| Trump's national security adviser pushes back at top general, says troops won't be home by Christmas Posted: 16 Oct 2020 12:55 PM PDT  O'Brien's comments Friday were not the first time he has said the United States would draw down its forces in Afghanistan to 2,500 by January.
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| Outrage boils over in Kansas City after video captures arrest of pregnant Black woman Posted: 16 Oct 2020 10:37 AM PDT  A Kansas City woman gave birth on Friday, just over two weeks after she was thrown to the ground by police in an altercation at an event commemorating a murder victim.
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| Decapitated French teacher warned not to show Prophet Muhammad images before attack Posted: 17 Oct 2020 06:54 AM PDT  "We said to the teacher it was not good to show photos like this and that it would cause a huge problem," student Martial Lusiela told NBC News.
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| During Iowa Senate debate, Ernst has difficulty answering a question about soybean prices Posted: 16 Oct 2020 08:16 AM PDT  During the Iowa Senate debate with Democratic candidate Theresa Greenfield on Thursday, Republican Sen. Joni Ernst has trouble answering a question posed to her about soybean prices.
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| Thailand blocks Change.org as petition against king gains traction Posted: 16 Oct 2020 03:22 AM PDT  The petition had called for the king to be declared persona non grata in Germany.
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| Goodbye civil rights: Amy Coney Barrett's America is a terrifying place Posted: 17 Oct 2020 06:00 AM PDT  With her confirmation all but inevitable, how bad will Barrett be? It's hard to say for sure – but it doesn't look good Amy Coney Barrett's America is a terrifying placeSo that's that then. The confirmation hearings are over and it is almost inevitable that Amy Coney Barrett will be confirmed as a supreme court justice before the November election. Barrett will shift the supreme court from a 5-4 conservative majority to a 6-3 super-majority, a move that could fundamentally reshape America. Goodbye civil rights, hello Gilead.You've got to hand it to the Republicans really; they get things done. They don't care about being called hypocrites. They don't care about ignoring Ruth Bader Ginsburg's dying wish that she not be replaced until after the election. They don't care about common decency. They don't care about democracy. They just care about power – and they will do whatever it takes to get it.So just how bad will Barrett be? Could her confirmation mean the end of Roe v Wade and the federal right to an abortion in America? Is marriage equality in danger? Is it possible she could criminalize birth control? Is America on its way to becoming a Divine Republic? Are we going to look at The Handmaid's Tale and realize it was a documentary?It's hard to say for sure. Barrett said little of substance during the hearings, repeating over and over again that she would follow the law not her personal convictions. Which, it's worth reiterating, are religious and regressive. People of Praise, the Christian community where Barrett previously served as a "handmaid" (the not-at-all creepy term they used for female leaders), for example, is anti-abortion and expels members for gay sex."Leave Barrett's religion out of it!", many on the right have said. I would be very happy to if it were clear that Barrett would leave religion out of her work. But it's hard to feel confident that is the case. Barrett has, after all, worked for the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), America's largest anti-LGBTQ legal organization. She taught a class at five different sessions of the ADF's legal fellowship program, which is designed to train Christian lawyers "to foster legal systems that fully protect our God-given rights". Barrett repeated that she doesn't "have an agenda" throughout the hearings – but the ADF very clearly does. As the Christian Science Monitor recently noted: "If Judge Barrett is confirmed, it would represent a culmination of decades long efforts by the conservative Christian legal movement to move from the periphery of the legal world into the mainstream."The few things Barrett did say during the hearings also don't bode well. She admitted, for example, that she doesn't view Roe as a "super-precedent": cases that are so well-settled that no one would seriously push for their overruling. This, coupled with her judicial record, which shows a commitment to reducing abortion access, means Roe could be in real trouble.Barrett's comments – or, rather, lack thereof – on same-sex marriage and birth control were also telling. Barrett refused to give an opinion on how Obergefell v Hodges, the 2015 ruling legalizing same-sex marriage, or Griswold v Connecticut, a case regarding birth control, were decided. That's particularly concerning as Justice Clarence Thomas, joined by Justice Samuel Alito, recently gratuitously attacked Obergefell as having "ruinous consequences for religious liberty"."This goose is cooked," Cory Booker said as the Barrett hearings wound up. It certainly is – but there's still hope that our civil rights aren't completely done for. It's possible Biden wins by a landslide and the Democrats get control of the House and Senate. This would give them the ability to expand the supreme court. The question is, will they actually do this? In a town hall event on Thursday, Biden said he'll let us all know sometime before election day. In the meantime, maybe it's worth researching how to immigrate to Canada. Thousands of Uighur children being left without parentsGovernment documents indicate that in 2018 more than 9,500 mostly Uighur children were classified as having at least one parent in prison, detention, or a re-education centre. China's persecution of the Uighurs is a crime against humanity; the world needs to be paying it far more attention than it is. As well as detaining Uighurs there are reports that women are being sterilized. Government data shows that in two Uighur regions, the birth rate fell by more than 60% from 2015 to 2018. Nationwide over the same period, births only fell by 4.2%. How the Women's KKK courted members through empowerment feminismDo read this fascinating history of the Women's KKK, an affiliated but separate Klan organisation for white Protestant women. Its racist and individualistic brand of 'feminism' feels particularly relevant this week in light of the Barrett hearings. Nasa made a space toilet for womenUp until now space toilets were tricky for women because they weren't configured for what Nasa politely calls "dual ops". I won't get into the murky details – but there's all the information you could possibly want on extraterrestrial excretions in this Atlantic article. Princeton to pay nearly $1m to female professors in back wagesThis follows a multi-year investigation into gender pay disparities at the university. Mexico identifies two women who may have had non-consensual surgeryRemember the allegations that detained women at a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement centre in Georgia were being operated on without their consent? Mexico has been investigating and has identified two of its nationals who received surgery they didn't authorize. The week in Brazilian buttriarchyChico Rodrigues, a Brazilian senator, has been caught with a wad of banknotes in his buttocks. Police found the concealed bundle during a raid that was part of an operation against the suspected misappropriation of public funds for fighting Covid-19. It is a find, many have suggested, that will be remembered "in the anals of history".
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| Rapper who bragged about getting rich off unemployment benefits in music video arrested for $1.2 million scheme, federal prosecutors say Posted: 17 Oct 2020 12:53 PM PDT  Rapper Nuke Bizzle attempted to "exploit" California's Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program helping those who lost their job during the pandemic.
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| Trump won 81 percent of white evangelicals in 2016. Ralph Reed says he’ll do better this year. Posted: 16 Oct 2020 03:07 PM PDT  "I think polling is at this point, it's a discredited science," Reed said.
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| 'Log off! Log off!' teacher orders students when sexual assault livestreamed during first grader's remote learning class Posted: 17 Oct 2020 01:27 PM PDT  CHICAGO - An 18-year-old man out on bond for a gun case was held without bail after he livestreamed himself during a sexual act with a 7-year-old first grader on break from her Chicago Public Schools remote learning class on Thursday prosecutors said. Catrell A. Walls, of the West Chesterfield neighborhood on the South Side, was arrested Thursday afternoon shortly after 3:30 p.m., after he was ...
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| Almost all of Wisconsin is classified as a COVID 'hot spot' Posted: 16 Oct 2020 12:42 PM PDT  Officials in the state report some hospitals have already reached 90 percent capacity in their intensive care units.
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| ‘Transition’ to Kamala? Not on Our Watch Posted: 16 Oct 2020 03:30 AM PDT  The Democrats' case for the election of Joe Biden is that he will keep the crazies in his party in check. The Democrats' case for the election of Kamala Harris is that she will not.Joe Biden is 77 years old. If, as seems possible, the Biden-Harris ticket wins in November, National Review will be more vital than it has ever been in holding back the advance of progressivism and protecting the American system of government. This is why we're counting on your support.Biden has been careful to describe himself as a "transition candidate." Transitioning to what, exactly? Well, to Kamala Harris, that's to what. Which means transitioning to the abolition of the Senate filibuster, to the destruction of the Supreme Court, to the elimination of private health insurance, to a ban on fracking, to the confiscation of the most commonly owned firearms in America, to the federal pre-clearance of all abortion law, to the seizing of patents, to the Green New Deal, and, if Harris is to be the transitionee, to an unpleasant, smirking, dismissive would-be authoritarian who has openly laughed at the idea that presidents are constrained by the United States Constitution.The play here is a fairly obvious one. Harris failed badly in her run for president, despite her main opponents' being Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, and the unknown mayor of South Bend, Ind. At the time she dropped out of the Democratic primary, she was in fifth place even in her home state of California. Speaking to the New York Times about the collapse, a senior member of Harris's team complained that she had "never seen an organization treat its staff so poorly." Yet despite all of this, Harris has been elevated to a position from which there is a reasonable chance that she will become president. Speaking in September, Harris previewed what she called the "Harris administration, together with Joe Biden." It does not take a genius to work out what she meant.National Review has long recognized who Kamala Harris is. We were clear about her when she was being ludicrously described as a "moderate." We were clear about her when she was laundering gang-rape allegations against Justice Kavanaugh, and again this week, when she ineptly smeared Judge Amy Coney Barrett. We have been clear about her intolerance toward religious liberty, her desire to rule as a monarch, and her invention of ahistorical lies. And, while many around us have lost their minds, we have been clear in reminding the world that the existence of real flaws on the right does not cancel out the threat that Harris poses.That threat is real. Kamala Harris represents an unreconstructed progressivism of precisely the sort this magazine was founded to oppose and will continue to oppose with all of our energy. National Review contains a wide variety of opinions on a wide variety of topics. It is no small feat to be so deeply wrong on so many fundamental questions that you alarm all of us in equal measure, but Harris has managed it. With your help, we will continue to make our case in favor of this beautiful American experiment and against those who would destroy it.
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| Armenia, Azerbaijan announce humanitarian truce Posted: 17 Oct 2020 02:06 PM PDT  Armenia and Azerbaijan said Saturday they had agreed a "humanitarian truce" from midnight (2000 GMT) in a new attempt to quell nearly three weeks of fighting over a disputed region.
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| Utah landlord evicted an 18-year-old woman for disturbing the peace in her apartment after she shared suicidal thoughts with her roommates, reports say Posted: 17 Oct 2020 12:26 PM PDT  The woman was given six days to move out after her landlord said she interfered with her roommates' "quiet enjoyment" of their apartment.
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| Chicago's top cop had 10 drinks before falling asleep behind the wheel. 7 officers who looked the other way are now suspended Posted: 16 Oct 2020 03:15 PM PDT  Seven officers have been suspended for their actions the night the city's top cop was found passed out behind the wheel after drinking.
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| A Kansas man was arrested on suspicion of threatening to kidnap and kill the mayor of Wichita over the city's mask mandate Posted: 17 Oct 2020 08:46 AM PDT  Mayor Brandon Whipple said he believed that the threat against his life from was credible and not just "some guy popping off on social media."
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| Trump tweets fake news story from satirical conservative website Posted: 16 Oct 2020 09:07 AM PDT  President Trump on Friday tweeted a fake news story published by the Babylon Bee, a satirical website for Christian conservatives, mocking Twitter for blocking users from sharing an unconfirmed report about Joe Biden's son.
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| Texas billionaire charged in $2B tax fraud scheme Posted: 16 Oct 2020 04:03 AM PDT  Texas billionaire Robert Brockman was charged in a $2 billion tax fraud scheme on Thursday by federal prosecutors.
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| Major Democratic group pulls out of Colorado Senate race Posted: 16 Oct 2020 10:59 AM PDT  A major Democratic group on Friday pulled its last remaining ads from Colorado's closely watched U.S. Senate race, a sign that the party thinks its nominee has the crucial race in the bag. Senate Majority PAC said it will cancel $1.2 million in television ads and spend the money elsewhere as Democrats press a newly expanded Senate map, which Republicans on the run in GOP strongholds such as Alaska and South Carolina. Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, 68, is challenging Republican Sen. Cory Gardner, 46, in Colorado, a state that has trended sharply to the left since President Donald Trump's 2016 election.
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| Conservative argues the attacks on Hunter Biden are crossing the line Posted: 16 Oct 2020 03:23 PM PDT  "There is something very creepy about publishing the personal e-mails of a public-figure-once-removed like Hunter"
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| Illegally raised deer gores woman out walking her dog, Colorado officials say Posted: 16 Oct 2020 05:21 PM PDT  The deer jabbed the woman's abdomen with its antlers, officials said.
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| Missile strikes on Azerbaijan cities after separatist capital shelled Posted: 16 Oct 2020 05:31 PM PDT  A missile strike levelled several homes in Azerbaijan's second city of Ganja on Saturday, with one resident telling AFP he saw seven victims pulled out of the rubble.
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| These photos show the intense smoke from Colorado's largest wildfire ever Posted: 17 Oct 2020 09:22 AM PDT  The Cameron Peak Fire ignited in mid-August and has grown to more than 270 square miles. These photos show the intensity of the state's largest fire.
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| A Kentucky postal worker who trashed over 100 absentee ballots was fired and could face federal charges Posted: 17 Oct 2020 12:12 PM PDT  The report comes at a time of heightened anxiety over voting, amplified by President Donald Trump's widely debunked claims of rampant fraud.
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| Lisa Montgomery to be first female federal inmate executed in 67 years Posted: 17 Oct 2020 12:17 PM PDT  * Brandon Bernard also faces execution for separate killing * Attorney general Bill Barr cites 'heinous murders'The US is set to execute a female federal inmate for the first time in 67 years, Donald Trump's justice department has said.Lisa Montgomery, who strangled a Missouri woman in 2004 and stole her unborn baby, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at the US penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, on 8 December.Montgomery, whose lawyers have long argued she has brain damage from beatings as a child and suffers from psychosis and other mental conditions, will become the first woman executed by the US government since Bonny Brown Heady in December 1953. Heady was convicted of kidnapping and killing the six-year-old heir of an automobile tycoon. With her boyfriend, she was executed in a gas chamber.The attorney general, William Barr, announced the decision to proceed with the execution of Montgomery, 52, in a statement that also detailed a 10 December execution date for Brandon Bernard, 40, who with two accomplices was found guilty of the murder of two church ministers in Texas in 1999.Barr said the crimes were "especially heinous murders". Montgomery, who sliced open the belly of Bobby Jo Stinnett and took her daughter, is the only woman among 55 federal inmates awaiting execution, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.Under Barr, seven executions of federal prisoners have taken place since July. Before that, only three inmates had been executed since the restoration of the federal death penalty in 1998, the Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and another in 2001, the other two years later.In state prisons, 16 women have been executed since a 1976 supreme court decision lifted a moratorium on the death penalty across the US. The most recent was in September 2015, when Kelly Renee Gissendaner received a lethal injection in Georgia for the 1997 murder of her husband.Montgomery's attorney, Kelley Henry, attacked Barr's decision as an "injustice"."In the grip of her mental illness, Lisa committed a terrible crime," Henry, an assistant public defender in Nashville, Tennessee, said in a statement. "Yet she immediately expressed profound remorse and was willing to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence with no possibility of release."Lisa Montgomery has long accepted full responsibility for her crime, and she will never leave prison. But her severe mental illness and the devastating impacts of her childhood trauma make executing her a profound injustice."Now 16, Stinnett's daughter, Victoria Jo, was raised by her father. In 2004, Montgomery's husband said he was unaware the baby his wife brought home was not theirs."I had no idea," Kevin Montgomery said. "I sure hope [the Stinnett family] get as much support from their church and community as I have because we are all going to need it."
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| Analysis: Arrest of ex-army chief puts Mexican president's plans under siege Posted: 17 Oct 2020 03:07 AM PDT  The spectacular fall from grace of Mexico's previous armed forces supremo has raised awkward questions about the president's reliance on the military to fight drug gangs and manage an increasing portfolio of vital civilian infrastructure. Thursday's arrest of former Defense Minister Salvador Cienfuegos in the United States at the Los Angeles airport on drug trafficking charges sent shockwaves through the political establishment and embarrassed a once highly trusted institution. It threatens to sour government relations with the military, which since President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador assumed power in December 2018 has been tasked not just with reducing violence, but also managing ports and even building an airport.
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| 'Big pile' of eels dumped in NYC park; impact not yet known Posted: 17 Oct 2020 06:41 AM PDT  Andrew Orkin was taking a break from his evening jog to sit by Prospect Park Lake when he turned around and was startled to see a tangle of wriggling snakes. There are no plans to eradicate the eels.
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| Harrisonburg explosion: Three people injured as firefighters battle explosion in Virginia Posted: 17 Oct 2020 07:54 AM PDT  At least three people were injured after an explosion levelled a shopping centre in Harrisonburg, Virginia on Saturday morning. The explosion damaged several stores and sent a thick column of smoke from Miller Circle, roughly a mile from the James Madison University campus. Two people are in serious condition, according to Harrisonburg authorities.
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| US and Italy – current and former COVID-19 epicenters – are worlds apart in pandemic approach Posted: 17 Oct 2020 09:29 AM PDT  From leaders on down, Italians have reacted very differently than Americans when it comes to COVID-19, including major mask-wearing.
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| Cops add another weapons charge after confiscating man’s gun in Florida Keys Posted: 16 Oct 2020 09:29 AM PDT  A Key Largo man already facing felony charges over accusations he pointed a handgun at a group of people riding on a golf cart in his condo complex in May now faces an additional charge of owning a bump stock, a device that allows a semiautomatic rifle to rapidly fire almost like a fully automatic weapon.
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| Biden tops Trump for town hall television ratings Posted: 16 Oct 2020 11:00 AM PDT  Joe Biden bested Donald Trump on Thursday night in a category sure to grab the president's attention: television ratings.
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| Michigan Court Overturns Two-Week Absentee-Ballot Extension Posted: 17 Oct 2020 06:50 AM PDT  A Michigan court ruled Friday that absentee ballots must be received by Election Day in order to be counted, overturning a lower court's two-week extension that was hailed by Democrats in the key swing state.The state's appeals court said that absentee ballots must be received by 8 p.m. on Nov. 3, ruling against a lower court's decision to allow votes to be counted up to 14 days after Election Day as long as they were postmarked by Nov. 2. Michigan's Republican-controlled legislature brought the appeal after the ballot deadline was extended."To be sure, the pandemic has caused considerable change in our lives, but election officials have taken considerable steps to alleviate the potential effects by making no-reason absent voting easier for the 2020 election," the three appellate judges wrote in a unanimous decision.Democrats had pushed to ease restrictions on absentee voting amid the coronavirus pandemic, while Republicans argued that the recent Post Office delays combined with the expected increase in mail-in ballots this year are not reason enough to extend voting deadlines."Although those factors may complicate plaintiffs' voting process, they do not automatically amount to a loss of the right to vote absentee," the judges stated.The court's decision also reinstated some restrictions on third-party ballot collection, limiting who voters can designate to deliver their ballot to election officials.The ruling is similar to decisions by higher courts in Indiana and Wisconsin overturning ballot extensions.President Trump won Michigan narrowly in 2016 by less than 11,000 votes.Republicans in the state celebrated the court's decision on Friday, calling it "a great day for the rule of law.""It's important that the rules aren't changed during an election to advantage one party over another," said Laura Cox, chairman of the Michigan Republican party.
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| Pakistan stops bid to smuggle endangered falcons Posted: 17 Oct 2020 07:36 AM PDT  The falcons are on the endangered species list and are said to be worth almost £1m.
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| Murdered 2-year-old inspires new Florida law Posted: 16 Oct 2020 05:00 PM PDT  Florida signed Jordan's Law to prevent this happening to another child. A Florida mother may never see the outside of a prison again after she was sentenced today in the murder of her own son, but his legacy will live on in a law inspired by his short life. Charisse Stinson, 23, was sentenced to 50 years in prison after killing her son in 2018, per WFLA News.
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| U.S. businesswoman says did have affair with UK PM Johnson: Daily Mail Posted: 17 Oct 2020 01:36 AM PDT  A U.S tech entrepreneur at the centre of allegations of misconduct involving British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has told a newspaper they did have an affair when he was mayor of London. The Daily Mail reported on Saturday that Jennifer Arcuri, when asked if she had an affair with Johnson, said: "I think that goes without saying ... it's pretty much out there." In an interview with the newspaper, Arcuri says Johnson, who was married to second wife Marina Wheeler at the time, bombarded her with "avalanches of passion".
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| A USPS worker suspected of throwing away bags full of mail posted about the QAnon conspiracy theory Posted: 16 Oct 2020 04:06 PM PDT  A Pittsburgh-area mail carrier suspected of discarding garbage bags of undelivered mail appears to be a QAnon conspiracy theorist.
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| Woman convicted of cutting pregnant woman’s body open before kidnapping baby to be executed Posted: 17 Oct 2020 04:16 AM PDT  Lisa Montgomery used rope to strangle woman who was eight months pregnant
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| A tabloid got a trove of data on Hunter Biden from Rudy Giuliani. Now, the FBI is probing a possible disinformation campaign Posted: 17 Oct 2020 04:35 PM PDT  The FBI is examining whether the material supplied to the New York Post by Rudy Giuliani is part of a disinformation campaign by Russia.
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| Reports: Japan to release Fukushima's nuclear waste water into sea Posted: 16 Oct 2020 05:40 AM PDT  Japan will release over 1 million metric tons of water contaminated from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster into the sea, media reports said Friday.
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| One of Kentucky's largest newspapers endorsed Mitch McConnell challenger Amy McGrath Posted: 17 Oct 2020 12:34 PM PDT  "McConnell purports to care about Kentucky and the country, but time and again, he has chosen the GOP instead," Lexington Herald-Leader's editorial board said.
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| Missing Hong Kong protester Alexandra Wong 'was held in mainland China' Posted: 17 Oct 2020 12:21 PM PDT  "Grandma Wong" says she was detained by mainland police and forced to renounce her activism.
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| China passes amendments outlawing insulting national flag Posted: 17 Oct 2020 03:52 AM PDT  The Standing Committee of China's congress on Saturday passed amendments to a law that will criminalize the intentional insulting of the national flag and emblem, after anti-government protesters in Hong Kong last year desecrated the Chinese flag. According to the newly amended National Flag and National Emblem Law, which will take effect on Jan. 1, those who intentionally burn, mutilate, paint, deface or trample the flag and emblem in public will be investigated for criminal responsibility. The law also states that that national flag must not be discarded, displayed upside down or used in any manner that impairs the dignity of the flag.
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