| RNC chairwoman says Republicans who distance themselves from Trump are 'hurting themselves in the long run' Posted: 18 Oct 2020 11:05 AM PDT  Her comments came after Trump lashed out at Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse for leaked audio from a constituent town hall where he criticized the president.
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| Ron Johnson Asks FBI to Clarify if It Possesses ‘Material from Hunter Biden’s Laptop’ Posted: 18 Oct 2020 08:58 AM PDT  Senator Ron Johnson (R., Wis.) has sent a letter to FBI director Christopher Wray asking him to clarify whether the agency possesses documents from the laptop of Hunter Biden, Fox News reported on Sunday.The request comes after the New York Post revealed various emails written by or sent to Hunter Biden, who from 2014 to 2019 served on the board of Ukrainian natural-gas firm Burisma Holdings. In an email sent in 2015, a senior Burisma adviser thanks the vice president's son for providing the "opportunity" to meet with Joe Biden.The Post stated that the documents were found on a computer deposited at a Delaware repair shop. The the store owner turned over the computer to the FBI in December 2019, but made a copy of the documents on a separate hard drive.Johnson, the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, stated in his letter that a whistleblower had contacted the committee on September 24, 2020, claiming that he had turned over a computer belonging to Hunter Biden to the FBI. Johnson wrote that staffers immediately asked the FBI to confirm some details in the whistleblower's claim, however the FBI responded that they could not confirm or deny the information.It was not immediately clear if the whistleblower who contacted the Senate Intelligence Committee is the Delaware shop owner mentioned by the Post."I have a responsibility to validate and verify the contents of any information produced to my committee," Johnson wrote. "The committee must know if it receives information that could be fraudulent or not accurate."The senator added, "The committee must know whether the FBI has assessed the validity of materials the whistleblower has provided, and what, if any, actions the FBI has taken since obtaining this information." Johnson asked the FBI to confirm if it does "possess material from Hunter Biden's laptop."Senator Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa), another member of the Intelligence Committee, also weighed in on the email controversy on Sunday.> It appears the FBI had contents of hunter Bidens laptop since at least December 2019. What did they do to verify the info & take action? why has it taken so long to learn about it? If vp Biden lied about his interactions w hunters foreign business partners, Americans deserve 2kno> > -- ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) October 18, 2020"It appears the FBI had contents of hunter Biden's laptop since at least December 2019," Grassley wrote on Twitter. "What did they do to verify the info [and] take action? Why has it taken so long to learn about it?"Neither Hunter Biden nor the Joe Biden campaign have denied the veracity of the emails and documents uncovered by the Post. An attorney for Hunter Biden told the Washington Post that he was "certain" that a meeting between the Burisma adviser and Joe Biden "never happened."
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| Rapper charged with coronavirus benefit fraud after boasting in song about benefit fraud Posted: 18 Oct 2020 09:31 AM PDT  Nuke Bizzle bragged about fraudulently claiming unemployment benefits in a music video on YouTube prior to his arrest.
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| Archbishop of San Francisco performs exorcism ceremony at site of vandalized Saint Junipero Serra statue Posted: 18 Oct 2020 07:49 AM PDT  The archbishop of San Francisco performed an exorcism ceremony on Saturday outside the Saint Raphael Catholic Church in downtown San Rafael, at the spot where protesters had toppled a statue of Saint Junipero Serra earlier in the week.Armed with holy water and Latin prayers, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone performed the ritual to "drive out evil and defend the image of Serra," the Los Angeles Times reports. As Cordileone explained to the crowd of 150 who'd assembled for the ceremony, "the experts in the field tell me that Latin tends to be more effective against the devil because he doesn't like the language of the church."For those whose Latin was a little rusty, a translation of the proceedings was provided, and included prayers calling for Satan's "proud head" to be "crushed." "Be gone, Satan, inventor and master of all fallacy, enemy of the salvation of men. Place yourself before Jesus Christ," Cordileone ordered.As the San Francisco Chronicle notes, despite the popular representation in The Exorcist, exorcisms are "more commonly a solemn ceremony like Saturday's, a religious ritual to evict the devil or evil spirits from an area or person."Meanwhile, in the more earthly sphere, five people have been arrested on vandalism charges for knocking over the statue on Monday, which was both Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples Day. Critics say Serra, a Spanish missionary priest, was a "brutal colonialist" who helped "to erase and destroy" the culture of native Californians, Vox writes. Cordileone defended Serra in the Saturday ceremony, saying the missions were "not to dominate and annihilate" but to save native Californians "from domination and annihilation" with the teachings of Catholicism.The statue will be repaired, according to a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of San Francisco. More stories from theweek.com Why this libertarian is voting for Biden The town halls weren't a debate — but Trump still won Is America ready for a boring president?
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| Oracle founder Larry Ellison donated $250,000 to pro-Lindsey Graham super PAC the day the TikTok deal was announced Posted: 17 Oct 2020 12:50 PM PDT  Ellison made the $250,000 donation just hours after it was announced that Oracle had beat out Microsoft, The Verge first reported Saturday.
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| Ankara-backed nationalist ousts president in Turkish Cypriot poll Posted: 18 Oct 2020 10:56 AM PDT  Right-wing nationalist Ersin Tatar, backed by Ankara, scored a surprise victory in a run-off presidential election Sunday in breakaway northern Cyprus, ousting pro-reunification incumbent Mustafa Akinci.
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| Healthcare workers, high-risk people will get priority for COVID-19 vaccine in New York: governor Posted: 18 Oct 2020 10:19 AM PDT  New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Sunday that healthcare workers and high-risk populations, including some long-term care residents, would get priority in his state to receive a COVID-19 vaccine when one is approved and available. According to the five-phase preliminary plan for New York's vaccine administration program, some details of which Cuomo announced at a news briefing, healthcare workers in patient-care settings, long-term care facility workers and some long-term care residents would be among the first to receive a vaccine. In the second phase of vaccine rollout, first responders, school staff, other public-facing frontline workers and people whose health conditions put them at extreme risk would get priority for the vaccine.
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| Merkel's old rival Merz says Germany has become 'sluggish' under the Chancellor in first CDU husting Posted: 18 Oct 2020 09:20 AM PDT  Angela Merkel's old foe Friedrich Merz said that Germany had become "too sluggish" under its veteran leader, as the three candidates for the Christian Democratic Union party leadership met in Berlin for the first hustings on Saturday evening. Mr Merz, a pro-business millionaire who has been out of frontline politics for the best part of two decades, argued that the government has dropped the ball on issues such as digitalisation and clean energy technologies. "This country has become too slow, we have become too sluggish," he said, complaining that a lack of digitalisation in schools had been exposed during the pandemic. The 64-year-old is up against the governor of North Rhine-Westphalia, Armin Laschet, and foreign policy expert Norbert Röttgen. Mr Röttgen is only seen as having an outside chance of winning the vote among party delegates at the party convention on December 4th. Mr Laschet, a centrist and close confidant of Ms Merkel, told the meeting that he was the man to continue the success that she had brought Germany. The leadership race takes place just two years after the last contest to take over the dominant party of German post-war politics. The woman who won on that occasion, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, beat Mr Merz in a closely fought contest. But she stood down at the beginning of this year after failing to reverse slumping polling figures. It was just a few weeks after her resignation that the party's fortunes were turned around because of strong public approval for how Berlin managed the coronavirus pandemic. Unusually, the public's favourite to take over from Ms Merkel is not a member of the CDU. Instead Markus Söder, leader of the Bavarian CSU, a sister party to the CDU, is enjoying strong polling figures thanks to his safety-first approach to the pandemic. Mr Söder, state premier in Bavaria, has however signalled that he does not intend to run for the top job.
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| Ahead of 3rd debate, Trump again goes after moderator. This time it's NBC's Kristen Welker he calls 'unfair.' Posted: 18 Oct 2020 03:07 PM PDT  Trump praised Welker in the past, complementing her in January for landing a gig on NBC's "Today" show. "They made a very wise decision," Trump said.
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| Cruise ship rescues 24 people from boat off Florida coast Posted: 18 Oct 2020 10:53 AM PDT  A Carnival Cruise Line ship rescued two dozen people, including two children, from a sinking boat 37 miles off the Florida coast, the cruise line reported Saturday.
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| Not enough or double the prejudice: On being Black and Asian American in 2020 Posted: 18 Oct 2020 04:00 AM PDT  12 multiracial people discuss the messy, complicated conversations they're having about identity in this political moment.
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| 'Home Improvement’ star Zachery Ty Bryan arrested for allegedly choking girlfriend Posted: 17 Oct 2020 03:00 PM PDT  Bryan was arrested at an Eugene, Oregon apartment complex late Friday night.
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| San Francisco mayor slams the 'lefty movement' for blocking efforts to address affordable housing crisis Posted: 17 Oct 2020 06:45 AM PDT  San Francisco Mayor London Breed said on the Freakonomics podcast that the city's "lefty" supervisors have stalled her affordable housing plans.
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| Gottlieb says "biggest wave" of coronavirus infections still to come Posted: 18 Oct 2020 10:08 AM PDT  Hospitalizations are rising in 42 states, and 45 have expanding epidemics, Gottlieb said.
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| Letters to the Editor: We've always had white nationalists, but social media amplifies the threat Posted: 17 Oct 2020 03:00 AM PDT  A former official in the Anti-Defamation League recalls dealing with anti-Semitic white nationalists and warns that social media poses a unique threat.
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| FBI probing whether emails in New York Post story about Hunter Biden are tied to Russian disinformation Posted: 16 Oct 2020 05:58 PM PDT  The FBI is investigating whether emails published by the New York Post about Hunter Biden are linked to a Russian effort to spread disinformation.
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| Ivory Coast election: Pascal Affi Nguessan's home burnt down Posted: 18 Oct 2020 10:39 AM PDT  Pascal Affi Nguessan has called for a boycott of the 31 October election.
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| More than 1,000 current and former CDC staff hit out at Trump coronavirus response Posted: 18 Oct 2020 01:06 AM PDT  Open letter calls for greater role for CDC in fighting Covid-19
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| Queen grants rare royal pardon to murderer who fought off a terrorist knife attacker with a 5-foot narwhal tusk on London Bridge Posted: 18 Oct 2020 04:55 AM PDT  Steve Gallant was on his day release at a conference set up to help rehabilitate prisoners when the terror attack took place last November.
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| Elon Musk's SpaceX keeps winning US military contracts — here's why, according to an aerospace expert Posted: 18 Oct 2020 04:30 AM PDT  Steve Nutt, professor at the University of Southern California, says Elon Musk's SpaceX is now the main alternative to traditional contractors.
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| White supremacists across the country indicted on drug and firearm charges Posted: 17 Oct 2020 01:27 PM PDT  According to the U.S. Justice Department, 21 Utah-based white supremacists have been indicted for allegedly selling drugs and firearms. In recent days, similar charges were brought against white supremacist gang members in Texas, Kentucky, and Mississippi.
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| Airlines face tough winter as hoped-for pick-up fails to materialise Posted: 17 Oct 2020 09:19 PM PDT  Airlines face a long, hard winter after a much hoped for rebound from the coronavirus crisis failed to materialise, prompting savage cost cutting programmes and fresh calls for government support.
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| Fire experts say mismanaged, choked forests need to be cleared out Posted: 18 Oct 2020 08:38 AM PDT  "Forest management is a lot like gardening. You have to keep the forest open and thin," said Mike Rogers, a former Angeles National Forest supervisor.
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| 'Not going to waste a single minute on tweets': GOP Sen. Sasse pushes back after Trump attacks Posted: 17 Oct 2020 08:40 AM PDT  Trump and GOP Sen. Ben Sasse are publicly feuding as Republicans are working overtime to try keep control of the Senate.
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| Pete Buttigieg says his 'marriage might depend on what is about to happen' in Amy Coney Barrett's SCOTUS confirmation Posted: 18 Oct 2020 09:15 AM PDT  Buttigieg emphasized on Fox News the different policies at risk in Barrett's nomination, which he said was "wrong" for being held before Election Day.
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| Italy to announce new COVID-19 restrictions as infections spike: PM's office Posted: 17 Oct 2020 07:14 AM PDT  Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte will announce on Sunday another set of measures to counter the new wave of COVID-19 cases, his office said, after the country registered a new daily record in infections on Saturday. Conte's office said the government is discussing new restrictions with local and health authorities, aiming to stem contagion while limiting the impact on individuals and businesses. Italy was the first major European country to be hit by COVID-19 and had managed to get the outbreak under control by the summer thanks to a rigid two-month lockdown on business and people's movement.
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| Vietnam landslide hits army camp, buries 22 personnel Posted: 17 Oct 2020 10:44 PM PDT  A landslide in central Vietnam on Sunday buried at least 22 army personnel, just a week after another landslide killed 13 as heavy rains continued to pound the region, state media reported. The latest landslide sent rock and earth crushing into an army camp at the foot of a mountain following a week of incessant rain in Quang Tri province, the official Vietnam News Agency reported. On Thursday, rescuers recovered 13 bodies, 11 of them army officers, from a landslide in Thua Thien-Hue, Quang Tri's neighboring province.
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| Record 'shattering' day for early voter turnout on Saturday Posted: 17 Oct 2020 04:24 PM PDT  Good job, Houston! The Harris County Clerk's Office said more than 50,000 voters cast their ballots on Saturday.
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| New Texas rule lets social workers turn away clients who are LGBTQ or have a disability Posted: 17 Oct 2020 11:59 AM PDT  Social workers called the change "incredibly disheartening," while Gov. Greg Abbott's office said it was necessary
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| Illinois Governor says spikes in COVID-19 infections are from 'president's allies' telling people in his state not to follow the rules Posted: 18 Oct 2020 11:23 AM PDT  "The reality is that this virus hasn't gone away, we do need to continue to keep ourselves safe from it," Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said.
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| Democrats outnumber Republicans in Florida’s mail-in votes so far Posted: 18 Oct 2020 08:44 AM PDT  As Americans have been urged to vote early and mail-in ballots have been put under the microscope, early results in Florida reveal that Democrats have an early edge on Republicans as the November 3 election draws closer. The Florida Division of Elections reports that 49 percent of the mail-in ballots are from Democrats and more than 30 percent are from Republicans thus far. The Division of Elections shows that 2,423,573 Florida citizens have mailed in the ballots for the forthcoming election as of Saturday, October 17.
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| Exclusive: Interpol facing Parliamentary inquiry over concerns UAE 'torture' chief may get top job Posted: 17 Oct 2020 05:42 AM PDT  Russia is a "criminal state" which is "abusing" the powers of Interpol, MPs will be told this week, amid concerns that a UAE security chief accused of presiding over 'torture' will become the organisation's new head. The global police and crime organisation is facing a Parliamentary inquiry over concerns that it is vulnerable to manipulation by 'rogue' member states including Russia, China and the UAE. The Foreign Affairs Committee will hear from Bill Browder, the British financier and arch critic of Vladimir Putin, who has been subject to eight interpol arrest notices by Russia on "trumped up" charges over the 'poisoning' of a Kremlin whistleblower - all of which have been refused. Interpol should "suspend access of serial abusers like Russia to its databases," he will say on Tuesday. "Britain should work with its allies – the US, Canada, Australia, the European Union, and others on withholding funds if Interpol refuses to reform," he will add. The organisation has come under increased scrutiny after its president Meng Hongwei was disappeared by Chinese authorities and sentenced to 13 years in prison on bribery charges in 2018. Russia's Alexander Prokopchuk was lined up as a presumptive successor but has been accused of abusing Red Notices. His election was likened to "putting a fox in charge of the henhouse" by US officials who helped block his leadership bid. Earlier this month, the Telegraph revealed that a United Arab Emirates security head accused of presiding over the 'torture' of a British academic is a frontrunner for the role, and could be elected in December. Major General Nasser Ahmed Al-Raisi has been accused of serious human rights violations in the Middle East, including against British citizens Matthew Hedges and Ali Ahmad, and Interpol has been warned it could lose credibility if he is chosen to be its President. He has never responded to claims. American-born Browder has spent more than a decade fighting to uncover Russian money laundering after once being the country's largest foreign investor. His lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was killed in a Moscow jail in 2009, and Mr Browder pushed through the Magnitsky Act in the US which barred a number of officials from entering America, as well as having their assets frozen.
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| US schedules first federal execution of woman since 1953 Posted: 18 Oct 2020 05:34 PM PDT  Lisa Montgomery is due to become the first woman to face federal execution in the US in 67 years.
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| National steelworkers union shines 'Biden Harris' sign on Trump Tower in Chicago Posted: 18 Oct 2020 01:33 PM PDT  The 98-story Chicago skyscraper previously sparked controversy from the public after an enormous, LED "TRUMP" logo was stamped on it.
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| Galapagos Islands | With tour boats moored due to the coronavirus pandemic, the animals are out Posted: 18 Oct 2020 04:00 AM PDT  The Galapagos marine reserve faces threats from industrial fishing, climate change and a drastic drop in tourism and funding for conservation.
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| Mainstream media keeps silent on Hunter Biden email allegations Posted: 16 Oct 2020 08:00 PM PDT  Laura Ingraham shares her thoughts on 'The Ingraham Angle'
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| Pupils saw body of their decapitated Paris teacher online Posted: 17 Oct 2020 11:18 AM PDT  Social media bosses were summoned by the French government after it emerged the terrorist who beheaded a teacher may have been led to his victim by an online campaign of harassment. Samuel Paty, 47, was murdered with a butcher's knife in the street about three hundred metres from the school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine at around 5pm on Friday. The married father was targeted for using cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in a class on freedom of expression A week earlier, one man who said his daughter was in Mr Paty's class recorded a video shared on social media in which he branded the teacher a thug and appealed to others to "join forces and say 'stop, don't touch our children'". Mr Paty's name and school address were also put on the internet after he showed the cartoons of a nude Mohammed in class. He suggested any Muslims who might be offended leave the room before showing the images. Islam prohibits images of the prophet, considering that they lead to idolatry. The killer had approached pupils in the street and asked them to point out his victim, anti-terrorist prosecutor Jean-Francois Ricard said on Saturday. An 18-year-old Chechen-Russian, named as Abdoulakh Anzorov, posted a photo of his victim's severed head on Twitter where it was seen by some of his pupils before he was shot dead by police. One parent Delphine, whose daughter was in Mr Paty's class last year, told The Sunday Telegraph: "My daughter has access to so many concerning websites. She saw the images of the body online, and many of the kids did too. That's what worries me most."
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| Hundreds gather for Women's March to protest Trump, Barrett nomination Posted: 17 Oct 2020 05:04 PM PDT  Thousands were expected to march Saturday to protest Amy Coney Barrett's nomination to the Supreme Court and galvanize voters ahead of Election Day.
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| Tens of thousands march in Belarus despite police threat to open fire Posted: 18 Oct 2020 10:00 AM PDT  Belarusian police on Sunday detained more than 200 people as tens of thousands marched against strongman Alexander Lukashenko in defiance of police threats to open fire after weeks of demonstrations.
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| Senate to vote this week on 'skinny' pandemic relief bill, PPP funds Posted: 17 Oct 2020 02:53 PM PDT  The U.S. Senate will vote on Wednesday on a $300 billion Senate Republican coronavirus relief bill that is far below the estimated $2 trillion that Democrats have demanded. The bill, dubbed a "skinny" relief bill for its pared-down funding, was already rejected https://www.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-usa-congress/u-s-senate-to-vote-on-republican-coronavirus-aid-bill-opposed-by-democrats-idUSL1N2G61U6 by Democrats in September and is again expected to fail. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement Saturday that the vote would follow a standalone vote on additional Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds on Tuesday.
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| Large 2,000-year-old cat discovered in Peru's Nazca lines Posted: 18 Oct 2020 10:19 AM PDT  The 37m feline figure, said to have been created some 2,000 years ago, escaped notice for centuries.
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| Tulsa digs again for victims of 1921 race massacre Posted: 18 Oct 2020 06:35 AM PDT  A second excavation begins Monday at a cemetery in an effort to find and identify victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and shed light on violence that left hundreds dead and decimated an area that was once a cultural and economic mecca for African Americans. "I realize we can tell this story the way it needs to be told, now," said Phoebe Stubblefield, a forensic anthropologist at the University of Florida and a descendant of a survivor of the massacre who is assisting the search, told The Associated Press. The violence happened on May 31 and June 1 in 1921, when a white mob attacked Tulsa's Black Wall Street, killing an estimated 300 people and wounding 800 more while robbing and burning businesses, homes and churches.
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