| 4 takeaways from a less abrasive — but more revealing — debate between Trump and Biden Posted: 22 Oct 2020 11:10 PM PDT  On Thursday evening, President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden met in Nashville for the second — and final — socially distanced debate of the 2020 presidential campaign.
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| 'A flat-out lie': Breonna Taylor attorneys seek new prosecutor after jurors speak out Posted: 23 Oct 2020 12:47 PM PDT  The two anonymous grand jurors in the Breonna Taylor case who spoke out this week about the deliberations had no agenda other than to pursue the truth, their lawyer said. But their disclosures have spurred calls for a new prosecutor in the case.
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| Fact check: Obama administration approved, built temporary holding enclosures at southern border Posted: 23 Oct 2020 07:33 AM PDT  A meme about a recent speech is true. The facilities were built during the Obama era -- and were intended to hold migrant children for up to 72 hours.
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| Opposition leader flees Venezuela, heads towards Spain and the United States Posted: 24 Oct 2020 02:46 PM PDT  Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López escaped from the South American country and was traveling on Saturday to Spain, where he will spend time with his family before eventually heading towards the United States to continue the efforts to outs the Nicolas Maduro regime, sources close to the former political prisoner told el Nuevo Herald.
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| Letters to the Editor: How Pope Francis' support for civil unions gives cover to mariage equality opponents Posted: 24 Oct 2020 03:00 AM PDT  Marriage equality opponents may now argue in court that same-six civil unions are just as good legally as marriages. Of course, they are not.
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| Turkey's Armenians 'cannot breathe' as Karabakh rhetoric rages Posted: 23 Oct 2020 02:18 AM PDT  Turkey's support of Azerbaijan in its conflict with Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh is loud and intensely partisan, and the tiny Armenian community in Turkey is feeling under pressure.
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| Trump defends family separation in debate, says immigrant kids whose parents can't be found are 'so well taken care of' Posted: 22 Oct 2020 09:04 PM PDT  During a rare presidential debate exchange about immigration, President Trump defended his administration's family separation policy for undocumented immigrants, which has left hundreds of children without their parents for years, saying the kids are "so well taken care of" in federal facilities.
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| Nigeria’s police order massive mobilization to ‘dominate the public space’ after unrest over SARS Posted: 24 Oct 2020 11:54 AM PDT  Nigeria's top police official on Saturday ordered the immediate mobilization of all officers to "reclaim the public space from criminal elements masquerading as protesters" after days of unrest and demonstrations over police abuses that left at least 69 people dead. The police order could further heighten tensions in Africa's most populous country after some of its worst turmoil in years. Nigeria's inspector general of police, M.A. Adamu, ordered colleagues to "dominate the public space" while announcing that enough is enough, a statement said.
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| Hundreds of protesters clash with police over coronavirus restrictions in Naples Posted: 23 Oct 2020 08:47 PM PDT  Hundreds of protesters in Naples threw projectiles at police and set rubbish bins on fire late on Friday during a demonstration against coronavirus restrictions in the southern Italian city. Calls were issued on social media to challenge a curfew that took effect in the Campania region ahead of the weekend, enacted in response to a spiralling second wave of infections that saw nearly 20,000 new cases detected in the last 24 hours. A mostly young crowd marched through the streets of the regional capital and chanted as the curfew started at 11pm, with some lighting smoke bombs. One carried a makeshift sign that read: "If you close, you pay."
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| Ex-CIA Director Brennan: 'Outrageous' for Trump to talk of inviting Saudi crown prince to D.C. Posted: 24 Oct 2020 12:58 PM PDT 
On the Yahoo News "Skullduggery" podcast, former CIA Director John Brennan said it is "outrageous" for President Trump to talk about inviting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to Washington.
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| Fox host Lou Dobbs says 'I don't know why anyone' would vote for Sen. Lindsey Graham Posted: 24 Oct 2020 11:25 AM PDT  The conservative commentator slammed the South Carolina senator for what he feels is a lack of oversight regarding anti-conservative bias.
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| Kansas Man Snatched Daughters From Home Where Boys Were Found Dead: Cops Posted: 24 Oct 2020 03:31 PM PDT  Kansas police are hunting for a man they say abducted his two young daughters from a home where two boys were found dead.Donny Jackson, 40, is believed to be driving a black Honda accord, according to an Amber Alert that was issued Saturday. Cops actually had him in their grasp. Around 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, police stopped his vehicle on Highway 169 near the Oklahoma border, while the girls were in the car, but let him drive on.The reason for the traffic stop wasn't specified but it wasn't related to the abduction. It wasn't until 45 minutes later—when cops got a call from a home in Leavenworth—that they discovered the slain boys and learned that 7-year-old Nora and 3-year-old Aven were missing.The relationship between the boys and the girls is not known, but Jackson's Facebook page contains photos of two brothers posing for first day of school photos.His account is also full of postings denying the usefulness of masks during the COVID-19 pandemic and mocking the Black Lives Matter movement, religious aphorisms, conspiracy theories, and cryptic comments."When you have to lie to the mother's body to carry your seed, do not expect the abomination to succeed," one Sept. 10 comment read."Why do they call it the bible belt?" he wrote on Aug. 31. "Disciplinary action requires a belt occasionally."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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| Watch a man in a garbage bag ‘suit’ set fire to garbage trucks at Broward waste center Posted: 23 Oct 2020 01:04 PM PDT  A man wearing goggles and a garbage bag "suit" was caught on camera breaking into a waste management center and setting several garbage trucks on fire. Deputies are asking for help in finding the arsonist.
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| ‘Shy’ Trump voters will power his win, says pollster who called 2016 race Posted: 23 Oct 2020 01:34 PM PDT  Thanks to the hidden support from voters who are embarrassed to admit they will vote for Donald Trump, the president will be narrowly reelected on Nov. 3, says one of the few pollsters who correctly predicted his 2016 victory.
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| France reacts after Erdogan questions Macron's mental health Posted: 24 Oct 2020 12:31 PM PDT  France recalled its ambassador to Turkey for consultations after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said President Emmanuel Macron needed mental health treatment and made other comments that the French government described as unacceptably rude. Erdogan questioned his French counterpart's mental condition while criticizing Macron's attitude toward Islam and Muslims. "What is the problem of this person called Macron with Islam and Muslims?" Erdogan asked rhetorically during his Justice and Development party meeting in the central Anatolian city of Kayseri.
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| Wall Street Journal’s News Side Releases A Piece Debunking Opinion Side’s Hunter Biden Screed Posted: 22 Oct 2020 09:22 PM PDT  A pro-Trump writer at the Wall Street Journal's opinion section published a convoluted column Thursday evening asserting that newly released text messages proved that former Vice President Joe Biden's son Hunter was involved in an alleged pay-for-play scheme with his dad and a Chinese energy company.But just hours later, Wall Street Journal reporters published their own story that seemed to emphatically dismiss the opinion piece's conclusions, saying a review of documents by the paper revealed "no role for Joe Biden."Both the Journal's opinion section and straight news operation published their dueling stories based on text messages shared with the paper by Tony Bobulinski, a businessman who was involved in a scuttled venture with Hunter Biden in 2017 involving a Chinese oil company.In a press conference on Thursday before the second and final presidential debate, Bobulinski claimed that he had text messages on multiple phones showing that Joe Biden was a part of a discussion with his son about a business venture with a Chinese energy company.Pete Buttigieg Deftly Shuts Down Fox News' Hunter Biden SmearIn her opinion piece on Thursday, Kim Strassel argued that despite the fact that the messages were sent after Joe Biden had left office, and before he launched his presidential campaign, the texts showed that Hunter Biden "was cashing in on the Biden name" and that "Joe Biden was involved" in the plan."The former vice president is running on trust and good judgment. The Hunter tale is at best the story of a wayward son and indulgent father. At worst, it is an example of the entire Biden clan cashing in on its name with a U.S. rival," she wrote.Strassel wrote that according to the messages, one of Hunter Biden's business partners in the venture told Bobulinski, "don't mention Joe being involved, it's only when u are face to face." She also said that some messages that referred to an unnamed business partner were references to the former vice president.But according to the Wall Street Journal's own reporting, the text messages did not show the pay-for-play scheme that Strassel outlined."Text messages and emails related to the venture that were provided to the Journal by Mr. Bobulinski, mainly the spring and summer of 2017, don't show either Hunter Biden or [Joe's brother] James Biden discussing a role for Joe Biden in the venture," Journal reporters Andrew Duehren and James T. Areddy wrote.The Journal did note that Bobulinski said Hunter Biden appeared to reference his father as a potential business partner in one set of text messages, allegedly referring to him as the "big guy." Biden's team has denied that the former vice president ever was involved in business ventures with his son, and has released his tax returns, which the campaign says show no business dealings with foreign companies.The push to put the spotlight on Hunter Biden's scuttled business dealing with a Chinese energy firm has been part of a last-ditch attempt by the Trump campaign and its allies to recreate the drama of the Clinton email scandal that helped propel Trump to the White House.Earlier this week, the New York Post published a story with the alleged contents of Hunter Biden's laptop, which was provided to the tabloid by Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. As The New York Times reported, the piece so thoroughly lacked credibility that one Post reporter refused to put his name on the story over such concerns.Giuliani acknowledged to the Times that the Post lacks certain journalistic standards, explaining that he specifically opted to give the story to the tabloid because they wouldn't "spend all the time they could to try to contradict it before they put it out." And later this week, the president's lawyer admitted that even if his claims about Hunter Biden are not accurate, "the American people are entitled to know it."While other outlets have steered clear of the story because of questions about the validity of the text messages and how they were obtained, earlier this month, Trump hinted that the Wall Street Journal was preparing to drop a major story about Hunter Biden, sparking rumors about the contents of the Journal's story.Thursday's dust-up wasn't the first time in recent months that the paper's reporting staff has seemed to be at odds with its right-leaning opinion section.In June, 280 Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones staffers sent a letter to the publisher of the paper saying the opinion section's "lack of fact-checking and transparency, and its apparent disregard for evidence, undermine our readers' trust and our ability to gain credibility with sources."Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet 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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| Two Notre Dame students killed, 1 injured after being hit by car Posted: 24 Oct 2020 03:56 PM PDT  A vehicle is believed to have hit the three students, who were walking in the street, and then crashed into a house.
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| Fleeing the Taliban in the night, a family’s faith in peace wavers Posted: 23 Oct 2020 09:26 AM PDT |
| How the End Sars protests have changed Nigeria forever Posted: 23 Oct 2020 04:59 PM PDT  The campaign against police brutality has encouraged young Nigerians to take on the older generation.
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| Armenian-Americans march in Miami Beach to condemn Azerbaijan, demand Artsakh liberty Posted: 23 Oct 2020 06:09 PM PDT  As voters inside Miami Beach City Hall used the ballot box to decide their country's future, a group of Armenian-Americans took part in a more public display of patriotism right outside.
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| Evo Morales leaves Argentina for Venezuela: report Posted: 23 Oct 2020 07:31 PM PDT  Bolivia's former president Evo Morales left Argentina for Caracas late Friday in an official Venezuelan aircraft, the official Argentine news agency Telam said.
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| Trump quietly closed the U.S.'s vaccine safety office last year. Researchers are scrambling to replace it. Posted: 23 Oct 2020 01:33 PM PDT  Developers will start rolling out their COVID-19 vaccines in the coming months, leaving U.S. health officials to test their long-term safety. But that won't be easy, especially given that the Trump administration quietly shut down the office responsible for ensuring the safety of vaccines last year, The New York Times reports.Before the late 1980s, vaccine safety relied on parents, doctors, vaccine makers, and hospitals to step forward and report symptoms they feared were connected to a vaccine. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention then worked out a new system that sought out clusters of symptoms among people who receive a vaccine, and expanded that oversight during the H1N1 epidemic of 2009. This system helped the U.S. figure out which symptoms actually popped up long after a vaccine was injected, and which were just coincidental.But in 2019, the National Vaccine Program Office was shut down in an effort to cut costs and "eliminate program redundancies," Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar wrote at the time. The shortsightedness of that shutdown has come into clear view amid the coronavirus pandemic, said Dr. Nicole Lurie, who who was assistant secretary for preparedness and response at HHS during the 2009 pandemic. FDA and CDC staffers have reportedly been meeting up on their own time to cobble some safety projects together. "There's no sort of active coordination to bring all the information together," Lurie told the Times.Other vaccine experts and political scientists have their own concerns: foreign disinformation campaigns, a lack of transparency, proper communications to clear up health issues unrelated to vaccines, to name a few. A coordinated vaccine office would be tasked with handling all of that. Read more at The New York Times.More stories from theweek.com Trump loses on the merits Who won the final 2020 debate? Call it a draw. Get ready for Trump TV, America
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| An expert in nonverbal communication watched the Trump-Biden debate with the sound turned down – here's what he saw Posted: 22 Oct 2020 09:52 PM PDT  President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden met on Oct. 22 for the final debate in the 2020 election and, like the first debate, it was unusual.COVID-19 forced social distancing and largely took the studio audience, with their laughter, cheering and booing out of the equation. What's more, with norm-breaking interruptions and stealing of speaking time an inherent part of Donald Trump's debate strategy, the contentious crosstalk between the two candidates and the moderator made long sections of the candidates' first debate nearly impossible to hear or follow. The threat of having the microphone cut off effectively muted this aggression.But is what they say as important as we think?Although news coverage generally focuses on what the candidates say, as a political psychologist who studies nonverbal behavior, I focus less on the rehearsed answers and more on the space between talking points. These moments, when candidates nonverbally – and largely involuntarily – respond to their opposition can be enormously revealing. In other words, how people listen and react may speak louder than what they say. BidenDuring this debate Joe Biden reacted as the emotionally expressive politician he has been throughout his career. Even when directly dealing with attacks from Trump, whether aimed at his family or his record, Biden often smiled, laughed and shook his head while closing his eyes. That made him appear bemused, if not jovial. Research suggests that people in informal discussions often change topics within 30 seconds of laughter occurring. This, in turn may be why people – especially politicians \- "laugh off" insults. Laughter when under attack likely signals that Biden feels positive enough to be playful and that he is subtly taking control of the conversation. TrumpTrump presented a much less aggressive and more thoughtful face to the American public during this second debate, especially when compared to the first one. Instead of directly attacking Biden when his assertions were questioned, Trump responded with what may best be termed a controlled-posed smile, in which his lower lip is pressed up while his lip corners were pulled up in a smile. This type of smile is often used to mask negative emotions or to signal positive emotions when they are not felt.Perhaps Trump's signature facial display is his protruding funneled lips. This lip funneler – as it is referred to by facial display researchers – can often be seen while Trump is listening and preparing to interrupt or respond to Biden. The research that exists about this behavior in humans suggests it is a primal display often occurring during intense emotional situations and is associated with anger and threats while engaging in dominance-seeking behavior.Much can be learned about each candidate with the noise turned down and the attention placed squarely on their distinct nonverbal behavior styles. This is especially the case when focusing on how the candidates respond to their opposition's assertions and attacks. Public figures can often control how they act. However, they often do not have as much control over how they react in the heat of the moment. [Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversation's newsletter and get expert takes on today's news, every day.]This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Patrick Stewart, University of Arkansas.Read more: * Dominance or democracy? Authoritarian white masculinity as Trump and Pence's political debate strategy * VP debates are often forgettable – but Dan Quayle never recovered from his 1988 debate mistakePatrick Stewart does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
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| China's President Xi Jinping issues a warning to potential ‘invaders’ Posted: 23 Oct 2020 03:33 AM PDT  President Xi Jinping has issued a sharp warning to potential "invaders" on the 70th anniversary of the Chinese entry into the Korean War.
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| Minneapolis Residents Sue City Over Alleged Police Department Rollbacks Posted: 23 Oct 2020 01:04 PM PDT  The lawsuit counters the widespread calls to defund police departments and take officers off the streets
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| Snow due to hit Colorado wildfire areas Posted: 24 Oct 2020 03:07 PM PDT  "We don't anticipate it will be a season-ending event, but we do believe it will help us a great bit," said a fire incident spokesman.
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| Belarus and Russia will respond to external threats, Lukashenko tells Pompeo: agencies Posted: 24 Oct 2020 08:39 AM PDT  Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko told U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a phone call on Saturday that Belarus and Russia were ready to respond jointly to external threats, Russian agencies quoted Belarus state media as saying. Lukashenko, who is holding on to power despite major protests in recent weeks calling for him to resign, is facing the prospect of a national strike that could begin on Monday following an ultimatum set by opposition leaders.
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| Looters raid Nigeria food warehouse as unrest spreads Posted: 24 Oct 2020 05:13 PM PDT  Several thousand people ransacked and looted a government food warehouse in central Nigeria on Saturday in the latest in two weeks of unrest sweeping over Africa's most populous country.
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| Can Sen. Thom Tillis come from behind and beat Cal Cunningham in crucial NC Senate race? Posted: 23 Oct 2020 04:09 PM PDT  Democrats stick behind Cal Cunningham, focusing on issues instead of infidelity, as they try to seize the majority in the US Senate.
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| A US Navy training aircraft crashed into an Alabama neighborhood, killing both crew members on board Posted: 24 Oct 2020 03:15 AM PDT  The T-6B Texan II plane crashed in Foley, Alabama, around 5 p.m. local time on Friday. It had flown from NAS Whiting Field, Florida.
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| A man reportedly confessed to his 4-year-old daughter that he killed his pregnant girlfriend whose body was found in his freezer Posted: 24 Oct 2020 09:47 AM PDT  23-year-old Selena Ann Bradley was pregnant with her third child when her body was discovered in William James Hernandez's freezer on Monday.
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| I’ve never endorsed a candidate for president before. This year, I must | Opinion Posted: 23 Oct 2020 12:59 PM PDT  Allow me, please, a point of personal privilege.
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| Despite rhetoric, GOP has supported packing state courts Posted: 24 Oct 2020 06:57 AM PDT  Republican claims that Democrats would expand the U.S. Supreme Court to undercut the conservative majority if they win the presidency and control of Congress has a familiar ring. It's a tactic the GOP already has employed in recent years with state supreme courts when they have controlled all levers of state political power. Republican governors in Arizona and Georgia have signed bills passed by GOP-dominated legislatures to expand the number of seats on their states' respective high courts.
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| ‘Urban Warfare’ as Europe’s Second Wave Spins Out of Control Posted: 24 Oct 2020 05:37 AM PDT  ROME—A few hours after the regional governor of the Italian region of Campania where Naples is located announced he would be locking down the entire province to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, Neapolitans took to the streets Friday night to defy the order. The situation quickly turned into what one police official likened to urban warfare with protesters lighting dumpsters and ducking teargas being lobbed by police. All the while, the mostly maskless, yelling crowd undoubtedly spread coronavirus even more.Europe is very much out of control when it comes to its second wave, with every single nation in the 27-member zone struggling in a race against time as hospitals fill up and death tolls—which are substantially less than the first wave so far— continue to rise. Millions of people are facing harsh new restrictions as governments play what amounts to whack-a-mole to try to stop the spread of the virus they thought just a few months ago they had defeated. Improved testing in many countries has painted a clearer picture of just how widespread the pandemic is, but because of the number of new infections, systems to contact trace have been overwhelmed, making the spread impossible to control.The U.S. is in Denial Over the Coronavirus Pandemic as Europe Struggles With Second WaveFrance has expanded its Draconian curfew that has stifled Parisian nightlife and put a massive dent in the hospitality sector economy of one of the most vibrant cities in the world. Now 46 million French people will have to be home by 9 p.m. In Wales, a two-week "firebreak" started Friday, meaning everyone but essential workers has to be home by 6 p.m. The Czech Republic has just reached the dubious honor of having the most cases per capita in Europe with 1,148 cases per 100,000 residents, with Belgium and the Netherlands close behind. Ireland is under a six-week lockdown and Slovakia has vowed to test every single citizen to try to mitigate the spread. The Polish president has just tested positive and Germany reached 10,003 COVID-related deaths as the infection rate continues to rise. Filming of Mission Impossible 7 with Tom Cruise has been suspended in Venice as cases there reach record levels. And the Italian government is facing calls by 100 top scientists to mandate strict new measures in the next two or three days, or the outcome could be catastrophic.And it is still only October.Europe's problems are dire, and citizens are angry that their governments have not been able to come up with any better plan than locking down, which puts already weak economies that were so badly hurt in the first wave of the pandemic at even greater risk of collapse. Ludovic Subran, the chief economist at Allianz warned last week of a high risk serious recession across Europe as new restrictions are put in place. "We see an elevated risk of a double dip recession in countries that are once again resorting to targeted and regional lockdowns," he said, adding that the European Union's first bailout $880 billion won't likely go to growth but be used by many countries like Italy, Spain and Greece to just stay afloat.On Saturday, the group Save Our Rights U.K. is holding a massive demonstration in London to protest not only restrictions being enforced by the British government, but the overall handling of the pandemic, pointing to contact tracing and other means to track the spread of the coronavirus as an affront to privacy. "We believe that the coronavirus regulations that are in place are not proportionate and appropriate, and are causing more harm than good," Louise Creffield, the group founder told the Guardian. "We are very concerned with protecting people's human rights: right to privacy, family life, bodily autonomy, medical freedoms, and so on. We are not just concerned with lockdowns per se, we are concerned with the infringements with our privacy by having this track and trace everywhere."Similar sentiments are now common across Europe, where pandemic fatigue is now evident. And with lack of a feasible containment plan anywhere, the people are angry, desperate and increasingly ambivalent about what is really at stake: thousands of lives.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet 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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| The Indian doctor taking care of thousands of elephants Posted: 23 Oct 2020 05:17 PM PDT  Kushal Kunwar Sharma is affectionately known as the "elephant doctor" in India's wildlife community.
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| Pentagon condemns Turkish missile system test, warns of 'serious consequences' Posted: 23 Oct 2020 12:15 PM PDT  The Pentagon on Friday strongly condemned the test of a Russian-made S-400 missile defense system by NATO ally Turkey and warned of "serious consequences."
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| The South was a lost cause for Democrats. Now eight key Senate seats are in play. Posted: 24 Oct 2020 03:01 AM PDT  "You'd sometimes have a good candidate run, but they had no capacity to raise money or get involvement from the national party. That's changed now," one Democratic strategist said.
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| Police chief: Illinois officer who shot Black couple in car fired Posted: 24 Oct 2020 09:00 AM PDT 
A police officer who shot a Black couple inside a vehicle — killing a 19-year-old man and wounding his girlfriend — has been fired, the police chief announced Friday.
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