Friday, May 1, 2020

Yahoo! News: Weight Loss News

Yahoo! News: Weight Loss News


No soft landing for Biden on 'Morning Joe' interview

Posted: 01 May 2020 01:16 PM PDT

No soft landing for Biden on 'Morning Joe' interviewIf Joe Biden was looking for a soft landing place to address sexual assault allegations made by a former Senate staffer, he didn't find it Friday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." The 20-minute interview of the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee conducted by Mika Brzezinski was blunt and frequently uncomfortable, a milestone media moment in the 2020 campaign. The former vice president had faced increased pressure to publicly address the accusations by Tara Reade that he had assaulted her in the early 1990s, which he has consistently denied.


Fox News' Judge Napolitano wants Trump to pardon Flynn after FBI allegedly tried to 'get him fired'

Posted: 30 Apr 2020 07:36 AM PDT

Fox News' Judge Napolitano wants Trump to pardon Flynn after FBI allegedly tried to 'get him fired'One of President Trump's biggest Fox News skeptics is on his side for this one.Documents unsealed late Wednesday in the case against former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn raise questions about whether the FBI "set out to entrap" him in an interview with the agency, Fox News' judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano declared to Fox & Friends on Thursday. "Anybody who believes in the rule of law ... should be utterly scandalized and outraged" by what the documents reveal, and Trump should pardon Flynn "in the next day or so," Napolitano continued."This is a classic case of the FBI setting out to entrap someone and reducing it to writing," Napolitano incredulously said. He called for the Department of Justice to apologize to Flynn before the judge overseeing his case, denounce the FBI's actions, and both ask the judge to "vacate" Flynn's guilty plea and "dismiss" the indictment against him. And if it doesn't, Trump should quickly move to pardon him, Napolitano said.> Fox's Andrew Napolitano calls for Trump to pardon Michael Flynn "within the next day or so," unless the DOJ first denounces Flynn's prosecution, apologizes to him, and asks the judge to vacate his guilty plea and dismiss the indictment. pic.twitter.com/ycJcViHGSA> > — Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) April 30, 2020The documents reveal former FBI counterintelligence division Bill Priestap questioned "our goal" in a note written just days after Flynn lied about conversations with Russia's ambassador to the U.S. at the time. "Truth/admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?" Priestap wrote.Napolitano has frequently criticized Trump in the past, siding with those who wanted to impeach the president in saying he'd committed several crimes, including obstruction of justice.More stories from theweek.com The smoke-filled room that could oust Joe Biden 5 scathingly funny cartoons about Mike Pence's unmasked hospital visit The self-inflicted derangement of the conservative intellectuals


No arrests after black man shot dead while jogging

Posted: 30 Apr 2020 02:06 PM PDT

No arrests after black man shot dead while joggingAhmaud Arbery's mother says she feels "very discouraged" by the investigation into her son's death.


20 Best Side Dishes For Steak

Posted: 30 Apr 2020 09:12 AM PDT

Afghan president, feuding rival reach 'tentative' agreement

Posted: 01 May 2020 06:10 AM PDT

Afghan president, feuding rival reach 'tentative' agreementA bitter feud between Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his rival Abdullah Abdullah appeared closer to resolution Friday after Abdullah said the two men had moved forward in talks. Abdullah previously served as Afghanistan's "chief executive" under a power-sharing deal with Ghani, but lost that post following last year's presidential elections that Ghani won amid claims of fraud. Instead of accepting defeat, Abdullah proclaimed himself president, a title he uses to this day, though the international community only recognises Ghani.


Cash, Yachts, and Cognac: Kim Yo-Jong's Links to the Secretive Office Keeping North Korea's Elites in Luxury

Posted: 29 Apr 2020 03:47 PM PDT

Cash, Yachts, and Cognac: Kim Yo-Jong's Links to the Secretive Office Keeping North Korea's Elites in LuxuryKim Jong-Un's sister and her husband have links to a secretive office that rewards political allies with lavish gifts. Here's what we know.


Jewish leadership organisation hits out at Sir Keir Starmer after two Labour MPs attend conference call with expelled activists

Posted: 30 Apr 2020 08:20 AM PDT

Jewish leadership organisation hits out at Sir Keir Starmer after two Labour MPs attend conference call with expelled activistsA Jewish leadership organisation has hit out at Sir Keir Starmer after it emerged that two Labour MPs had taken part in a conference call which included activists expelled from the party over alleged anti-Semitism. The Board of Deputies of British Jews has called on the new Labour leader to take "swift and decisive action" after former shadow home secretary Diane Abbott and serving frontbencher Bell Ribeiro-Addy took part in the event. Marie van der Zyl, the Board's president, claimed the pair's actions were a breach of the 10 anti-Semitism pledges that Sir Keir had signed up to during the Labour leadership contest earlier this year. One of the pledges states clearly that any Labour politician or member that campaigns or provides a platform for people suspended or expelled over anti-Semitism should themselves be suspended. In a clear warning to Sir Keir, Ms van der Zyl added: "It is completely unacceptable that Labour MPs, and even ordinary members, should be sharing platforms with those that have been expelled from the Party for anti-Semitism. "We would urge Labour to take swift and decisive action to show that this is a new era, rather than a false dawn."


Coronavirus: Why Nigeria's rice handouts aren't going down well

Posted: 30 Apr 2020 12:55 PM PDT

Coronavirus: Why Nigeria's rice handouts aren't going down wellThere are allegations that some of the thousands of bags of rice given as food handouts have expired.


Fact Check: CDC has not stopped reporting flu deaths, and this season's numbers are typical

Posted: 30 Apr 2020 02:57 PM PDT

Fact Check: CDC has not stopped reporting flu deaths, and this season's numbers are typicalA claim that the CDC has stopped tracking flu deaths because the number of deaths is so low is false.


WH press secretary says she will 'never lie' to the media

Posted: 01 May 2020 12:16 PM PDT

WH press secretary says she will 'never lie' to the mediaAt her first briefing as White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany said she will never lie to reporters.


Joe Biden's unequivocal denial of assault allegations should hearten supporters — if it holds up

Posted: 01 May 2020 07:35 AM PDT

Joe Biden's unequivocal denial of assault allegations should hearten supporters — if it holds upBiden says to MSNBC interviewer Mika Brzezinski that an alleged assault on Tara Reade 'never happened.'


Black Georgia man chased and killed while jogging, mom says

Posted: 01 May 2020 06:09 AM PDT

Black Georgia man chased and killed while jogging, mom saysGregory McMichael told police he saw Ahmaud Arbery run by and said he recognized him from recent break-ins.


WHO official says agency not invited to take part in China's coronavirus investigation

Posted: 01 May 2020 07:17 AM PDT

WHO official says agency not invited to take part in China's coronavirus investigation"The priority is we need to know as much as possible to prevent the reoccurrence," Dr. Gauden Galea said.


Canada set to ban 11 categories of assault rifles, other weapons - source

Posted: 30 Apr 2020 01:08 PM PDT

Explosions hit Syrian military warehouse, 10 civilians hurt

Posted: 01 May 2020 02:16 AM PDT

Explosions hit Syrian military warehouse, 10 civilians hurtExplosions at a Syrian military base housing a weapons warehouse Friday were the result of "human error" while moving ammunition, the defense ministry said. Ten civilians outside the base were hurt, a local doctor said. The group said Syrian air defenses were activated before the explosions, suggesting they were responding to an incoming attack.


23 photos show what life in North Korea is like during its coronavirus lockdown

Posted: 30 Apr 2020 02:15 PM PDT

23 photos show what life in North Korea is like during its coronavirus lockdownNorth Korea has implemented a number of measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, but its claims of zero cases are highly unlikely.


The director of a Brooklyn funeral home said 'bodies are coming out of our ears' after 50 bodies were found in storage trucks where leaking fluid was reported

Posted: 30 Apr 2020 07:09 PM PDT

The director of a Brooklyn funeral home said 'bodies are coming out of our ears' after 50 bodies were found in storage trucks where leaking fluid was reported"I ran out of space. Bodies are coming out of our ears," Andrew Cleckley, the owner of the Brooklyn funeral home, told The New York Times.


If flu deaths were counted like COVID-19 deaths, the worst recent flu season evidently killed 15,620 Americans

Posted: 30 Apr 2020 10:34 PM PDT

If flu deaths were counted like COVID-19 deaths, the worst recent flu season evidently killed 15,620 AmericansThe U.S. now has more than 63,000 confirmed COVID-19 deaths, and most experts say that's almost certainly an undercount. Still, if you compare that number to the 2017-18 flu season, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates killed 61,000 people, it looks like COVID-19 might be similar to a bad flu — President Trump has made this point, as have many conservative media personalities. But the data so far show that this new coronavirus is much more lethal than the flu, and Dr. Jeremy Samuel Faust has an explanation.Faust, a Harvard Medical School instructor and emergency physician at Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston, wrote in Scientific American that he started wondering about the flu-to-COVID comparisons when it occurred to him that in nearly eight years of hospital work, "I had almost never seen anyone die of the flu." Neither had any of the colleagues he called around the country. So he did some research, and this is what he found:> The 25,000 to 69,000 numbers that Trump cited do not represent counted flu deaths per year; they are estimates that the CDC produces by multiplying the number of flu death counts reported by various coefficients produced through complicated algorithms. These coefficients are based on assumptions of how many cases, hospitalizations, and deaths they believe went unreported. In the last six flu seasons, the CDC's reported number of actual confirmed flu deaths — that is, counting flu deaths the way we are currently counting deaths from the coronavirus — has ranged from 3,448 to 15,620. [Jeremy Faust, Scientific American]So in an apples-to-apples comparison, matching the second week of April's COVID-19 deaths to the worst week of the past seven flu seasons, "the novel coronavirus killed between 9.5 and 44 times more people than seasonal flu," Faust writes. Read his entire essay at Scientific American.More stories from theweek.com The smoke-filled room that could oust Joe Biden The self-inflicted derangement of the conservative intellectuals 5 scathingly funny cartoons about Mike Pence's unmasked hospital visit


Elon Musk says he is 'selling almost all physical possessions' and Tesla share price is too high in latest bizarre Twitter spree

Posted: 01 May 2020 07:36 AM PDT

Elon Musk says he is 'selling almost all physical possessions' and Tesla share price is too high in latest bizarre Twitter spreeElon Musk's will sell "almost all" his physical possessions and said that his own company is overvalued in a string of bizarre Twitter posts.The outburst comes in the wake of widely criticised comments about the lockdown, which he called "fascistic" and suggested should be lifted to give America its "freedom".


Citing no evidence, Trump says he’s seen information that coronavirus originated in a Wuhan lab

Posted: 30 Apr 2020 03:20 PM PDT

Citing no evidence, Trump says he's seen information that coronavirus originated in a Wuhan labWithout citing any evidence, President Trump said he's seen information that the coronavirus originated in a lab in Wuhan, China. When pressed by a reporter to back up his claim, Trump said he wasn't at liberty to do so.


China journalist jailed as free-speech clampdown intensifies

Posted: 01 May 2020 12:07 AM PDT

China journalist jailed as free-speech clampdown intensifiesA journalist who had worked for some of China's most powerful propaganda outlets has been jailed for 15 years after being accused of attacking the ruling Communist Party, court documents showed. The sentence handed down on Chen Jieren is one of the harshest moves yet against free speech by China's government under President Xi Jinping, who has muzzled the press and ordered Chinese media outlets to serve the ruling Communist Party's interests. It comes as China faces international scrutiny over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, including questions over whether authorities covered up crucial information that could have prevented it spreading globally.


Trans woman sets herself on fire in Georgia as virus lockdown cuts income

Posted: 01 May 2020 07:33 AM PDT

Jordan ends historic arrangement with Israel as West Bank annexation tensions rise

Posted: 30 Apr 2020 12:41 PM PDT

Jordan ends historic arrangement with Israel as West Bank annexation tensions riseJordan's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ambassador Dhaifallah Al-Fayez, said the additional harvesting period "will end this evening."


New York reportedly paid $69 million for ventilators to an engineer with no background in medical supplies at the recommendation of the White House coronavirus task force

Posted: 29 Apr 2020 05:52 PM PDT

New York reportedly paid $69 million for ventilators to an engineer with no background in medical supplies at the recommendation of the White House coronavirus task forceNew York has since terminated its contract with the man and is working to recover its money.


People of black African origin three times more likely to die of coronavirus than white Britons, study finds

Posted: 30 Apr 2020 12:31 PM PDT

People of black African origin three times more likely to die of coronavirus than white Britons, study findsPeople of black African origin are three times more likely to die of coronavirus in the UK than white Britons, analysis by the Institute of Fiscal Studies has shown. A report into the disproportionate Covid-19 death toll among black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people in the UK found deaths among people of black Caribbean origin are 1.8 times those of white British people. Deaths among those of Pakistani heritage are 2.7 times as high, and black African fatalities three times higher. The higher tolls come after predictions that BAME groups should theoretically experience fewer deaths per capita than white Britons because of average age profiles. Although many BAME groups live in major cities such as London and Birmingham, which have higher overall coronavirus death rates, most are younger on average than the population as a whole – in theory making them less vulnerable to the virus.


Brian Kilmeade Attempts to Dunk on Fox Co-Host’s Sick Mom, Awkwardness Ensues

Posted: 30 Apr 2020 08:27 AM PDT

Brian Kilmeade Attempts to Dunk on Fox Co-Host's Sick Mom, Awkwardness EnsuesThings got really awkward really fast on the set of Fox & Friends Thursday morning when co-host Brian Kilmeade seemed to brush off concerns his colleague Ainsley Earhardt expressed over her sick mother catching COVID-19 amid the relaxing of social-distancing guidelines.Discussing states reopening businesses and public spaces amid the coronavirus pandemic, Kilmeade—who has been a vocal advocate for reversing stay-at-home orders to jumpstart the economy—grumbled about California Gov. Gavin Newsom's decision to close beaches after seeing images of overcrowded beaches in recent days.Earhardt, meanwhile, empathized with the position Newsom was in, pointing out that by opening the beaches and leaving it up to residents to make their own personal decisions, "they started seeing more people go to the hospitals after that weekend with corona.""The governors have to make tough decisions because they don't want a relapse in all this, that wouldn't make them look good," she added. "Their residents would be dying!"The Friends co-host then expressed concerns about her ailing mother and how the flouting of physical-distancing guidelines could be devastating to her."My mom is very sick," she declared, in the exchange first spotlighted by Media Matters. "And as much as I want to go out, I still want everyone to play by the rules, because when I finally do get to go home to visit her."Kilmeade interjected, bluntly asking Earhardt, "But is your mom going to the beach? But is your mom going to the beach?!""No. But Brian, eventually she will be around family again," a visibly annoyed Earhardt retorted. "I understand both sides. I really do.""I just don't want a resurgence of this," she concluded. "I just don't want us to go through all of this. It's been hard for everyone at different levels."Co-host Steve Doocy, obviously in an effort to defuse a potentially tense on-air confrontation, jumped in to give a both-sides observation about the need to "flatten the curve" and how governors have to monitor local situations.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.


Outsiders consider possibility of chaos in North Korea

Posted: 30 Apr 2020 01:41 AM PDT

Outsiders consider possibility of chaos in North KoreaNorth Korea's collapse has been predicted — wrongly— for decades. Others thought it would be during a 1990s famine or when national founder Kim Il Sung died in 1994. It's no surprise then that recent rumors that leader Kim Jong Un is seriously ill have led to similar hand-wringing.


The smoke-filled room that could oust Joe Biden

Posted: 01 May 2020 02:45 AM PDT

The smoke-filled room that could oust Joe BidenNever was former Vice President Joe Biden the 2020 dream. He promised electability and familiarity, which turned out to be good enough for a plurality of Democratic voters in the early primaries.But now that every other Democratic contender has dropped out and dutifully lined up behind the presumptive nominee, that choice might be sitting less comfortably. Biden is campaigning from his basement, giving interviews in which he occasionally moves past gaffes into total incoherence, raising questions about his mental fitness. Worst of all, evidence for a sexual assault allegation against him begins to mount.Add that to pandemic-induced uncertainty about when and how the Democratic National Convention will be held and it's fair to ask: Is Biden definitely the nominee? Right-wing commentators like Glenn Beck and Tucker Carlson as well as former Bernie Sanders Press Secretary Briahna Joy Gray have speculated Biden will be replaced on the ticket, but how could that happen? Is there a path to nominating someone else?Before the convention, which is currently rescheduled for August, the answer is probably no. Suspended primary elections have already raised concerns about abrogation of transparent, democratic processes — as have elections that weren't suspended. While Democratic delegates will understand the need to modify normal convention procedure to avoid spreading COVID-19, their understanding won't be unlimited. Sweeping changes to the nominating process would be suspect, and if the process continues as anticipated, Biden will very likely be selected as the nominee on the first ballot.So far, Biden has 1,406 of 1,991 delegates needed to win that initial vote, and those are delegates pledged (by strong custom, though not law) to Biden by primary and caucus results. Between now and August, there will be 22 more primaries whose outcomes will pledge another 1,368 delegates. Biden has no remaining challengers campaigning against him and needs fewer than half those delegates to win the first ballot. Unless the Democratic Party, wildly improbably, tosses its entire rule book out the window, Biden will take the nomination at the convention in a single vote.Ah, but what then? In the waning days of the Sanders campaign, I argued endorsements from superdelegates — prominent Democratic leaders and elected officials — showed party bosses had decided Biden was their guy. I don't expect to see those endorsements disappear, not publicly. But is the party leadership's commitment to Biden as solid as it once was?Suppose, plausibly, it is not. Suppose they don't want to run a historically elderly candidate amid a pandemic that is deadliest for the elderly? Suppose Tara Reade's assault accusation and Biden's tendency to misspeak even from the low-pressure, high-preparation environment of his own basement further fuel the "two senile sex offenders" narrative of this election? Suppose enthusiasm continues to grow for running New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), whom one poll found 56 percent of Democrats would prefer to Biden as their nominee? (Cuomo says he won't do it, but that could be an obligatory performance of deference to a party elder.)"The presidential debates are in effect already occurring daily between" Cuomo and Trump, Craig Snyder, a former Republican Senate chief of staff, argued in The Philadelphia Inquirer. We don't have to suppose Democratic Party leaders have noticed; they undoubtedly have.So if they wanted to replace Biden (whether with Cuomo, the veep nominee, or some arrangement of both) Democratic leadership could wait until after the nomination to do so. Then, as they did with Democratic vice presidential nominee Thomas Eagleton in 1972, they could ask Biden to step aside, citing his health.Biden's agreement is a long shot. Eagleton continued his Senate career after leaving the 1972 ticket over pressure about his mental health, but he was a much younger man. At Biden's age, stepping aside would end his political career for good. Relinquishing the nomination would therefore suggest he expects an embarrassing loss and ruined legacy if he stays.With Biden out, the Democratic National Committee, a group of around 350 which is "composed of the chairs and vice-chairs of each state Democratic Party Committee and over 200 members elected by Democrats in all 57 states and the territories," would vote to select a new nominee.Such a switch could be made any time between the convention nomination and Election Day. Because we technically vote for Electoral College members rather than presidential candidates, it may be, as Vox proposes, that Electors could simply transfer their vote from the old Democratic nominee to the new one regardless of what was printed on the ballot. But the legal situation is uncertain and varies from state to state. "For instance," notes FiveThirtyEight, "Michigan's law requires an Elector to vote for the ticket named on the ballot whereas Florida's rules say that an Elector is to 'vote for the candidates of the party that he or she was nominated to represent.'" That means a sooner swap, allowing more states to print the new name on the ballot, would be better. Yet court battles would be inevitable with the ever-litigious Trump involved.The likeliest outcome remains the most straightforward: That Biden will be the Democratic nominee and will face Trump in November. But if Democratic leaders did want to change horses midstream, late August or September could well be when they make their move.More stories from theweek.com The self-inflicted derangement of the conservative intellectuals 5 scathingly funny cartoons about Mike Pence's unmasked hospital visit If flu deaths were counted like COVID-19 deaths, the worst recent flu season evidently killed 15,620 Americans


Three Days in a Detroit Funeral Home Ravaged by the Coronavirus

Posted: 01 May 2020 05:00 AM PDT

Three Days in a Detroit Funeral Home Ravaged by the CoronavirusOn April 29, Stephen Kemp arrived at his office just outside Detroit to a perplexing silence. Since COVID-19 hit the city, the phones at his…


14 Baking Supplies for Your New Bread-Making Hobby

Posted: 30 Apr 2020 07:40 AM PDT

A New York City man stole $12,000 worth of coronavirus stimulus checks from mailboxes, cops say

Posted: 30 Apr 2020 08:14 AM PDT

A New York City man stole $12,000 worth of coronavirus stimulus checks from mailboxes, cops sayPolice arrested Feng Chen, 31, after finding him looking in mailboxes and a medical collection bin in Brooklyn's Sunset Park neighborhood,


'Survival': Tenants, landlords brace for largest rent strike in decades

Posted: 29 Apr 2020 06:05 PM PDT

'Survival': Tenants, landlords brace for largest rent strike in decades"If banks are getting bailed out and corporations are getting bailed out, why aren't poor people getting bailed out?" one activist asked.


FBI docs suggest agents prepared to close Flynn case — then reversed course

Posted: 30 Apr 2020 02:00 PM PDT

FBI docs suggest agents prepared to close Flynn case — then reversed courseMichael Flynn's allies say the new filings offer more evidence that the FBI concocted its case against Trump's ousted national security adviser.


Maya villages in Guatemala spurn U.S. deportees as infections spike

Posted: 01 May 2020 06:05 AM PDT

Maya villages in Guatemala spurn U.S. deportees as infections spikeGuatemala's indigenous Maya towns are spurning returned migrants, threatening some with burning their homes or lynching as fear spreads about more than 100 deportees from the United States who tested positive for the new coronavirus. In one city in the Guatemalan highlands, home to a large indigenous population, residents tried to burn down a migrant shelter. In some villages, locals are rebuffing the recently returned and threatening relatives of the deportees with expulsion from their homes.


When will US reach 100,000 deaths? After a horrific April, grim milestone could hit in May

Posted: 01 May 2020 12:18 PM PDT

When will US reach 100,000 deaths? After a horrific April, grim milestone could hit in MayAfter the U.S. suffered nearly 60,000 deaths because of the coronavirus in April, the prospect looms of reaching the grim milestone of 100,000.


EU says it didn't bow to pressure from China to water down a critical coronavirus disinformation report, but not everyone's convinced

Posted: 01 May 2020 12:35 AM PDT

EU says it didn't bow to pressure from China to water down a critical coronavirus disinformation report, but not everyone's convincedJosep Borrell, the European Union's chief diplomat said: "There is no watering down of our findings." But some lawmakers aren't convinced.


Stacey Abrams’ Formidable Political Machine Could Be Used Against Her as Biden’s Veep

Posted: 30 Apr 2020 01:46 AM PDT

Stacey Abrams' Formidable Political Machine Could Be Used Against Her as Biden's VeepStacey Abrams is lobbying hard to be Joe Biden's presidential running mate, and she brings to the table an asset few other contenders do: an extensive, battle-hardened organizing apparatus that she can bring to bear on behalf of the Democratic presidential ticket in November.But with that asset comes a liability. The extensive work done on Abrams' behalf by a network of political and nonprofit groups that she founded has raised persistent questions about her use of ostensibly apolitical voter-registration and canvassing outfits to boost her own political profile.The advocacy work and more nonpartisan activities of Abrams' network of nonprofits take place parallel to each other, as required by her groups' varying legal classifications. But their work also bleeds together in notable ways. Her political outfit and its sister dark-money nonprofit share a website and social-media pages, for instance. They also lean heavily on the same cadre of organizations to execute their missions. A Daily Beast analysis of public records shows that two of Abrams' groups, a tax-exempt voter-registration organization and a more aggressive advocacy group, have steered millions of dollars to the same political consultants that helped elect Abrams to the Georgia statehouse and tried to win her the governorship in 2018.The data portray an organizing apparatus that is primed to advance Abrams' political prospects in 2020 regardless of the form they take, but which could force her—and, if she gets her wish, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden—to address questions, albeit many posed by political adversaries, about her use of groups legally bound to remain legally independent and politically neutral.They're largely questions that Abrams and some of her top allies write off as baseless attacks from political opponents. "The organizations founded by Leader Abrams give a voice to marginalized communities and empower people of color and low-income Americans across the country," her spokesperson, Seth Bringman, told The Daily Beast in an emailed statement. "This critical work has been the target of allies of [Georgia Gov.] Brian Kemp and Donald Trump, because they are desperate to hold on to their power, and they know they can only maintain their power if voters and people in this country are not counted. She will not be deterred from her critical work by fishing expeditions and made-up accusations from Kemp and Trump cronies."Publicly and privately, Democrats frequently point to Abrams' organizational prowess as the leading reason that she would be a formidable vice-presidential nominee for Biden. The Georgia Democrat, the thinking goes among some of her closest allies, Democratic Party strategists, and some within Biden's own campaign, would fill in key gaps that the presumptive nominee lacks, particularly with younger voters. Abrams is also considered to be someone who can turn out black voters at a large scale for the general election, a key argument used among some in the party who believe that's the best approach to beating President Donald Trump."When Stacey ran for governor, she mobilized hundreds of thousands of African-American and younger voters to vote for her. That shows just the personal appeal of her and how strong she is with turnout," Freg Yang, Abrams' pollster during the 2018 governor race, told The Daily Beast. "More than a year ago, she knew turnout was going to be important in 2020, based on her own experience in 2018. It makes her even more relevant now given all this uncertainty."Pressure Mounts for Biden to Select a Black Woman as VPNikema Williams, the head of the Georgia Democratic Party, said Abrams and her organizational structure transcend racial, geographic, and socio-economic lines, and can help boost turnout more broadly. "If you speak with progressives, they think she's the most progressive person ever because she connects with them," Williams said. "And if you speak with people that are moderate, they're able to connect with her because she speaks their language as well."When Biden pledged to nominate a female Democrat to be his running mate in March, Abrams again shot to the top of many elected officials' and operatives' lists. At least two high-ranking officials in Biden's campaign have been praising Abrams internally as recently as last month, before her public push for VP ramped up in earnest. Her core draw, in that instance, was a sense that she, and the network she's built, have a broad reach well beyond her home state. But Abrams' network has also faced allegations that it exists primarily to advance her public profile and political agenda. In 2019, the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, a right-leaning watchdog group, filed a complaint to the Internal Revenue Service alleging illicit politicking by Fair Fight Action, a dark-money nonprofit group that Abrams leads."By providing support for an individual's personal political activities," FACT wrote in its IRS complaint, "Fair Fight Action is in violation of the requirement that a social-welfare organization serve general community purposes rather than provide a private benefit to an individual or political group."The group wrote off the complaint at the time as a "bogus attack" from "right-wing hit groups allied with Donald Trump."Similar allegations are at the heart of an investigation by the Georgia Ethics Commission into the activities of another Abrams-founded nonprofit, the New Georgia Project Action Fund, during the 2018 campaign. David Emadi, the commission's executive director and an appointee of Gov. Kemp, Abrams' Republican opponent in 2018, suggested that New Georgia may have illicitly acted as a political committee on Abrams' behalf, an allegation that Abrams and her team have flatly denied.Neither the FACT complaint nor the investigation in Georgia have resulted in findings of wrongdoing by any Abrams group, though the ethics commission said last week that its investigation was still ongoing. As it did with FACT, Abrams' team has largely written it off as politically motivated.After Abrams' 2018 defeat, she alleged that Kemp, Georgia's former secretary of state, used his position to suppress votes that might have swayed the election. After Abrams conceded in mid-November, her campaign donated more than $1 million in leftover funds to Fair Fight Action, which continued litigation and advocacy efforts to address those voter suppression allegations. The group did so under the new leadership of Abrams' former campaign manager.At the time, Fair Fight Action was still officially called the Voter Access Institute. But it amended its corporate structure on Dec. 5, 2018, to reflect its new moniker. It also made a significant change to the group's corporate bylaws: It deleted language saying it would not get involved, "directly or indirectly," in political contests.Just days later, Fair Fight Action began running television ads. And it did so through the same media buyer, Chicago-based AL Media, that the Abrams campaign had been using just weeks earlier. Campaign-finance records show the Abrams campaign had already paid the firm more than $4.7 million. By the end of 2018, Fair Fight Action had steered it an additional $165,000. Federal Communications Commission records show that the same AL Media employee handled media buys for both the nonprofit and the campaign.More recent FCC filings show that AL Media continues to buy ads for Fair Fight Action. So far this year, the group has purchased about $155,000 in broadcast ad time, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, for a pair of ads going after Kemp, whom Abrams has pondered challenging in 2022. AL Media is simultaneously handling ad buys for Fair Count, Abrams' 501(c)(3) charitable group.There's nothing legally problematic with that relationship; such vendors often work for both political entities and nonprofit and advocacy groups, and are free to do so as long as the proper firewalls are in place to ensure that work remains separate. But it underscores how complementary the electoral and apolitical nodes of Abrams' network are.Since 2014, Fair Fight Action has paid more than $2 million to five different vendors that also worked for Abrams' campaign or Georgia Next, her state-level political action committee, including fundraising firm G Strategies, phone-banking vendor Control Point Group, and direct-mail firm Deliver Strategies.During the same time period, Fair Count paid G Strategies for fundraising services as well. In 2014 and 2015, Fair Count and Fair Fight Action paid more than $2.7 million combined to a voter contact and communications firm called Field Strategies. In 2017, a partner at that firm, founded a new consulting firm called New Ground Strategies, which received more than $5.5 million from Abrams' gubernatorial campaign. According to its website, New Ground has worked for years with the New Georgia Project, which Abrams founded and led prior to her gubernatorial run. All told, Abrams' 2018 gubernatorial campaign, her past statehouse campaigns, and Georgia Next paid more than $14.7 million to political vendors that have also worked for one or more of Abrams' nonprofit groups.Do Stacey Abrams and Steve Bullock Want to Make Mitch McConnell President?Even among the nonprofit groups themselves, that division of labor can be difficult to distinguish. Fair Fight Action, for instance, shares a website and a Facebook page with Fair Fight, Abrams' PAC. Both advise that the web properties are joint projects of the PAC and the dark-money group, a rare move for organizations with different legal structures—and different limits on how explicitly political their work can be.The website's donation link directs visitors to the PAC's contribution page. The PAC, in turn, passes along funds to the dark-money group. It's provided about $1.8 million in contributions to Fair Fight Action since last year, and paid it another $2 million in reimbursements for shared overhead and expenseNone of that is inherently problematic from a legal perspective. But the common thread among all parties—the political action committees, the nonprofits, and their vendors—is a drive to promote Abrams, the woman whose drive to enfranchise and turn out communities of color have animated their work for years.Abrams, in turn, is front and center as they carry out that work. Since December, Fair Fight Action has paid tens of thousands of dollars to run scores of Facebook ads promoting its voter registration and turnout activities. Every one of the ads has featured a photo or a video of Abrams herself.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.


Syrians in Idlib protest opening of trade link with regime

Posted: 01 May 2020 11:18 AM PDT

Syrians in Idlib protest opening of trade link with regimeMaarat al-Naasan (Syria) (AFP) - Protests broke out across opposition-held parts of northwest Syria Friday against an al-Qaeda-linked jihadist group after it opened a trade crossing into regime territory, an AFP correspondent and a war monitor said. "Mass protests broke out in several towns and villages in the provinces of Idlib and Aleppo to denounce the practises of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham alliance" said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor. Led by Syria's former al-Qaeda affiliate, HTS and allied rebel groups dominate large swathes of Idlib province and slivers of neighbouring Aleppo.


Prisoners in Iran 'disappearing', British inmate claims

Posted: 01 May 2020 12:44 PM PDT

Prisoners in Iran 'disappearing', British inmate claimsPrisoners with suspected coronavirus in Iran are "disappearing" due to illness or being given sleeping pills and sent back to crowded cells where the virus can easily spread, a British-Iranian father who is jailed on spying charges has claimed. Retired engineer Anoosheh Ashoori, 66, secretly recorded an audio diary detailing the chaotic conditions in Evin prison, Tehran, where he is serving a 10-year sentence for "spying for Israel", which he strongly denies. Several inmates have fallen ill due to suspected coronavirus, Mr Ashoori claims, adding that once a sick prisoner goes to the prison's medical centre, "he does not return… nobody knows any more about his fate." Another prisoner complained of Covid-19 symptoms but was not tested, he added. Instead, he was given sleeping pills and told by a prison doctor to "go back and rest" in a cell shared with 11 other men. Iran has been the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic in the Middle East and has recorded more than 95,000 cases and 6,000 related deaths, although the official figures are heavily disputed. As a precaution in March, the Islamic Republic temporarily released thousands of prisoners from its over-crowded jails, including British-Iranian mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe who has been allowed to stay with her parents in Tehran while being monitored by an ankle tag. But other dual nationals accused of espionage, including Mr Ashoori and the British-Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert, have remained behind bars in Evin, while other inmates are now returning following their temporary release. "It is just enough for one contaminated person to arrive and the rest will soon contract the virus," Mr Ashoori said in the diary, recorded last month [April] during phone calls to his wife, Sherry Izadi. Ms Izadi, from South London, today [Friday] criticised the Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab for a lack of action to release her husband, saying he had become "forgotten" since being arrested in August 2017 while visiting his family in Iran. "Every time I hear Dominic Raab talk about returning Britons who have been trapped on holiday by coronavirus, I wonder why he is not giving the same priority to those, like my husband, who are held unlawfully in a foreign prison", she said. "Other countries are doing deals to free their citizens, but the government that is showing the least action has to be the British. It's as if they have forgotten my husband exists." A Foreign Office spokesperson said: "We strongly urge Iran to reunite British-Iranian dual national Mr Ashoori with his family. Our Embassy in Tehran continues to request consular access and we have been supporting his family since being made aware of his detention. The treatment of all dual nationals detained in Iran is a priority and both the PM and Foreign Secretary have recently raised this issue with their Iranian counterparts."


2 men detained in burning deaths of transgender women

Posted: 30 Apr 2020 01:49 PM PDT

2 men detained in burning deaths of transgender womenOne of the men admitted to the double killings, saying it was done for "reasons of revenge."


DeVos, Education Department sued for 'seizing' student borrower paychecks

Posted: 01 May 2020 11:16 AM PDT

DeVos, Education Department sued for 'seizing' student borrower paychecksSupporters of a lawsuit against the department say the agency is placing the "well-being of vulnerable student loan borrowers in peril" during the coronavirus pandemic.


Trump calls Michigan lockdown protesters ‘good people’ a day after armed demonstrators stormed statehouse

Posted: 01 May 2020 05:02 AM PDT

Trump calls Michigan lockdown protesters 'good people' a day after armed demonstrators stormed statehouseDonald Trump has called Michigan protesters "good people" and implored the state governor to ease stay-at-home measures, just one day after armed residents intimidated lawmakers."The Governor of Michigan should give a little, and put out the fire," Mr Trump tweeted on Friday, addressing Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat. "These are very good people, but they are angry. They want their lives back again, safely! See them, talk to them, make a deal."


Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin tells Putin he has coronavirus

Posted: 30 Apr 2020 10:00 AM PDT

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin tells Putin he has coronavirusRussian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin told President Vladimir Putin on Thursday that he had been diagnosed with the new coronavirus and was temporarily stepping down to recover. Mishustin, 54, suggested that First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov serve as acting prime minister in his absence. Putin, who was listening on a televised video conference, sighed when he heard the news, wished Mishustin a speedy recovery and said he agreed with the proposed replacement.


Kim Yo-jong: North Korea's most powerful woman and heir apparent?

Posted: 01 May 2020 01:15 AM PDT

Kim Yo-jong: North Korea's most powerful woman and heir apparent?Kim Jong-un's sister is North Korea's most powerful woman and a possible successor to her brother.


Rep. Jordan on holding the FBI accountable after release of Flynn documents

Posted: 30 Apr 2020 05:28 AM PDT

Rep. Jordan on holding the FBI accountable after release of Flynn documentsRepublican Rep. Jim Jordan sounds off after new documents are released on the 2017 questioning of Michael Flynn in the Russia probe.


DOJ began investigating a doctor promoting unproven COVID-19 treatments after Roger Stone's former associate accidentally emailed a federal prosecutor instead of the doctor

Posted: 01 May 2020 08:12 AM PDT

DOJ began investigating a doctor promoting unproven COVID-19 treatments after Roger Stone's former associate accidentally emailed a federal prosecutor instead of the doctorCorsi meant to email the doctor and instead emailed Aaron Zelinsky, one of the prosecutors who spent months investigating him in the Russia probe.


Top E.U. Official Confirms China Objected to Coronavirus Report, Denies Revisions Were Result of Pressure

Posted: 01 May 2020 07:23 AM PDT

Top E.U. Official Confirms China Objected to Coronavirus Report, Denies Revisions Were Result of PressureThe European Union's foreign policy chief admitted Thursday that China "expressed their concerns" over an EU report on Chinese disinformation regarding coronavirus, after allegations that his team had watered down their initial findings "to appease the Chinese Communist Party."Speaking to the European Parliament in Brussels, Josep Borrell denied that Beijing had coerced him to soften the report's verdict. Drafts of the report showed that language condemning China for "a global disinformation campaign" was removed, while an analyst in the EU administration warned her superiors of "self-censoring.""I can assure you that no changes had been introduced to the report published last week to align the concerns of a third party, in this case, China. There is no watering down of our findings. We have not bowed to anyone," he said.But Borrell admitted that it was "clear and evident" China was unhappy with the leaked report, first reported by the New York Times, stressing that the Chinese "expressed their concerns through the diplomatic channels."The admission did not satisfy some lawmakers. Thierry Mariani, a French politician, told Borrell that his team had been "caught with their hand in the cookie jar," while a Beligan member, Hilde Vautmans, demanded further answers. "Who interfered? Which Chinese official put pressure? At what level? What means of pressure?" she asked. "I think Europe needs to know that. Otherwise you're losing all credibility."Borrell did not go into details over his contact with China over the report. "The Chinese were not happy," he stated. "They were not happy at the beginning and they are still not happy now."


Asia virus latest: India extends lockdown, Macau casino revenue plunges

Posted: 01 May 2020 01:57 PM PDT

Asia virus latest: India extends lockdown, Macau casino revenue plungesThe world's biggest virus lockdown is taking place in India, and it will be extended for two weeks beyond May 4, the government said Friday. The measures have spelled misery for millions of workers in India's informal economy. Sri Lanka also extended its lockdown for a second time, through May 11.


4 women arrested after Arizona mom found dead, blood found in bathroom

Posted: 01 May 2020 04:36 AM PDT

4 women arrested after Arizona mom found dead, blood found in bathroomDetective Jason Flam, a department spokesperson, confirmed in an email the arrest of the four women is related to Melissa Valenzuela's case.


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