stanford University estimate that wildfire smoke killed at least 1,200 people over age 65 in California – and likely more.
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| Virginia governor and wife test positive for Covid Posted: 25 Sep 2020 09:47 AM PDT  Trump will hold a rally with 4,000 people in the state today, defying Northam's executive order on large gatherings.
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| Coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx reportedly says she is 'distressed' at direction of White House COVID-19 task force Posted: 24 Sep 2020 11:39 PM PDT  Birx told people close to her that she felt her role was diminished after Dr. Scott Atlas joined the task force, CNN reported.
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| American consumers are paying the price for Wall Street’s profiteering in China | Opinion Posted: 24 Sep 2020 06:09 PM PDT  China was America's whipping boy again this week. President Trump used his United Nations General Assembly speech to accuse and to threaten Beijing for its role in covering up the early stages of the pandemic. He said that the U.N. "must hold China accountable for their actions."
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| India's Biggest Slum Successfully Contained COVID-19. But Can Its Residents Survive the Economic Collapse? Posted: 25 Sep 2020 08:05 AM PDT  Jayanti Keshav Parmar, a tailor who lives in Dharavi, a bustling informal settlement of nearly 1 million low-income residents packed into a one-square-mile area in Mumbai, has been stuck at home since March 25 when the Indian government declared a stringent lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19. Out of work for over five months, he has not been able to pay the $80 monthly rent on his compact home in Dharavi since March. Dharavi, often called Asia's largest slum, is a hyper-dense network of brick homes and small-scale enterprises that sprawl in the shadow of shiny new skyscrapers in the heart of India's financial capital.
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| Biden is slightly healthier, study says, but both presidential candidates may be 'super-agers' Posted: 25 Sep 2020 04:00 AM PDT  President Trump and Joe Biden are so healthy they could be long-living 'super-agers,' a new study suggests. But it also fears the two campaigns will continue to 'weaponize' the age issue.
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| Florida AG requests investigation into Bloomberg felon voter donation Posted: 24 Sep 2020 06:04 AM PDT  Former NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg says he'll spend millions to help Biden win in the Sunshine State. Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody has asked the FBI to investigate Mike Bloomberg's pledge to spend $16 million to help convicted felons regain their right to vote. The former New York mayor's donation to the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition comes just weeks after NBA star LeBron James pledged $100,000 to the same organization.
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| Trump unveils his ‘America First’ health care plan Posted: 25 Sep 2020 04:06 AM PDT  Insight from National Taxpayers Union Senior Fellow Mattie Duppler.
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| Tucker Carlson Accuses BLM of Lying About Breonna Taylor’s Death, Gets Major Fact Wrong Posted: 23 Sep 2020 07:24 PM PDT  Fox News host Tucker Carlson reacted Wednesday night to Louisville police officers dodging charges in the killing of Breonna Taylor by claiming Black Lives Matter had peddled a "lie" about the 26-year-old's fatal shooting, all while falsely accusing Taylor's boyfriend of being a drug dealer.With protests erupting in Louisville hours after a grand jury decided not to charge three cops with killing Taylor, Carlson recapped the decision while complaining about the way Taylor's death had been portrayed by social justice activists and the press."In March, three Louisville police officers served a search warrant at the apartment of a woman called Breonna Taylor," Carlson said. "They knocked outside and announced they were from the police department and then they entered the apartment."While Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron said that one civilian witness testified they heard police announce themselves before breaking through Taylor's door, media interviews with residents at the complex reveal that the vast majority didn't hear the officers do that. The New York Times found one neighbor, who was directly above the apartment, say they heard the police announce themselves.Carlson went on to note that Kenneth Walker, Taylor's boyfriend who was at the apartment that night, fired on the police after they entered the apartment. Walker has maintained that he never heard the officers announce themselves as police and believed someone was breaking in. But Carlson portrayed the incident as an attack on police officers by someone who he mistakenly referred to as "supposedly a drug dealer.""Walker was Breonna Taylor's boyfriend—he was also supposedly a drug dealer," Carlson declared. "That was one of the reasons the police were there. Walker admits that he fired first and that he shot a police officer."Walker, however, was nowhere to be found on any of the series of warrants that were served by police, including the "no-knock" warrant on Taylor's apartment by three plainclothes policemen. Taylor's ex-boyfriend, Jemarcus Glover, was the subject of the investigation by Louisville police, while Walker has no drug offenses to his name.Glover, meanwhile, has accused Louisville prosecutors of trying to bribe him with a plea deal in order to incriminate Taylor, claiming they offered a lighter sentence in exchange for testimony that Taylor was part of a criminal organization. Glover currently faces charges of drug trafficking and criminal syndication.Carlson would go on to say "those are the facts of the case" before turning his ire towards Black Lives Matter, saying "BLM lied about how Breonna Taylor died" and that her killing was falsely described as a "murder."Towards the end of his program, however, Carlson issued an on-air correction about how he described Walker, insisting he "inadvertently" mixed up Walker and Glover."We made a mistake at the top of the show and we want to correct it, as we always do," the Fox News host stated. "We flipped the names around of a couple people inadvertently. We said police believed Breonna Taylor's boyfriend was a drug dealer—he might have been. We meant to say her ex-boyfriend. We wanted to correct that, sorry."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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| Debate on U.S. funding bill will not finish until next week after Democrats delay Senate process Posted: 24 Sep 2020 11:39 AM PDT  The U.S. Senate voted on Thursday to take up a stopgap funding bill to keep the federal government operating through Dec. 11, paving the way for final passage that would avoid a government shutdown next week. With government funding running out next Wednesday, the legislation would continue funding most programs at current levels, and thus avoid a government shutdown in the middle of a pandemic and ahead of the Nov. 3 U.S. election. The Republican-controlled Senate voted 93-2 to open debate on the measure.
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| Man who allegedly told Korean-American entrepreneur to 'go back to Wuhan' fired from job Posted: 24 Sep 2020 02:03 PM PDT |
| Exclusive: GOP Sen. Thom Tillis embraced QAnon conspiracy about COVID-19 death count in town hall Posted: 24 Sep 2020 10:54 AM PDT  "When the final accounting is done," the actual death COVID-19 count will be lower, Tillis claims
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| 'You are good people:' Navalny thanks Russian pilots, medics Posted: 25 Sep 2020 06:30 AM PDT  Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is in Germany recovering from what authorities there determined to be nerve agent poisoning, thanked Russian pilots and paramedics for acting quickly after he fell into a coma on a flight from Siberia. Navalny, who collapsed on a plane to Moscow on Aug. 20 and spent nearly three weeks in a coma, said in an Instagram post on Friday that pilots "quickly landed the plane in Omsk" and medical workers at the airport "jammed a dose of atropine" into him, immediately recognizing "a toxic poisoning." After 48 hours in a hospital in Omsk, where Russian doctors said they found no trace of any poisoning, Navalny was transferred to the Charite hospital in Berlin.
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| ‘I’m very ashamed’: Argentine lawmaker suspended after kissing woman’s breast during virtual session of congress Posted: 25 Sep 2020 04:29 AM PDT  Juan Emilio Ameri faces potential expulsion following the 'serious offence' on Zoom
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| Climate Point: California moves to ban gas-powered cars. And, vote for fat bears Posted: 24 Sep 2020 10:41 PM PDT  And another thing: The clock is ticking, literally.
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| North Korea 'killed and burned South Korean official' Posted: 24 Sep 2020 04:38 AM PDT  The man, who disappeared from a patrol boat, was killed as an anti-coronavirus measure, Seoul says.
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| The partner of a protester who was shot and killed in Kenosha is suing Facebook alleging it enabled paramilitary violence against protesters Posted: 23 Sep 2020 11:43 PM PDT  The federal lawsuit says the social media company was negligent when it failed to take down an event page urging armed vigilantes to attend protests.
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