| 'Is this a joke?' North Carolina voters are being mailed absentee ballot request forms with Trump's face on them Posted: 22 Aug 2020 04:21 AM PDT  President Trump has criticized mail-in voting for months, baselessly asserting that it will lead to voter fraud.
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| Coast Guard stops two separate migrant boats off the Keys this week Posted: 22 Aug 2020 11:46 AM PDT  Twenty people from Cuba were stopped at sea off the Florida Keys this week in two separate attempts to enter the United States, the Coast Guard said Saturday.
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| A Florida man tried to cash in a $30 lottery ticket from the same convenience store he stole it from, police said Posted: 22 Aug 2020 04:32 PM PDT  The man charged with petit theft and dealing in stolen property, according to local police. "It's safe to say it was not his lucky day," police said.
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| Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny 'under constant surveillance' before suspected poisoning Posted: 23 Aug 2020 03:47 AM PDT  Russian security agents were tracking every move of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in the days before he fell suddenly ill and claim they did not see any attempt to poison him, according to local media. Mr Navalny, Russia's most outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin, was transferred to a German hospital on Saturday and remains unconscious after what supporters say was an attempt on his life in Siberia. Doctors who treated him in a Siberian hospital before he was allowed to travel abroad have rejected claims of poisoning, saying he was suffering from a "metabolic disorder".
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| Tennessee parents forced to sign waiver stating they will not eavesdrop on their children's online lessons Posted: 22 Aug 2020 04:35 AM PDT  This is just the tip of the iceberg, a Tennessee mom who homeschooled her five children warns.
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| New York blocked a wedding with 175 expected guests from being held this weekend Posted: 22 Aug 2020 09:47 AM PDT  A federal appeals court Friday granted New York's attempts to block weddings from having more than 50 people, allowing the court fight to continue.
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| Most Russians Say ‘Hell, No!’ They're Not Taking Putin’s COVID-19 Vaccine Posted: 22 Aug 2020 02:11 AM PDT  MOSCOW— Vladimir Putin has registered the world's first state-approved vaccine against the coronavirus and probably expected congratulations—at least at home—for winning the global race for a vaccine, but even Russians aren't so sure this is a good idea.Epidemiologists, pharmacologists, and doctors in Russia have responded to the alleged breakthrough with skepticism, and they certainly aren't lining up to be injected first.Russian scientists plan to start the final stage of the trials on Monday, planning to begin the mass vaccination in October. Siberian scientists in the city of Novosibirsk are offering thousands of volunteers $1,997 for giving the vaccine a try, Znak news website reports. That is a lot of money for Novosibirsk, where the average monthly wage is $519. Many fear it is dangerous to open the vaccine to the public weeks before the third-stage trials are completed. "It seems that five months for the creation of such an important drug is too short a time," an article in popular newspaper Kommersant noted on Friday. The whole enterprise evokes Soviet-era scientific experimentation which included many great advances but sometimes carried a deadly price tag, from botched vaccines and accidental leaks from weapons labs, to the nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl.The Real Reason Behind Russia's COVID-19 Vaccine HacksTo promote the world-first vaccine, Putin has boasted that one of his own daughters was among the first to volunteer. The authorities want thousands more Russians aged between 18 and 60 to follow suit. The Daily Beast asked Russian doctors, scientists, business leaders, artists, housewives, and pensioners whether they would dare to take the untested, but potentially life-saving vaccine.The president of the Russian Society of Evidence-based Medicine, Dr. Vasily Vlasov, said he had no plans to use the vaccine, nor would he recommend it to his friends or family. He sounded frustrated, explaining that there was no way to examine any of the findings from the first two stages of the trials. "They announced the vaccine was ready; but the creators still have not published the actual results of their research," he said. "Everything is based on some unclear protocols and the longer they delay publishing, the more doubts people will have."The research looked a lot like a secret military operation from the start. The vaccine, created by a team of experts from the Russian Defense Ministry and the Gamaleya Institute, is called Sputnik V, in honor of the Cold War-era space-race winning satellite, which has also given its name to one of Russia's leading state-operated propaganda news sites.Leading epidemiologists and a trade group for medical experiments, the Russian Association of Clinical Trials, publicly urged the Kremlin to delay the vaccine's registration, but they were ignored. Some scientists warned that it was possible Sputnik V could even make the disease more virulent in those who have been vaccinated.The number of Sputnik volunteers remains unclear. Some sources suggest that just 76 people took part in trials, others said hundreds had been given the vaccine—some of them unofficially—before formal registration. Russian epidemiologists have been forced to rely on rumors: "Since the second phase was conducted by the Defense Ministry, everything's kept as a big secret," said Mikhail Favorov, an epidemiologist, who is worried about potential side effects. "Once the vaccine's been administered, there is nothing to be done—that's what is awful.""This vaccine is made of politics," said Alexander Nevzorov, a well-known radio observer. "This is a pharmacological record. Thirty eight people tried it, while the entire world says that 5,000 is not enough—this is both a record and a record of absolute impudence [arrogance?]."Normal life has been returning to Russia after lockdown: local tourism is booming and passengers are crowding onto planes, many without masks on. Moscow's restaurants, gyms and galleries are once again buzzing with visitors, though every day, the capital reports between 600 and 700 new cases. There is no doubt that an effective vaccine is needed here, just as it is in the rest of the world.To try to attract Russians to take the Sputnik V vaccination, the government invited the editor-in-chief of Echo of Moscow, Aleksey Venediktov, to try the vaccine. In a broadcast, he said he had declined. So did Venediktov's deputy, Olga Bychkova: "I don't want to become a guinea pig for these medical experiments," she told The Daily Beast.The Kremlin has high hopes for Sputnik V—imagining that it could capture as much as a quarter of the world's demand for a coronavirus vaccine, which would make $75 billion, according to the business newspaper Vedomosti.Denis Logunov, one of the Russian vaccine's creators, explained that the accelerated registration was needed "so that people from the risk group could participate in the study." That explanation brought no comfort to people with family members in at-risk groups. "My son, a scientist researching COVID, will not let me get vaccinated with Sputnik V, since the reaction could poison me," said Olga Frolova, a 67-year old pensioner.Many feel Russia should at least wait until some of the early volunteers have been exposed to the coronavirus and the effectiveness of the vaccine is properly tested. One of Lukoil's top managers, Vasily Zubakin, had a simple explanation for his decision to wait: "Being in the at-risk group at 61, I am simply afraid," he said.There is a deep-rooted public respect for doctors and scientists in Russia. Research conducted by the Higher School of Economics a few years ago asked what occupations people personally respected, and 41 percent named doctors as the most respected professionals. Yet for generations, authorities made doctors cover up a record of bad side effects to vaccines in the Soviet Union. "For decades, the Soviet government kept post-vaccine medical complications a secret. It wasn't until 1998 that the Russian Health Ministry drew up compensation laws," Vlasov told The Daily Beast. "I remember children suffering from cysts, and infected bones after Soviet vaccination against TB. We still have many questions about coronavirus."Among the Moscow elite, pop stars, film directors, radio and TV presenters all fear the impact of the coronavirus on their work. Theaters, which are at the heart of Russia's cultural life, are about to open their doors for the new season.Keeping the virus at bay is crucial for thousands in the entertainment industry, but many remain skeptical. "For now both me and all my friends feel doubtful about the creation of this vaccine, the fuss around it," popular comedian and choreographer, Yekaterina Varnava, told The Daily Beast. "At least eight months of trials should pass before it truly becomes real, legit; it's unclear how they suddenly made it work."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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| 'I would listen to the scientists': Biden willing to shut US down again to stop coronavirus Posted: 23 Aug 2020 03:41 AM PDT  Joe Biden said he would not hesitate to shut down the country again if scientists recommended the measure to stop the spread of the coronavirus.In his first joint interview with running mate Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee criticised his opponent Donald Trump's rush to reopen after a nationwide lockdown as a "fundamental flaw" in his handling of the pandemic.
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| Police arrest 14 after Portland rocked by clashes between demonstrators Posted: 23 Aug 2020 01:08 AM PDT  Demonstrations against racism and police brutality have swept the United States since the death in May of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Earlier on Saturday there were scuffles in downtown Portland between anti-racism protesters and right-wing demonstrators.
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| Doctors are finding striking similarities between chronic fatigue syndrome and long-term coronavirus symptoms Posted: 22 Aug 2020 05:56 AM PDT  More research into the similarities between the coronavirus' lasting consequences and chronic fatigue could be critical for patients.
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| A Georgia police officer was fired after a viral TikTok showed him tasing a Black woman outside her home Posted: 22 Aug 2020 11:39 AM PDT  Michael Oxford, who had been a police officer since February 2019, was fired for violating policy after a video showed him tasing an unarmed woman.
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| Russian opposition leader Navalny lands in Berlin for medical treatment Posted: 21 Aug 2020 07:20 PM PDT  Navalny fell ill on board a flight to Moscow from Tomsk on Thursday.
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| 3 large corrals approved for western US wild horse roundups Posted: 21 Aug 2020 01:40 PM PDT  The federal Bureau of Land Management has approved construction of three new corrals to hold more than 8,000 wild horses captured on federal rangeland to accelerate horse roundups slowed by a lack of space in existing holding pens. The bureau issued final decisions on environmental assessments of the plans this week for the pens in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah. The pens are the next step in plans announced last year by the administration of President Donald Trump to speed up the capture of 130,000 wild horses over 10 years at an estimated cost of $1 billion.
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| California fires spread, fouling air and spurring evacuations Posted: 21 Aug 2020 11:53 AM PDT  Thick smoke blanketed large areas of central and northern California on Friday as more people fled some of the biggest fires in the state's history which have raged largely uncontrolled through the week.
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| Coca-Cola or 'bottled poison'? Mexico finds a COVID-19 villain in big soda Posted: 23 Aug 2020 06:37 AM PDT  Mexican leaders link rampant Coca-Cola consumption to COVID-19 deaths, blaming sugar for causing comorbidities such as obesity and diabetes.
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| An exclusive park in the heart of Silicon Valley faces a racial justice reckoning Posted: 23 Aug 2020 03:00 AM PDT  A battle over access to the park in the ritzy town of Palo Alto, just miles from the headquarters of Apple and Google, has boiled over in recent weeks.
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| Cosmetic surgery and super yachts: Inside the 'Build The Wall' scheme that led to Steve Bannon's arrest Posted: 22 Aug 2020 10:00 AM PDT  Relaxed and brimming with bravado, Steve Bannon sat back in his seat, and smiled his wolfish grin at the camera. "We're off the coast of Saint-Tropez in southern France, on the Mediterranean," he said. "We're on a million-dollar yacht – Brian Kolfage, he took all that money from 'Build the Wall.'" He laughed, chummily slapping Mr Kolfage, triple-amputee Iraq veteran, on the shoulder. It was a joke, of course. Fast forward just over a year, and, prosecutors say, that joke cut close to the bone. Mr Bannon was arrested on Thursday - on a $28 million yacht, owned by a fugitive Chinese billionaire - and charged with taking the money from We Build the Wall, the crowdfunding group he headed. Mr Kolfage, 38, was also arrested at his home in Miramar Beach, Florida; so too were Andrew Badolato, 56, a venture capitalist from Sarasota, Florida; and Timothy Shea, 49, of Castle Rock, Colorado. The three men - Mr Kolfage, Mr Badolato and Mr Shea - were united by their admiration for President Donald Trump, whose election campaign was run from August 2016 by Mr Bannon.
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| Majority of Republicans believe US death toll of 170,000 is 'acceptable', poll finds Posted: 23 Aug 2020 07:23 AM PDT  A majority of Republicans surveyed in a national poll believe the number of deaths from the coronavirus is "acceptable," and hold positive views of the US response to the pandemic.The new poll showed a significant partisan divide over how each party sees the health emergency, which is killing some 1,000 Americans every day.
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| Chad Wolf’s White Savior Charade Imperils Homeland Security Posted: 22 Aug 2020 02:11 AM PDT  The acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Chad Wolf, may not have lawful authority to be in the role he's currently using to fight what he would like you to believe is an apocalyptic battle against the forces of evil: Antiracist protesters, the American Civil Liberties Union, and investigative journalists. "After 80+ straight nights of violence, Portland clearly remains a city in crisis," Wolf said in his latest melodramatic tweet on Thursday. That day, a federal judge extended an order barring federal officers from using force, threats and dispersal orders against journalists and legal observers documenting demonstrations in Portland. Earlier in the month, the ACLU called to dismantle DHS after its agents tear-gassed mostly peaceful protesters and snatched them off the streets in unmarked vans. Wolf criticized the ACLU in Newsweek and doubled down on his dystopian narrative: "Americans across the country have watched in horror as lawless criminals sack city after city," he wrote.Before the specters of the ACLU and Black Lives Matter haunted Wolf, there was Buzzfeed's Hamed Aleaziz, one of the nation's top immigration reporters. Last month, he published an investigation showing many DHS employees were worried the show of force in Portland could harm their broader homeland security mission. Local leaders had asked DHS agents to leave the city after they escalated conflicts in the street. One DHS employee called their deployment "disturbing." Another said it was "blatantly unconstitutional." "Deep State alive," Wolf grumbled in an email about Aleaziz's investigation. "He is not a real journalist." Aleaziz, who is very much a real journalist, obtained a copy of that email and tweeted it out. It wasn't the first time Wolf took a break from his important duties to air grievances about journalists. On August 10, Wolf sent a barrage of unsolicited text messages in response to an article I published in The Nation to let me know that I was not a real journalist. My piece was about how Trump's senior advisor Stephen Miller turned DHS into a political weapon for Trump. "I believed you to be unbiased—an actual reporter. I was wrong. I want [sic] make that mistake again," Wolf said in a string of texts with a litany of complaints of inaccuracies in my piece (one of which I concluded was fair, and wrote a correction). Each of his messages began with "OTR," shorthand for "off the record." As Wolf well knows, "OTR" does not function like a spell; unsolicited quotes from public figures are fair game, according to the standards that govern journalistic ethics. I reminded Wolf of this after he insisted his messages were off the record. "We are deciding how to officially respond," he wrote.No official response has come. Wolf became distracted, I suppose, by a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report concluding four days later that he is in his position illegally. Ken Cuccinelli, the acting deputy secretary, is also in his post illegally, per the GAO. When Cuccinelli saw Pulitzer-winning Los Angeles Times reporter Molly O'Toole defend Aleaziz's investigative reporting on Twitter, he decided to get in on the brawl. "Ms. O'Toole, if you wouldn't mind answering a somewhat different question: do you think objectivity is part of being a journalist?" He tagged her, to make sure she saw it. It is not surprising that illegal DHS leaders are taking time out of their days to partake in online trolling and anger-texting. Most top positions at DHS are vacant or held by people in acting capacity, in other words, political tools for Trump. As I show in my book Hatemonger, from Day One in the White House, Trump's senior adviser Miller steamrolled officials into submission, narrowing the focus of DHS—with its mandate to protect Americans from terrorism, cyberwarfare, pandemics and more—into a tool laser-focused on his obsession: keeping out families from Latin America and Africa. Wolf's Twitter photo reflects this narrowed focus. The former lobbyist wears designer stubble and gazes out at the U.S.-Mexico border wall, reflected on his aviator sunglasses in a helicopter. He looks like an actor playing a part in a film, a hybrid of Wild Wild West and Independence Day.During Wolf's first official visit to the border last November, he endorsed a fraudulent border wall scheme led by Steve Bannon and others who were arrested this month on charges of defrauding the project's donors of hundreds of thousands of dollars. "I welcome all that want to be part of the solution," Wolf said at the time."Under Trump, the Department of Homeland Security has become the Department of Border Enforcement," David Lapan, a former DHS official in the Trump administration and a retired Marine colonel, told me for my book.Several former and current Homeland Security officials said the administration's tunnel vision for photo ops and limiting immigration has left America more vulnerable to real threats. Miles Taylor, a former chief of staff at DHS, published an op-ed in the Washington Post this month confirming this, saying DHS has become "a tool for his [Trump's] political benefit" and "dangerously chaotic." While Wolf is polishing breathless op-eds, venting at journalists on his phone, or attacking Trump's critics on Fox News in overwrought pronouncements, right-wing extremists are plotting civil war, imagining themselves on a mission to save the United States, as Wolf and Miller do. Right-wing extremists have been responsible for a majority of terrorist attacks and plots in the U.S. since the 1990s, and more than 90 percent of attacks and plots between January 1 and May 8 of this year.I've spent a lot of time in the field with DHS agents and officers who have no interest in Wolf's political theatre or Cuccinelli's habit of retweeting the right-wing provocateur Andy Ngo, who has been repeatedly accused of provoking violence. Many believe in the importance of the department's whole mission. And there are violent left-wing protesters. But they're not the majority, as Wolf would like you to believe. I've covered the excesses of left-wing radicals. When an exodus of Central Americans arrived in late 2018 and early 2019, activists from the U.S.-based group By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) distributed flyers urging them to storm the border, as I reported in Hatemonger. When some families did approach the border en masse, they were tear-gassed, and the spectacle was weaponized by Trump to conjure an "invasion."The left-wing activists saw themselves as saviors—playing a central role in a grand drama where they could defeat Trump with a show of power using families as their pawns. In the end, they damaged the cause of the families. Right-wing militias gathered at the border, fantasizing about filling the bodies of "invaders" with bullets.Now, DHS is led by right-wing radicals whose excesses are inflicting damage to their own cause. Wolf is using agents and officers as pawns in a dangerous game that distracts from real threats, such as the coronavirus, and breathes life into extremism. But Wolf recently told Fox: "We're not going to abdicate our mission."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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| Mayoral candidate stages kidnapping on Facebook in ‘plot to gain votes,’ SC cops say Posted: 21 Aug 2020 10:10 AM PDT  Sabrina Belcher is one of six candidates running for mayor of Sumter, South Carolina.
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| White House Rose Garden set for first lady speech Posted: 22 Aug 2020 12:52 PM PDT  The White House Rose Garden has been spruced up in time for its moment in the campaign spotlight. First lady Melania Trump will deliver her Republican National Convention speech Tuesday night from the garden. (Aug. 22)
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| Suspect in Portland Beating Turns Himself in Posted: 21 Aug 2020 01:21 PM PDT  The suspect in the beating of a truck driver in downtown Portland turned himself in Friday morning, police said.Marquise Love, 25, turned himself into police and is being held on $260,000 bail at Multnomah County Detention Center. He is accused of felony assault, coercion, and rioting."I am pleased the suspect in this case turned himself in and appreciate all of the efforts to facilitate this safe resolution," Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell said in a statement on Friday.A crowd of rioters in downtown Portland beat a man unconscious Sunday night after dragging him from his truck, video footage of the incident shows. Police on Tuesday identified Love as the man who delivered a running kick to the head from behind to the man, identified by his family as Adam Haner, as he sat in the street already beaten by the rioters.The crowd surrounded Haner's white truck around 10:30 p.m. near where he crashed into a light pole downtown. At least one individual punched him as he sat inside before he was pulled out of the vehicle. The rioters forced him to sit in the street as he tried to answer a call from his wife.One man in the crowd wearing a "security" vest, allegedly Love, delivered a kick to his head that appeared to knock him out cold and caused his head to bleed after it hit the street. Haner was transported to the hospital.Video clips on social media appear to show the moments just before the attack, when the man attempted to help a person the crowd had previously robbed and beaten.Later, police deployed a large law enforcement response and encountered "a hostile crowd."Police called on Love to turn himself in. Haner has since been released from the hospital and is recovering from multiple serious injuries at home.The incident, which has attracted international attention, has prompted harsh criticism of Portland government officials, including Democratic Mayor Ted Wheeler.By Friday afternoon, more than 3,800 people had donated over $137,000 to a fundraiser for Haner set up by his brother.
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| Confusion reigns as Canada turns away American students Posted: 22 Aug 2020 04:00 AM PDT  Good grades and up-to-date paperwork are no guarantee of admission for international students headed to Canada.
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| Hospital staff members say they can't get coronavirus tests, are forced to reuse PPE Posted: 22 Aug 2020 01:43 AM PDT  "It was chaos and it continues to be very chaotic," a union leader said, calling on Gov. Gavin Newsom to issue new COVID-19 safety rules for hospitals.
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| TikTok employees have started referring to Trump's deadline to ban the app as 'D-Day' over fears of catastrophic job losses Posted: 21 Aug 2020 11:57 AM PDT  Through the uncertainty, TikTok has grown its US operations to 1,500 employees, and has committed to creating 10,000 jobs by 2023.
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| 'Melting faster and faster': Greenland lost 1 million tonnes of ice for each minute of 2019 Posted: 22 Aug 2020 01:41 PM PDT  High temperatures saw Greenland lose enough ice to cover the US state of California in more than four feet of water in 2019 alone, a study which suggests the island lost a million tonnes of ice for every minute of the year has said.After two years in which the land masses' summer ice melt had been negligible, satellite measurements have suggested an excessively hot 2019 saw the loss of 586 billion tons of ice melt from the island.
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| Pakistan issues orders enforcing UN sanctions on Taliban Posted: 22 Aug 2020 02:48 AM PDT  Pakistan has issued sweeping orders enforcing financial sanctions against Afghanistan's Taliban, just as the militant group is in the midst of a U.S.-led peace process in the neighboring country. Pakistan's foreign ministry in a statement late on Saturday said the sanctions are not new but rather are laid out in a 2015 U.N. regulations. The orders, which were issued on Tuesday, enforce the U.N. regulations and are issued routinely, the statement said.
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| ‘Deserves No Mercy’: Courtroom Bursts Into Applause as Golden State Killer Is Sentenced Posted: 21 Aug 2020 10:24 AM PDT  Kris Pedretti was a "normal 15-year-old kid" before Joseph DeAngelo entered her California bedroom just before Christmas in 1976. "By the time that night came to an end, my world changed forever," she said in a Sacramento County courtroom this week, describing how she was bound, gagged, and raped that winter night. "I sang 'Jesus Loves Me' in my head as I waited—waited to die."Pedretti, now 59, was one of several women who DeAngelo terrorized during the '70s and '80s—and among more than three dozen survivors and family members of victims who gave emotional statements this week while demanding a maximum sentence against the 74-year-old man known as the Golden State Killer.Inside Michelle McNamara's Obsessive Hunt for the Golden State Killer"You will forever be known as a repulsive coward who hid behind a mask of evil. The devil can keep you company in your prison cell as he gnaws away at whatever soul you have left, at whatever life you have left," she said. On Friday, after nearly four decades, 13 grisly murders, and nearly 50 rapes across California, DeAngelo, deemed one of the nation's worst serial predators, was sentenced to life in prison without parole. "The defendant deserves no mercy," Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael Bowman said as he handed DeAngelo 11 consecutive life sentences without possibility of parole, on top of another life sentence with eight additional years."I could not help but wonder, what were you thinking?" Bowman said, adding that he was moved by the "courage and strength" of the victims who spoke out, qualities he said DeAngelo lacked.The courtroom burst into applause twice as DeAngelo was sentenced. The 74-year-old killer remained emotionless but, moments earlier, spoke publicly for the first time with a single-sentence statement. "I sat and listened to each of your statements, every one of them, and I'm sorry to everyone that I hurt," he said.> BREAKING: Wow! Golden State Killer makes statement to victims and turns to crowd. Apologizes to them@sfchronicle pic.twitter.com/IRDW25hhFp> > — Matthias Gafni (@mgafni) August 21, 2020A three-day sentencing hearing came two months after DeAngelo pleaded guilty to 13 murders and 13 rape-related charges for crimes between 1975 and 1986. As part of a plea agreement that spared him the death penalty, the former police officer also publicly admitted to dozens more sexual assaults for which the statute of limitations had expired."The nightmare has ended. He is the one forever alone in the dark," Carol Daly, one of the original detectives assigned to the case in Sacramento, said in a statement on behalf of victim Cathy Rogers.In the earlier stages of his criminal career, DeAngelo was identified by several monikers, including the East Area Rapist, the Original Night Stalker, and the Visalia rapist. Years later, when police departments across California belatedly began linking hundreds of chilling incidents through DNA and a similarities in modus operandi, the perpetrator became known as Golden State Killer.The case went unsolved until 2018, when investigators used DNA tracking through a free genealogy database.DeAngelo's crimes began in Visalia in 1973 with multiple burglaries and the fatal shooting of journalism professor Claude Snelling, who confronted DeAngelo as he ransacked Snelling's home. From 1976, he began randomly sexually assaulting women in their homes in the East Bay Area region of California near Sacramento. It escalated to the murder of three people who had tried to interfere with his assaults. The same person later began attacking women 400 miles away in Southern California, resulting in ten murders. The attacks mysteriously ended in 1986.Dolly Kreis, the mother of rape victim Debbie Strauss, who died in 2016, said on Thursday, "You should be sent to the toughest prison in California. What a despicable piece of humanity you are."The Golden State Killer, The Cleveland Stranger, and The Gardner Among The Serial Killers Caught This DecadeAs victims described in searing detail the violence that left them afraid and traumatized, members inside the Sacramento County courtroom—and even the judge—wiped tears from their eyes. DeAngelo, who wore a white surgical mask and orange jumpsuit during the hearings, did not respond to any of the victims' testimonies, according to local reports. Susan Peterson, who was attacked by DeAngelo on July 17, 1976, when she was 16, testified that the attack left a "lifelong emotional scar." "Although this emotional scar doesn't surface much during the day, after so many years it comes back like clockwork every night when my head hits the pillow," she said, according to KCRA. She added it wasn't until she was 58, and DeAngelo was behind bars, that her "subconscious let me relax a little bit."Peggy Frink, Peterson's sister, who was also raped by DeAngelo after he tied up Susan, said that over the last 42 years she had looked over her shoulder "when someone approaches me from behind." "I still sleep with two phones and the keys on the bed when my husband is away. And I still check windows and doors multiple times before going to bed when I am alone," she said. "I still don't feel safe inside a locked house."According to the FBI, the Golden State Killer would prowl neighborhoods, often casing homes well in advance before he gained entry "by prying open a window or door while [victims] slept." After initially targeting women alone, he progressed to targeting couples. Wearing a ski mask, he would often tie up the male, then assault the female. Before long, he progressed to killing people, mostly people who had either witnessed or tried to intervene in his assaults.Patton Oswalt: Golden State Killer Deserves a Fate Worse Than DeathAn investigation by the Los Angeles Times found that more than 106 victims were bound, tortured, raped, or killed during the Golden State Killer's spree.Elizabeth Hupp, who witnessed DeAngelo fatally shoot her father Claude Snelling, recounted the Sept. 11, 1975 incident to the court on Tuesday. She said her father "caught him twice peering in my bedroom window when he came home from teaching night school, and tried to chase him down but wasn't able to catch him," according to ABC News.Hupp, who was 16 at the time, said she was awakened by an intruder in a ski mask who pointed a gun at her head before telling her "he was taking me with him and if I made any noise he would kill me."But as DeAngelo dragged her out of the house, the gun still pointed at her head, her dad charged at the intruder. Hupp said DeAngelo "fired two shots" at her father before kicking the teenager in the face and running off. DeAngelo was later dubbed the Visalia rapist for a string of similar incidents."Knowing that my dad's murderer was never caught... left us all feeling very vulnerable," Hupp said. "Since I was the only living witness... there was a chance he could come after me. The police gave us extra security and patrolled our neighborhood... but I still lived in fear.""DeAngelo was able to live a normal life with his family for all those years while my family and I could not be with my dad," she added. "I am so thankful that he will at least spend the rest of his miserable life in prison."Three years later, married couple Kate Maggiore, 20, and Brian Maggiore, 21, were shot dead when DeAngelo confronted them as they walked their dog through the Rancho Cordova neighborhood in Sacramento."You no longer live in the shadows, we all know who you are," Ken Smith, Kate's brother, said in court after recounting the Feb. 2, 1978 incident. "You lurked in the dark so you could prey on innocent victims. Well, now you are prey, DeAngelo, and you can look over your shoulder the rest of your life."Sacramento attorney Sharon Huddle, who married DeAngelo in 1973, broke her silence on Thursday afternoon in a statement submitted to the court describing how her ex-husband's actions had "a devastating and pervasive" effect on her life."I now live every day with the knowledge of how he attacked and severely damaged hundreds of innocent people's lives and murdered 13 innocent people who were loved and have now been missed for 40 years or more," she wrote in the statement in which she never mentions DeAngelo's name, according to CNN. "I have lost the ability to trust people. I trusted the defendant when he told me he had to work, or was going pheasant hunting, or going to visit his parents' hundreds of miles away. When I was not around I trusted he was doing what he told me he was doing."DeAngelo's lawyers read several statements from family members on Friday, all describing DeAngelo as a "loving" person. They spoke of being "crushed" and dumbfounded by his secret past as a serial killer and rapist.DeAngelo's fiancé from the '70s, Bonnie Ueltzen, whose name he sometimes uttered as he attacked women, also had a statement read out through a victim as she was not permitted to address the court."If Bonnie were able to speak, Joe, she would want you to know that as just a teenager 50 years ago, she broke her engagement to you when she realized you had become manipulative and abusive," the statement said. "When you thought you could kidnap her and force her to marry you, even a gun pointed at her face could not make her choose you."Several victims testified that, since DeAngelo's 2018 arrest, they have been able breathe, knowing the "bogeyman" who lingered in the shadows is finally getting justice. "Finally the end of this trauma is here," Peggy Frink said. "He's a horrible man and none of us have to worry about him anymore."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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| Indian lawyer, convicted by Supreme Court over tweets, faces deadline Posted: 23 Aug 2020 12:28 AM PDT  One of India's most prominent lawyers faces a Monday deadline to apologise to the Supreme Court or risk jail in a case testing the judiciary's openness to criticism and sparking a debate on freedom of speech in the world's largest democracy. Prashant Bhushan, 63, was found guilty of criminal contempt for attempting "to scandalize the entire institution" with Twitter posts depicting the chief justice on a motorcycle while the court's work was curtailed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and criticising previous top judges.
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| Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong reveals fear of arrest Posted: 23 Aug 2020 08:12 AM PDT  Pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong told Sunday how he constantly feared arrest following the imposition of a new security law in Hong Kong, in a virtual appearance at British book festival.
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| US special forces veteran arrested for passing secrets to Russia Posted: 21 Aug 2020 02:45 PM PDT  Former Captain Peter Debbins is charged with passing secrets to Russian military intelligence.
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| QAnon conspiracy theorists among 100 demonstrators at Miami child sex trafficking rally Posted: 23 Aug 2020 04:10 AM PDT  Supporters of the QAnon conspiracy theory were among the more than 100 people who marched in downtown Miami on Saturday as part of a series of rallies stretching across Florida ostensibly organized to raise awareness about child sex trafficking.
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| Sinabung volcano spews new burst of hot ash Posted: 23 Aug 2020 01:18 AM PDT  Villagers advised to stay three miles from the crater's mouth and be aware of lava.
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| Newt Gingrich explains why he's predicting the collapse of the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris ticket Posted: 22 Aug 2020 05:33 PM PDT  Fox News contributor Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the House, joins Jesse Watters on 'Watters' World.'
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| Fact check: DNC didn't leave out 'under God' from the Pledge of Allegiance Posted: 22 Aug 2020 11:23 AM PDT  Two meetings of Democrats did not recite the phrase "under God" when saying the pledge. It's partly false to say DNC omitted or took out the clause.
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| The House just passed a bill to provide $25 billion in emergency funding to USPS, but the White House has already threatened to veto it Posted: 22 Aug 2020 03:50 PM PDT  It's unlikely that the Senate will consider the bill that would also roll back some of the postmaster general's controversial cost-cutting moves.
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| Emails Show Georgia School District Asked Students to Disinfect Classrooms for Volunteer Hours Posted: 22 Aug 2020 02:10 AM PDT  The email from the principal had a lighthearted, friendly tone, but the news she delivered was alarming: Three more students at Creekview High School in Canton, Georgia, had tested positive for the coronavirus—the fourth such letter sent to parents that week. That out of the way, she then moved on to what she called a "distraction," noting that the high school volleyball team would be playing in a tournament the next day. "Come to CVHS to see our lady Grizzlies play at 9:00 10:00 or 12:30," she wrote. "Go Grizzlies!"Two days later, after 25 students tested positive and more than a quarter of the student body was placed in quarantine, the entire school was shut down.In the three weeks since school started in Cherokee County, Georgia, three of the district's six high schools have temporarily shuttered due to coronavirus outbreaks. As of Friday, 2,000 of the 42,000 students in the district were in quarantine.But the county—once a heart of the Cherokee Nation, now a bastion of support for Donald Trump—has shown no sign of suspending in-person education or beefing up its policy of encouraging but not requiring face masks.Many parents and teachers in the district—where one school wanted students to disinfect classrooms—say they are terrified of what will happen if the status quo is allowed to continue. "I kind of feel like Cherokee County has been the guinea pig for the state, or the nation," said Meg Du Plooy, a mother of two Cherokee County students. "Just an experiment to see what happens if we open all the schools and have everyone come back in."Inside COVID U: Hoax Parties, Pissed Roomies, and Canceled ClassesAt a school board meeting Thursday, Superintendent Brian Hightower suggested for the first time that the now-shuttered high schools may move to a "hybrid model" in which students attend school in-person only a few days a week."Right now we've got a few high schools where it's so hot—or there's such a cluster that seems to be following one school—that we're not sure when we can get them open," he said. "We want something better than coming, reporting, popping in, popping out," he added. "We want to look at some alternatives, and we think these could be three great lab situations for us to utilize that."Parents first started to worry this spring, when the district allowed graduation to take place in-person, inside a church auditorium. (Photos that were circulated among parents and obtained by The Daily Beast show school board member Kelly Poole standing with the graduates onstage, her mask folded in her hands.) But the real trouble started when the school announced its reopening plan. In an 85-page document—sent to teachers and parents one day before it was to be voted on—the district said it would not be pushing back the start of the school year or requiring masks in its classrooms. Despite the short notice, 6,000 people watched the school board meeting online, and a contentious question-and-answer session followed. Directly after, the board voted unanimously to approve the plan. Things only got worse from there. Though families were given the option to continue learning remotely, approximately 75 percent opted for in-person learning, meaning hallways and common areas were crowded and class sizes could not be meaningfully reduced. A viral photo taken the first day of classes at Sequoyah High School showed dozens of students crammed together for a photo, none of them in masks. The photo was shared on—and later removed from—the school's official Instagram account.> TAKE A LOOK: 2 Cherokee Co. Schools shared pictures of some students during their first day back in school. No social distancing, and very few masks, if any. I've received word that some teachers don't feel comfortable but aren't sure what to do. Is this safe? Thoughts? @cbs46 pic.twitter.com/EIvA1fNBVt> > — Iyani Lenice CBS46 (@iyanilenicetv) August 3, 2020Teachers who spoke to The Daily Beast said the few promises the district did make have not been fully kept. Bell schedules at some schools have not been staggered as planned, meaning teachers are given five minutes to disinfect their classrooms before the next class arrives. Despite assurances that additional cleaning would take place overnight, one teacher said she returned to her classroom after a "deep clean" to find the desktops had not been washed. One school even offered volunteer hours to students who spent 15 minutes wiping down desks after school, according to emails reviewed by The Daily Beast. (The offer was later retracted.)Whatever additional cleaning does take place, these teachers said, happens largely after hours, when both they and their students are out of the building."For two weeks, pretty much all that got done in our rooms was emptying the trash—or at least that's what we were able to notice," said one teacher, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of losing her job. "In a pandemic, our classrooms need more than just the trash cans emptied."In an email to The Daily Beast, CCSD's Chief Communications Officer Barbara Jacoby said the district "continuously review[s] protocols to determine additional improvements" and had "implemented changes to initial protocols as a result of feedback," including the provision of face shields to teachers who wanted additional protection.Jacoby said teachers were not required to clean their rooms between classes, and that cleaning supplies were provided so that teachers could wipe down frequently used surfaces "if they so choose." She added that the district had spent an additional $4 million on safety supplies and that a "certified disinfection specialist" was placed on the custodial team at every school to focus on disinfection of high-touch areas. (Teachers interviewed by The Daily Beast said this mainly looked like someone walking around cleaning doorknobs.) The deep-cleaning process, Jacoby said, "includes disinfectant misting and which takes place after school hours."Schools Touted by DeSantis Now in a Quarantine NightmareA number of teachers did commend their schools for such precautions as halving the number of students in each lunch period, providing extra hand sanitizer and cleaning supplies, and making the hallways one-way. But many of them also said they felt largely unsupported by the district as a whole."My administration themselves have been great at trying to keep us safe," said one teacher, who also requested anonymity for fear of retaliation. "But it seems like the people at the district level, they don't seem to care if we live or die."Some of this feeling stems from communications from the district itself. In one email sent to teachers at the beginning of the school year and reviewed by The Daily Beast, Superintendent Brian Hightower told teachers who were unhappy with facets of the reopening plan to "reflect on the best direction forward for you in your role with [the district]"—a comment some teachers saw as a threat to their employment. Hightower later apologized for the message in another email, writing that he "should have done a much better job of sharing my appreciation for both your efforts and concerns as it relates to our school reopening."In a Q&A document posted online, one parent noted that some teachers' social media posts made it seem like they were "afraid to return to work," and worried that they would treat their children differently if they opted for face-to-face learning."We apologize, as a school district, if a teacher has argued with you on social media or made you otherwise not have confidence in their ability to effectively teach your child," the district responded, not addressing the comment about teachers' fears. "All teachers are expected to follow our social media guidelines for employees, which make clear this should not occur online."The message from the district, one teacher said, "has been loud and clear: Shut up and do your job." Jacoby said teachers were encouraged to share safety concerns with principals or through an anonymous tip line.Parents who disagree with the district—a group of largely liberal residents in a town that went 73 percent for Trump in 2016—said they feel pressured to stay silent. In the wake of the decision to reopen schools, dozens of parents turned out to a rally to support in-person learning without a mask mandate. One participant arrived with signs promoting the outlandish conspiracy theory that the effects of the virus are being exaggerated to make Trump look bad. "Thank you CCSD! endtheelectioninfection," one sign read."Did you know that the coronavirus has a patent? Why is the government lying to us?" read a second, referring to another roundly debunked conspiracy theory.A more than 6,000-member "CCSD Positivity Vibes" group has formed on Facebook, the stated purpose of which is to support students and staff but which some parents say is being used to stifle dissent. (Several school board members belong to the group and post occasionally.) Lea Dearing, an adminisrator of the Facebook group, didn't anticipate it would take off like it has. "It was not created for the purpose of pledging support to the reopening plan," she told The Daily Beast. "It was created after the reopening plan was announced when we realized that our teachers and school staff and bus drivers were under extreme stress and needed extra support. No matter their personal views (and those vary widely) they were going to be back in the schools."When the district announced that Creekview would be shutting down, one member encouraged others to comment on the Facebook post and "flood the comment section with love." The announcement now has more than 750 comments, several of them comparing the fatality rates of the coronavirus to the flu and spreading misinformation about masks."That can be a lot to handle when you're progressive in this area," said Miranda Wicker, a former Cherokee County school teacher who has been vocal about her concerns with the reopening plan. "It's very hard to speak out in that environment and be heard, because there's just mass amounts of people so quick to shut you down."Both teachers and parents said they felt the conservative bent of the town had influenced the school board's decision to reopen without a mask mandate. The board is entirely Republican, and almost half of them—including the board chair—are up for re-election again this year.But at least one teacher was equally worried about how the parents' views influenced their children."The kids feel like they're invincible," she said. "Just hearing them talk and it's like, everybody's going to get it anyway and life goes on."She added, "It doesn't hit home until the reality is right in front of their face."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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| New Zealand mosque shooter arrives in Christchurch for sentencing Posted: 23 Aug 2020 03:22 AM PDT  The suspected white supremacist who killed 51 Muslim worshippers last year, a massacre that prompted a global campaign to stamp out online hate, arrived in Christchurch on Sunday ahead of sentencing hearings. Brenton Tarrant disembarked a New Zealand air force plane at Christchurch Airport on Sunday afternoon, wearing a protective vest and helmet and escorted by armed officers, before being directed into the back of a white van, television footage showed. Tarrant was transported to Christchurch, the city where the shootings occurred, from Auckland Prison at Paremoremo, the New Zealand Herald reported.
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| EU agrees to cut taxes on US lobsters in modest trade pact Posted: 21 Aug 2020 11:09 AM PDT  Maine lobsters should soon be returning to European pots under a modest trade agreement announced Friday. In a big win for Maine's beleaguered lobster industry, the European Union agreed to drop its 8% tariff on U.S. lobsters for the next five years and to work to make the move permanent. U.S. lobster imports to the EU came to about $111 million in 2017 before falling off in the face of rising tensions between the trading partners and an EU trade agreement with Canada that favored Canadian lobster.
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| California wildfires: Dramatic footage shows helicopter rescue of firefighters surrounded by blazes Posted: 23 Aug 2020 05:23 AM PDT  The dramatic rescue of two firefighters who had become trapped by deadly wildfires in California can be seen in footage that highlights the danger the blazes pose.The Marin County Fire Department requested the urgent rescue of the firefighters who had become trapped on a ridgeline at Point Reyes National Seashore and were unable to make it out of the path of the advancing inferno at 8.15pm local time on Friday.
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| Turkey's maritime doctrine author has dire warning for France Posted: 22 Aug 2020 09:24 PM PDT  The father of Turkey's controversial new maritime doctrine told AFP that France's decision to send warships to help Greece out in its Mediterranean standoff with Ankara was adding "fuel to the fire".
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| A dispute on the Overseas Highway ended up with a bullet in the bumper, deputies say Posted: 21 Aug 2020 02:41 PM PDT  A Florida Keys man opened fire on a car in a road rage incident on U.S. 1 in Key Largo Thursday evening, according to the Monroe County Sheriff's Office.
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| South Korea announces unprecedented restrictions to curb spread of Covid-19 Posted: 21 Aug 2020 10:42 PM PDT  South Korea is banning large gatherings, shutting nightspots and churches and removing fans from professional sports in unprecedented restrictions announced on Saturday as it battles the spread of the coronavirus. Health Minister Park Neung-hoo announced the steps shortly after the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 332 new cases in the ninth straight day of triple-digit increases. The national caseload is now at 17,002, including 309 deaths. While most of the new cases came from the densely populated Seoul metropolitan area, which has been at the centre of the viral surge in recent weeks, infections were also reported in practically every major city and town, raising concerns that transmissions are slipping out of control. The government has already imposed elevated social distancing measures in Seoul this week after resisted them for months out of economic concerns. "We are now in a very dangerous situation that could trigger a massive nationwide spread of Covid-19," Mr Park said.
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| It's crucial to get a flu shot this year amid the coronavirus pandemic, doctors say Posted: 23 Aug 2020 10:07 AM PDT  With the coronavirus pandemic in the mix, this is a "critical year" for people to get the seasonal flu vaccine, CDC director and other experts say.
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| Four years later, Republican senators admit, "yes, Trump conspired with the Russians" Posted: 22 Aug 2020 04:29 AM PDT  The Trump-Putin election scheming is laid out in the Republican-led Intelligence Committee's 1,000-page report
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| Health officials in 3 states have traced new COVID-19 cases to the Sturgis motorcycle rally where hundreds of thousands of bikers gathered Posted: 22 Aug 2020 11:43 AM PDT  Phone-location data revealed that visitors came to Sturgis from all parts of the US, including states that recently saw surges in COVID-19 cases.
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| George Floyd's death sparked protests across America – Nigeria took notice Posted: 23 Aug 2020 01:30 AM PDT  "Most of the policing system we have across the continent is the system that was put in place during colonialism," said rights advocate Segun Awosanya.
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