| Trump retweets call to let ‘Democrat cities rot’ over video of NYC protesters Posted: 17 Aug 2020 05:15 AM PDT  Donald Trump has come under fire for appearing to endorse a tweet calling for "Democrat cities" to be left to "rot" amid continuing unrest in several metropolises over the killing of George Floyd.The president retweeted a post by Brandon Straka, a right-wing activist, which called for people to "leave Democratic cities", as Black Lives Matter protesters took to the streets for an 11th week running.
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| Portland police declare riot, use smoke to clear crowd Posted: 15 Aug 2020 09:35 PM PDT  A riot was declared in Oregon's biggest city as protesters demonstrated outside a law enforcement building early Sunday, continuing a nightly ritual in Portland. Officers used crowd control munitions to disperse the gathering outside the Penumbra Kelly building. Protesters had thrown "softball size" rocks, glass bottles and other objects at officers, police said on Twitter.
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| The Russia-Obsessed Media Does Its Best to Ignore Clinesmith’s Guilty Plea Posted: 16 Aug 2020 03:30 AM PDT  As news broke Friday that John Durham's criminal probe into the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation had resulted in a former FBI lawyer being charged with doctoring FISA evidence used against the Trump campaign, the formerly Russia-obsessed mainstream media did its best to look the other way.Kevin Clinesmith, who first worked on the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane team and then under special counsel Robert Mueller — only to be fired in February 2018 after it was revealed he sent anti-Trump messages — will plead guilty to one count of making false statements. Clinesmith's admission came after Justice Department inspector general Michael Horowitz faulted him in a December report for doctoring an email to state that former Trump-campaign national security adviser Carter Page was "not a source" for the CIA — when in fact the email from a CIA official stated the opposite.Clinesmith's plea is not an indictment, but a "criminal information," in which the defendant seeks to avoid being charged by a grand jury. As National Review's Andy McCarthy has pointed out, such a move is often made under a cooperation agreement, suggesting that Clinesmith could be working with Durham.Despite the plea's status as the first major development in Durham's investigation, the media barely batted an eye, abandoning the Russia saga after providing wall-to-wall coverage of Michael Flynn's plea deal with Robert Mueller in December 2017."I think really the most important thing right now is to stay humble, and keep your eyes and your ears open, in terms of what you think you understand about Mike Flynn in this scandal," MSNBC host Rachel Maddow said in her opening monologue the night Flynn, Trump's former national-security adviser, pled guilty to lying to the FBI.But on her show Friday, Maddow, who breathlessly covered "Russia-gate" night after night for two years, totally ignored the Clinesmith news. And she wasn't the only one. CNN's Anderson Cooper failed to cover the plea deal during his two hours of Friday-night programming. Cooper's colleague Don Lemon, who also covered the Russia probe and Flynn's plea relentlessly, couldn't find time to cover Clinesmith's plea during his 10 p.m. time slot.Instead of ignoring the news altogether, Maddow's colleague Chuck Todd reacted to the development by belittling Durham's probe in general, wondering aloud whether the investigation is aimed at "creating confusion about investigating the investigators." MSNBC legal analyst Andrew Weissmann decided to challenge the news head on.Weissmann claimed on Twitter that Clinesmith's altering of the email was not "material" to the indictment, because Durham did not say whether Carter Page had, in fact, been a "source" for the CIA in the court document. That Page provided information to the CIA, and was praised by the agency for doing so, is beyond dispute, whether Durham mentioned it in his indictment or not.> Clinesmith is charged with adding the words "not a source" to an email about Carter Page, but no where does the charge say that is false, i.e. that Page was a source for the CIA. Without that, how is the addition "materially" false? Compare with Barr's materiality std for Flynn.> > -- Andrew Weissmann (@AWeissmann_) August 14, 2020The attempt to compare the Flynn guilty plea to Clinesmith's, however, does call into question the media framing of both stories.Elite political reporters and pundits focused their writing and broadcasting on Flynn's guilty plea for months and jumped to far-reaching conclusions about what it meant for the future of Trump's presidency. When Clinesmith's plea was announced Friday, our opinion leaders and news gatherers collectively decided to fit the latest development into the framework they'd developed over the better part of two years, rather than revise their conclusions in the face of new facts.Take New York Times reporter Adam Goldman, who broke the Clinesmith story, for example.Goldman emphasized Friday that "prosecutors did not reveal any evidence in charging documents that showed Mr. Clinesmith's actions were part of any broader conspiracy to undermine Mr. Trump." But in the 23rd paragraph, Goldman mentions that "Mr. Clinesmith had provided the unchanged C.I.A. email to Crossfire Hurricane agents and the Justice Department lawyer drafting the original wiretap application."Taken together, the two statements raise serious questions. If Clinesmith "provided the unchanged" email to other FBI officials, those officials must have been aware that he doctored his email to the FISA court. In other words, when they received the un-doctored email proving that Page had long cooperated with the federal government and chose to say nothing, they became part of a "broader conspiracy."Goldman proved much more willing to assign blame to a broad and nebulous group of actors when Flynn pled guilty in December 2017, calling the news "a politically treacherous development for the president and his closest aides."Goldman went on to write that Flynn's plea implied "that prosecutors now have a cooperative source of information from inside the Oval Office during the administration's chaotic first weeks." But a similar hypothesis about the far-reaching implications of Clinesmith's guilty plea was not advanced in Goldman's most recent report.Other outlets have engaged in similar efforts to downplay the seriousness of Clinesmith's wrongdoing by framing the plea as a single act of unintentional malfeasance. The notion that the Crossfire Hurricane team accidentally failed to mention Page's work for the CIA to the FISA Court is facially absurd. The CIA sent a memo to the team detailing the agency's relationship with the former Trump aide before the FBI filed their first FISA application to surveil Page; the FBI didn't mention it on that first application or their three subsequent application renewals.NPR's justice correspondent Carrie Johnson headlined her report on the Clinesmith plea: "Case Linked To Alleged Abuse Of Surveillance Power." The label "alleged" has been inaccurate since December 2019, when Horowitz released a report detailing "at least 17 significant errors or omissions" in the FBI's FISA applications used against Carter Page. Johnson also reported that the former FBI lawyer had "allegedly doctored an email." In the very next paragraph, she quotes — without a hint of irony — Clinesmith's lawyer, who told her that "Kevin deeply regrets having altered the email."Johnson was not so timid when speculating about the implications of Flynn's guilty plea: After quoting then-White House special counsel Ty Cobb, who argued that Flynn's decision to plead guilty did not implicate additional officials, she explained that "Flynn's plea agreement and cooperation with Mueller would seem to signal the opposite — that the investigation has now reached into the Trump White House itself, and that it still has a long way to go before wrapping up."The Associated Press's 2017 article on Flynn took a similar angle, warning that the development "could be an ominous sign for a White House" and hypothesizing that "if the Trump transition made secret back-door assurances to Russian diplomats, that could potentially run afoul of the Logan Act" — without mentioning that no one has ever been successfully prosecuted under the law since its passage in 1799.But in their report on Clinesmith's plea, the AP opted against commenting on what the development meant for the Russian collusion narrative and chose instead to comment on its utility as a prop that might "lift Trump's wobbly reelection prospects" by exposing what the Trump administration "see[s] as wrongdoing."
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| Trump makes call for new White House doctor's virus advice Posted: 16 Aug 2020 08:35 AM PDT  President Trump announced a new doctor — Dr. Scott Atlas, a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel — has joined the coronavirus task force as a pandemic adviser.
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| Cartoon: We Found Trump’s Kamala Burn Book Posted: 16 Aug 2020 02:06 AM PDT  The moment Joe Biden announced Kamala Harris as his running mate, great minds in Washington, D.C., went scrambling into action. It's no easy task demeaning a prominent elected official and decorated prosecutor with one pithy nickname. But this country has a not-so-secret weapon in the Oval Office: one of its finest insult comedians. The Daily Beast has obtained evidence of Trump's midnight oil brainstorming, providing a rare glimpse inside the thought process that guides such critical decisions (instead of, say, the pandemic, the economy or our country's race problems).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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| Huge snake sends tourists running when it bolts from SUV at Yellowstone National Park Posted: 17 Aug 2020 04:50 AM PDT  Screaming can be heard on the video.
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| China welcomes Putin's proposed summit on Iran Posted: 17 Aug 2020 02:44 AM PDT  China welcomed on Monday to Russian President Vladimir Putin's proposed summit of world leaders to avoid "confrontation" over a U.S. threat to trigger a return of all U.N. sanctions on Iran. The United States lost a bid on Friday to extend a U.N. arms embargo on Iran. Russia and China opposed extending the weapons ban, which is due to expire in October under a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.
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| Philippine minister tests positive for virus for second time Posted: 17 Aug 2020 12:49 AM PDT  A Philippine government minister has tested positive for coronavirus five months after an initial diagnosis, authorities said Monday, as experts investigate whether he had been re-infected.
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| Portland: Man left with serious injuries after being kicked in head by protester Posted: 17 Aug 2020 05:14 AM PDT  A man driving near a demonstration in Portland, Oregon has been taken to hospital after being pulled from his car and physically attacked by several protesters – one of whom deliberately kicked him in the head.The attack, which was filmed by various bystanders, occurred late on Sunday night at the intersection of Broadway and Southwest Taylor Street, a few blocks from the federal courthouse and other buildings that have been the focus of recent protests.
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| Sanders supporters felt burned at the 2016 DNC. This year, Democratic leaders push for unity Posted: 17 Aug 2020 05:30 AM PDT  Bernie Sanders delegates go into the DNC with less animosity and 'more leverage' as Joe Biden and the Democratic Party aim to unify the party.
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| 5 people wounded in shooting at flea market in San Antonio Posted: 16 Aug 2020 02:23 PM PDT  At least five people were wounded, including one critically, in a shooting at a flea market in San Antonio on Sunday, police officials said. McManus said a security guard also opened fire, but it was not known if the guard is among the wounded. The manager of the Mission Open Air Market, Al Ramon, said the argument did not involve any market employees.
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| Oklahoma State sorority house reports 23 coronavirus cases Posted: 16 Aug 2020 07:54 AM PDT  Greek life has been a source of numerous coronavirus cases in the last few weeks as the country debates reopening schools for in-person learning.
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| Mars helicopter reaches "big milestone" on flight to planet Posted: 17 Aug 2020 06:36 AM PDT  NASA announced that the Mars Ingenuity helicopter is alive and well and was successfully recharged while in mid-spaceflight.
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| A pollution disaster as the stranded Japanese oil tanker off the pristine coast of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean splits apart Posted: 16 Aug 2020 06:40 AM PDT  A huge cleanup operation had been underway in an attempt to pump some of the oil out of the tanker but the condition of the ship worsened on Saturday.
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| Hit ’em where it hurts – how economic threats are a potent tool for changing people's minds about the Confederate flag Posted: 17 Aug 2020 05:23 AM PDT  Activists nationwide have resumed demanding the removal of statues and symbols that are considered racially offensive – such as of slave owners, Confederate leaders and the Confederate flag.The requests – and related boycotts and threats of other economic protests – have been part of the national controversy about racism in American life and have sparked questions about how to recognize traumatic elements of U.S. history.Typically, the debate about the role of Confederate imagery in public life is seen as a political, social or racial issue. But in recent research, we discovered that economic concerns could be effective in shifting Southerners' attitudes about Confederate symbols. Public officials and individual citizens alike are more likely to oppose the presence of Confederate symbols when they learn it may be bad for local business. Longstanding supportDecisions to build Confederate monuments or display the Confederate battle flag were not, of course, controversial among white Southerners. Even recently, it wasn't common for many white Americans – either in public service or as private citizens – to actively support removing Confederate imagery.Yet some organizations have long opposed Confederate symbols. For instance, the NAACP called an economic boycott of South Carolina from 2000 to 2015 because the Confederate battle flag flew over the State House in Columbia, alongside the state and U.S. flags.As recently as 2011 a plurality of white Southerners saw the Confederate flag as more positive than negative. Political elites were not much different: In 2000, when South Carolina hosted a debate during the Republican presidential primaries, both George W. Bush and John McCain initially supported leaving decisions up to state officials about whether to keep the Confederate flag flying, though McCain equivocated on the issue throughout the campaign. A rapid changeOpposition to public display of Confederate symbols has shifted in more recent years.In some cases, public officials have encountered changing political circumstances. In 2015, for instance, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley supported a bipartisan call to remove the flag from the State House in the wake of a racially motivated mass shooting of African Americans at a Charleston church.Our research found that presenting divisive social and political issues in terms of their potential economic consequences can change the views of both political elites and the public at large.This came up, for instance, during a legislative debate in Mississippi in June 2020. Some of the people arguing that the Confederate flag should not be part of the state flag said that keeping it might impede job creation and economic development in their state. Those tactics are similar to economic arguments from other groups seeking social change, such as LGBT-rights advocates explaining how the business community would be hurt by continued discrimination. What's the effect?In our research, we surveyed voters as well as elected officials at both city and county levels. We wanted to measure whether, and how much, economic interests might affect Southerners' attitudes toward the presence of Confederate symbols. We randomly assigned the participants into one of three equal-sized groups.The first group read a vignette asking them to imagine that a Confederate flag was displayed on local government property in their county, and then asked them, on a scale from 1 to 7, how likely they were to support removal of the flag.The second group was given the same basic information as the first group, but with additional language indicating that the continued presence of Confederate flag on public property in their county would mean a major multinational company would not want to relocate to the community.[Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend. Sign up for our weekly newsletter.]The last group was given the same information as the second group, but with an additional assertion that the continued presence of the flag would have an effect large enough to affect the stock market in a way that would hurt the respondents' personal economic bottom line.We found that Southerners were far more likely to support removal of Confederate symbols from public property when told there would be economic harm if they stayed up. Both voters and elected officials became about a half-point more likely on our seven-point scale to support removal after receiving information about the economic threats associated with the continued presence of the Confederate flag.Controversies around socially and racially divisive monuments and symbols are likely to continue in the U.S. Our findings indicate that social movements might change more people's minds by emphasizing not only the history of Southern racial injustice, but also by using the potent threats of boycotts and other forms of economic pressure.This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.Read more: * African Americans have long defied white supremacy and celebrated Black culture in public spaces * Latest legal hurdle to removing Confederate statues in Virginia: The wishes of their long-dead white donorsThe authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
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| Islamic State has gained its first outpost in southern Africa after the capture of strategic port in Mozambique Posted: 16 Aug 2020 08:54 AM PDT  Government troops abandoned Mocimboa da Praia last week but reinforcements have been rushed to the area to recapture the city from the insurgents.
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| The Heir to the Moosehead Breweries Fortune Had His Skull Bashed In. His Son Was the Prime Suspect. Posted: 17 Aug 2020 01:52 AM PDT  With new true crime docuseries debuting on a weekly basis, the differentiating factor between them is often less the freshness of their filmmaking than the quality of their mystery. In that regard, The Suspect proves a worthy addition to the ever-burgeoning subgenre, delivering a baffling Canadian whodunit that, like so many legal thrillers, ultimately hinges on the contentious question of reasonable doubt.Director Deborah Wainwright's four-part investigation (premiering Aug. 18 on Sundance Now, after airing earlier this year on CBC) concerns the murder of Richard Oland, a 69-year-old businessman who lived in Rothesay, New Brunswick, a tony, mansion-filled suburb of Saint John. Richard's father was the chairman and CEO of Moosehead Breweries, and though control of that empire ultimately went to his brother Derek, Richard was nonetheless a success in his own right (he was president of the 1985 Canada Games), as well as a demanding and sometimes difficult man—and dad. On the evening of July 7, 2011, someone visited Richard in his Canterbury Street office and bludgeoned him to death, striking him 40 times in the skull. It was a gruesome scene and one where the excessive up-close-and-personal carnage—as well as the later determination that nothing valuable was stolen—suggested it was a crime of passion committed by an individual motivated by a personal grudge.The Trials of Greg Kelley: A High School Football Phenom Wrongly Convicted of Molesting a 4-Year-Old Boy'Ren & Stimpy's' Dark, Pedophilic Past Is ExposedLed by Chief Bill Reid, police immediately focused their attention on a single suspect: Richard's son Dennis, who was the last known person to see his father that night, having visited him at the office—on three quick occasions—to discuss a family tree project they had been working on together. Traces of blood that matched Richard's DNA were found on Dennis' jacket (this after Dennis had initially said he was wearing a different jacket that day). Furthermore, Richard's cellphone had been taken, and pinged off a tower that night in the same vicinity as the wharf that Dennis said he subsequently visited (to check on his kids). Since Dennis was in dire financial straits, law enforcement surmised that he had murdered Richard after being turned down for another loan. To them, it was a clear-cut instance of homicidal rage, with Dennis then taking the victim's phone and dumping it in the water—presumably along with the murder weapon, which was never identified or recovered.That circumstantial theory was enough for a jury to find Dennis guilty of second-degree murder. The Suspect, however, really kicks into gear ten months after that late 2015 decision, when Dennis successfully argued that improper instructions given to the jury by the judge should negate his conviction, thus setting the stage for a retrial. Director Wainwright relays her sordid saga through a combination of dramatic recreations, interviews (with journalists, experts and her story's principals), trial testimony set to animated courtroom sequences, TV news reports and graphical timelines. Yet her trump card is access to post-prison-release Dennis, following him as he prepares—with wife Linda, lawyers Alan Gold, Gary Miller and Michael Lacy, and a three-person team of investigators—to definitively prove his innocence.Or should I say, prove his not-guiltiness? Incontrovertible truth is hard to ascertain in The Suspect. Thanks to law enforcement mistakes, the crime scene was trampled through, and key areas (Richard's office bathroom, and back door) were never examined. Two men (Anthony Shaw and John Ainsworth) visiting the store below Richard's office heard loud noises on the night in question, apparently between 7:30 and 8 p.m.—a time frame that (though Ainsworth later changed his tune, for dubious reasons) seemed to eliminate Dennis as the killer, since he was caught by surveillance cameras elsewhere at that point. Both the jacket DNA and cell tower evidence was dubious and inconclusive. And the fact that Dennis (and everything he came into contact with) wasn't covered in blood—this despite the brutality of the slaying—raised further doubts about how he could have pulled off this apparently perfect crime.Throw in the revelation that Richard had a furious mistress, Diana Sedlacek, who was trying to reach him at the time of his death, and whose recent correspondence with him was borderline-unhinged, and the case against Dennis starts to seem shaky. The Suspect thus morphs into a study of criminal justice procedures, and the dynamics that govern murder trials. Key to its inquiry is the notion of courtroom storytelling. While defendants are only legally required to raise reasonable doubt that they didn't commit an offense, in practice, it's generally best to counter a prosecution's hypothesis with one's own alternate explanation for what took place—meaning that peer-decided cases are frequently competitions between dueling narratives. Recognizing this, Dennis and his lawyers attempt to have their retrial heard not by a jury but by a judge, who they think will focus more on the evidence at hand rather than circumstantial tales told by prosecutors.Sticking close to Dennis as he retraces his movements on the night of his dad's murder, meets with his counsel, and hangs out with his kids, The Suspect boasts access to the accused that invariably sways its portrait in his favor. Fortunately, such bias feels increasingly warranted the further Dennis' ordeal develops, and more holes emerge in the Crown's position. Director Wainwright spends a bit more time than is necessary on a couple of peripheral issues, such as the process of analyzing polygraph tests. But in a fashion reminiscent of Making a Murderer, she connects the dots between wealth, privilege, power and police-department obstinacy and self-preservation instincts to weave a larger tapestry of the numerous forces at play in high-profile investigations and prosecutions.Anyone with a hankering for spoilers can find out how The Suspect ends via a Google search. Still, Wainwright's painstaking survey of this headline-making story provides regular insights into a wide variety of criminal justice areas, be it legal defense strategies, law enforcement practices, or the prejudices that can drive and dictate jury decisions. Moreover, it's simply got what many of its non-fiction brethren don't: a compelling central mystery that begets a lot of tantalizing conjecture, but few concrete answers.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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| Splintered militants rejoin Pakistani Taliban, vow holy war Posted: 17 Aug 2020 05:08 AM PDT |
| Oklahoma high school student knowingly went to class with coronavirus, officials say Posted: 16 Aug 2020 10:46 AM PDT  The school district said the Westmoore High School student was asymptomatic and believed it was safe to attend the first day of classes.
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| Italy shuts down nightclubs as coronavirus cases rise among young Posted: 17 Aug 2020 03:38 AM PDT  Italy has ordered the closure of all nightclubs and discos amid growing concerns that young people are catching and spreading the coronavirus, which has so far killed more than 35,000 Italians. It was the first re-imposition of restrictions since Italy's strict national lockdown began easing in May. The decision comes as the number of new cases increases, rising from an average of around 300 a day last month to as high as 600 a day this month. On Saturday, 629 new cases were reported - the first time there had been more than 600 daily cases since May - while on Sunday there were 479 cases. There are fears that unless urgent action is taken, Italy could be heading back to the darkest days of March and April, the height of the pandemic. A big increase in infections could jeopardise the planned reopening of Italy's schools on September 14. Millions of parents are counting on the reopening of schools, which have been closed since early March. As well as shutting down discos and nightclubs, it is now compulsory to wear a facemask where large numbers of people gather, for instance outside bars and pubs, between 6pm and 6am. The nightclub sector, worth €4 billion a year and employing around 50,000 people, was furious over the decision. But the government said it was unavoidable, with many young people contracting Covid-19 and the average age of patients falling to below 40. The new regulations begin today and will last until early September.
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| Coronavirus: 'Serious mistakes' made over Ruby Princess outbreak Posted: 16 Aug 2020 11:46 PM PDT  An Australian inquiry is highly critical of the authorities' handling of the Ruby Princess outbreak.
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| Putin, Erdogan discuss conflicts in Libya, Syria in phone call Posted: 17 Aug 2020 03:32 AM PDT  Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan discussed the conflicts in Libya and Syria in a telephone call on Monday. The Kremlin said that the two leaders, focused mainly on the crisis in Libya, where they back opposing sides, highlighting the need to make real steps towards a sustainable ceasefire. The Turkish presidency said Putin and Erdogan also discussed a dispute between Turkey and Greece over energy exploration in the eastern Mediterranean, saying they "emphasised the importance of continuing close cooperation and dialogue".
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| Louisville police have spent more than $90,000 on security for officers in Breonna Taylor shooting Posted: 17 Aug 2020 03:01 AM PDT  Intense scrutiny and threats surrounding Breonna Taylor case has prompted Louisville police to spend more than $90,000 on security for officers.
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| The USPS handles 500 million letters a day at Christmas. Mail-in ballots should be easy. Posted: 17 Aug 2020 06:25 AM PDT  President Trump said last Thursday he opposes the push by Democrats to give the U.S. Postal Service billions of dollars for the election, telling Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo "they need that money in order for the Post Office to work, to take in these millions and millions of ballots," and without the funds, "they can't have universal mail-in voting."But despite what Trump says and Democrats say they fear, a lack of money won't stop the USPS from delivering ballots in a timely matter, according to postal experts and the USPS itself. In the week before Christmas, for example, the USPS processes and delivers 2.5 billion pieces of first-class mail, or about 500 million cards and letters a day, not to mention packages."From a sheer numbers perspective, none of the experts I spoke with doubted that the Postal Service could handle a vote-by-mail election, even if every one of the nation's more than 150 million registered voters stuck their ballot in a mailbox," Russell Berman writes in The Atlantic. "As one noted to me, a presidential election might be a big deal, but in postal terms, it's no Christmas." The experts are worried about measures put in place by new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.> .@JessicaHuseman explains how and why mail-in voting could be impacted with policy changes at the USPS.https://t.co/b4ejvuJlX0 pic.twitter.com/KpQKKftkD4> > — New Day (@NewDay) August 17, 2020The disappearing mail-sorting machines and mail collection boxes aren't the big concern — or even necessarily DeJoy's doing, Nick Harper explains in a Medium post. The real electoral threat, Berman says, is DeJoy's rapid moves to eliminate overtime, "even though as many as 40,000 postal workers have been quarantined or out sick because of the coronavirus," and leave mail behind if it isn't on the truck on schedule, violating the Postal Service ethos and gumming up the works. The USPS has also said it won't treat all ballots as first-class mail, as it normally does.But USPS has been preparing for a surge in mail-in ballots since before DeJoy took over, Berman writes, and besides, "post offices may not follow directives from Washington, D.C., if they believe doing so will tamper with the election. Postal workers are voters too, and for years they've been trained to prioritize ballots at election time." Read more at The Atlantic.More stories from theweek.com Trump wants to take America down with him 5 achingly funny cartoons about Trump's post office upheaval Catholic voters' impossible choice
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| Israeli forces shoot, wound deaf Palestinian at checkpoint Posted: 17 Aug 2020 02:10 AM PDT |
| Belarusian President Lukashenko urges supporters to defend Belarus' independence Posted: 16 Aug 2020 04:58 AM PDT  Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Sunday spoke in front of a crowd of supporters at a rally in central Minsk asking them to defend the country and its independence. As mass protests continued against his rule, Mr Lukashenko spoke on the capital's Independence Square, telling supporters: "I called you here not to defend me... but for the first time in a quarter-century, to defend your country and its independence." The strongman who has ruled Belarus for the last 26 years is facing the greatest challenge to his leadership from a growing protest movement fanned by a brutal police crackdown. "I'm not a fan of rallies but alas, it's not my fault I had to call you to help me," the 65-year-old said as some 10,000 supporters waved national flags and shouted "Thank you!" and "Belarus!" Wiping his brow, the president standing at a podium in a short-sleeved shirt, insisted on the legitimacy of last Sunday's presidential poll in which he claimed victory over popular opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya.
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| California wildfires: Lightning strikes spark new fires as state gripped by baking heatwave Posted: 17 Aug 2020 12:53 AM PDT  Lightning strikes sparked new wildfires in northern California on Sunday as the Golden State continued to grapple with a record-breaking heatwave.The rare thunderstorm also exacerbated a huge forest fire that has already forced hundreds from their homes north of Los Angeles.
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| I'm a public school teacher and I want to return to my classroom. But not like this. Posted: 17 Aug 2020 07:47 AM PDT  My school didn't even have enough toilet paper or soap before the pandemic. How will we implement proper measures to protect against the coronavirus?
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| First major Mediterranean cruise liner sets sail since pandemic Posted: 16 Aug 2020 11:24 AM PDT  The first major cruise ship to resume tours of the Mediterranean since the coronavirus pandemic hit Europe set sail from the Italian city of Genoa on Sunday, as the industry tries to regain ground after a bruising hiatus.
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| The US Army is building zombies. (No, not the brain-eating kind.) Posted: 16 Aug 2020 05:00 PM PDT |
| I booked JetBlue's version of basic economy and saw how the airline's new safety policies make it the best value in the sky Posted: 16 Aug 2020 05:47 AM PDT  With JetBlue blocking middle seats until October and waiving all change fees, there's really no reason to pay more for a higher fare.
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| Factbox: Who is speaking at the Democratic National Convention - and why Posted: 17 Aug 2020 03:10 AM PDT  Senator Bernie Sanders, a liberal who fought the centrist Biden for the Democratic nomination, and two-time Republican former presidential candidate John Kasich will tell voters why they both support Biden over Republican President Donald Trump. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, a leading progressive who vexes conservatives and represents a younger generation of voters often at odds with Biden's positions, will speak at the convention on Tuesday.
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| 3 men wanted in connection with fatal bar shooting Posted: 16 Aug 2020 08:00 PM PDT  After they were kicked out of a bar 12 miles away, the two groups ended up fighting at another bar before the shooting.
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| Germans are 'waking up' to anti-Black racism after George Floyd protest Posted: 16 Aug 2020 01:30 AM PDT  "Policing starts with stops and ID'ing but can also end in death," said activist Tahir Della.
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| The couple blamed for an Islamic State attack on their wedding Posted: 17 Aug 2020 12:28 AM PDT  An Islamic State bomb devastated the happiest day of Rehana and Mirwais' life - then they were blamed.
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| Prince Harry faces prospect of hefty tax bill in California, expert warns Posted: 16 Aug 2020 10:57 AM PDT  The Duke of Sussex faces a significant financial hit from the "zealous" US tax authorities, a royal financial expert has said, warning that the couple had not "thought through" the high cost of Californian life. The Duke and Duchess spent more than $14.6m on an impressive estate in Montecito, California, where they plan to live long-term and raise their son, Archie, in relative normality. But once Prince Harry has spent 183 days in the US over a three-year period, he will be considered a resident for tax purposes and liable for tax. David McClure, author of forthcoming book The Queen's True Worth, said: "California is a high tax state and he's likely to get a hit. "I don't think Harry and Meghan have totally thought through the financial consequences of their exit from the Royal Family. "The more their expenditure rises in California, the greater the pressure to generate their own income in more downmarket, commercial deals. That's always been the worry of the palace." Mr McClure said that the Duke would have to hand over much more detail about his personal finances and earnings than he would ever have had to do in the UK. "The US taxman is much more zealous than his UK counterpart and for that reason, Harry will have to watch his step on the income he generates," he added.
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| 'It’s a little nerve-wracking': Lunchtime for students looks different amid COVID-19 Posted: 17 Aug 2020 09:39 AM PDT  In districts open for in-person instruction during the pandemic, some schools offer prepackaged meals and frequently clean the lunchroom.
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| Texas National Guard soldier dies in training at Fort Hood Posted: 16 Aug 2020 11:06 AM PDT |
| There are 2 tropical waves in the Atlantic and both are forecast to turn into depressions Posted: 16 Aug 2020 07:26 AM PDT  Forecasters are watching two fast-paced tropical waves in the Atlantic early Monday that could turn into tropical depressions later this week.
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| Trump will deliver speech on Biden's 'record of failure' hours before DNC acceptance speech Posted: 15 Aug 2020 11:15 AM PDT  Former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, is scheduled to give his acceptance speech during the last act of the mostly-virtual Democratic National Convention next Thursday at 10 p.m. E.T.Just a few hours before, though, President Trump is heading to Old Forge, Pennsylvania, to deliver his own remarks on "Joe Biden's record of failure," the president's re-election campaign announced Saturday.> NEWS: Trump officially set to speak in PA Thursday as counter programming ahead of Biden's DNC acceptance speech pic.twitter.com/y1RN1lhACF> > — Will Steakin (@wsteaks) August 15, 2020The timing is clearly not a coincidence, but the location probably isn't either. Old Forge is just a few miles outside of Scranton, Pennsylvania, which happens to be Biden's birthplace and where he spent part of his childhood before his family moved to Delaware.And, of course, Pennsylvania is a crucial swing state, which Trump narrowly won in 2016 and is in danger of relinquishing to his challenger in November.More stories from theweek.com Trump wants to take America down with him 5 achingly funny cartoons about Trump's post office upheaval Catholic voters' impossible choice
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| Death toll from attack on Mogadishu hotel rises to 16 Posted: 17 Aug 2020 12:30 AM PDT  At least 16 people were killed in an attack on Sunday by al Shabaab on a seaside hotel in Somalia's capital Mogadishu, a government spokesman said, as the Islamist group launched a similar assault on a Somali military base. Sunday's toll includes 11 victims and five assailants, Ismail Mukhtar Omar said in a tweet late on Sunday, adding: "Security forces lost one, 18 people were injured." Militants stormed the high-end Elite Hotel in Lido beach, detonated a car bomb and then opened fire with assault rifles, the latest attack by al Shabaab, which has been battling the country's central government since 2008.
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| Hong Kong leader returns Cambridge fellowship over rights row Posted: 15 Aug 2020 09:40 PM PDT  Hong Kong's leader says she has "returned" her honorary fellowship to a Cambridge college after a row over whether the finance hub's academic freedoms are being suppressed as authorities crack down on pro-democracy opponents.
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| Watch these GIFs reconstruct 7 global historic ancient ruins into how they originally looked in all their glory Posted: 16 Aug 2020 05:00 AM PDT  Expedia commissioned artists to create GIFs showing how seven ancient wonders looked in their prime, and the results are fascinating.
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