| Ship Called ‘Trump D’ Moored in Ukraine Brought Triple the Explosives of ‘Floating Bomb’ That Blew Up Beirut Posted: 07 Aug 2020 04:29 AM PDT  An American-owned cargo ship named after the president of the United States docked in a Ukrainian port has just offloaded 10,000 metric tons of the same chemical substance that nearly leveled the city of Beirut this week, according to the Liveuamap news source. The hangar in Lebanon only had 2,750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate, which caused catastrophic damage to the Lebanese capital. > Sea ports administration of Ukraine says that almost 10 000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate that is being stored at pier 1 and 2 of Yuzhi port near Odesa is totally safe cause of "Big-bags" pic.twitter.com/rxftR5TbKB> > — Liveuamap (@Liveuamap) August 7, 2020The ship docked in Ukraine, which was previously named Seabreeze before a Florida company registered as Pilin Fleet Management LLC purchased it in 2018, and renamed it Trump D, was registered by Marine Traffic tracking website in the Yuzhi port near Odessa on Friday.Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has now ordered "relevant checks" on the storage condition of the substance, which is primarily used for agricultural fertilizer or high-powered explosives after port officials claimed it was safely stored in "big bags." > Video that was published yesterday, both with photos became viral in Ukraine pic.twitter.com/AXeRvBJs6g> > — Liveuamap (@Liveuamap) August 7, 2020Photos online suggest that the ammonium-nitrate powder was also stored in similar "big bags" in the port of Beirut when it detonated, likely sparked by a nearby fire Tuesday afternoon. The Trump D was placed under investigation three months ago by Ukrainian prosecutors in Crimea after the previous owners were suspected of stealing sand from the Crimean coast. That investigation has since been closed without charges. The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine issued a statement ordering authorities to ensure that the ammonium nitrate is securely stored and to "carry out extraordinary measures for government supervision" for work safety and "security against manmade disasters and fires." 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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| Kerala plane crash: 16 dead after Air India plane breaks in two at Calicut Posted: 07 Aug 2020 10:34 AM PDT  An Air Indian Express plane with nearly 200 people on board crashes at Calicut airport.
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| Sarah Palin: ‘Women face so much more scrutiny’ Posted: 05 Aug 2020 12:52 PM PDT  The 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee weighs in on Joe Biden's VP search and how female candidates are viewed in presidential politics.
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| Man fights with bear after it enters home with 10 kids inside, Alaska officials say Posted: 06 Aug 2020 07:22 PM PDT  He went toe-to-toe with the 300-pound predator, and it didn't go very well
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| Virginia mayor urged to resign after saying Biden picked ‘Aunt Jemima’ as his running mate Posted: 06 Aug 2020 09:36 AM PDT  A Virginia mayor has been urged to resign after he allegedly wrote that "Joe Biden has just announced Aunt Jemima as his VP pick," on his Facebook page.Barry Presgraves, the mayor of Luray, Virginia, posted the comment on his Facebook page over the weekend, but swiftly deleted it after backlash from residents and local officials.
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| Quinnipiac polls: Gideon leads Collins in Maine; South Carolina Senate race tied Posted: 06 Aug 2020 12:02 PM PDT  Gideon leads Collins, 47 percent to 43 percent, with 6 percent of voters undecided, according to the survey.
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| Panama charges 12 Haitian migrants for protest Posted: 06 Aug 2020 04:56 PM PDT  A judge in Panama ordered 12 Haitian migrants held for trial Thursday on charges related to an Aug. 1 protest in which rocks were thrown at Panamanian border service officers and tents holding supplies were burned. Panama said last week it has proposed giving some Haitian migrants flights back to their homeland. The camps in Panama's southern Darien province also house some Cuban and African migrants, but about 80% of the 2,000 migrants there are from Haiti.
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| The Russian owner who abandoned the ship full of ammonium nitrate that caused the Beirut explosion has been questioned by police in Cyprus, reports say Posted: 07 Aug 2020 03:47 AM PDT  Igor Grechushkin was questioned by Cyprus police on Thursday over the MV Rhosus, the ship that carried ammonium nitrate to Beirut, local reports say.
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| A Sampling of Work From Mexico City’s Top Talents Posted: 07 Aug 2020 05:00 AM PDT |
| California hotel brawl near Disneyland involves about 100 people, police say Posted: 06 Aug 2020 09:24 AM PDT  A brawl at a hotel near Disneyland on Wednesday involved as many as 100 people and two people were hospitalized, police said.
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| Germany floats a new NATO spending yardstick: 10 percent Posted: 06 Aug 2020 10:39 AM PDT  Officials are pushing for a new yardstick to measure Berlin's contributions to NATO, suggesting the country could shoulder 10 percent of alliance requirements.
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| A Florida man has been arrested over claims he spat on a child's face and told him: 'You now have coronavirus' Posted: 07 Aug 2020 03:51 AM PDT  Jason Copenhaver confronted the boy after the child refused to remove his face mask in a restaurant, the Treasure Island Police Department said.
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| Trump ‘is so much anti-life,’ Kentucky Catholic bishop says in abortion discussion Posted: 07 Aug 2020 08:53 AM PDT  "He is only concerned about himself," the church leader said.
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| Former Saudi official accuses Mohammad bin Salman of 'sending hit squad' to kill him Posted: 06 Aug 2020 02:24 PM PDT  A former senior Saudi intelligence official has claimed that Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman sent a hit squad to Canada in an attempt to kill him. In a 107-page complaint, filed in a Washington DC court, Saad Aljabri claimed the assassins were intercepted by Canadian authorities. The incident was alleged to have happened less than two weeks after Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post columnist and Saudi dissident, was killed in the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul. Mr Aljabri, who was living in self-imposed exile in Toronto, was said to have clashed with the crown prince over issues including the decision to go to war in Yemen, and was dismissed from his cabinet role in 2015. He is suing the crown prince and 24 others for an unset amount of damages In his complaint Mr Aljabri claimed the crown prince "dispatched a hit squad" to Canada in October 2018. The complaint said: "(A) team of Saudi nationals travelled across the Atlantic Ocean from Saudi Arabia ... with the intention of killing Dr Saad."
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| Philippines defends coronavirus response after soaring cases Posted: 07 Aug 2020 01:26 AM PDT  The Philippines has seen a jump in coronavirus infections due to intensified testing, the presidential spokesman said on Friday, defending the country's response to the pandemic after overtaking Indonesia to record the most cases in Southeast Asia. It prompted authorities to reimpose a lockdown in and around Manila earlier this week. "While we do not want to see these numbers, this is a result of our intensified testing," Harry Roque, spokesman of President Rodrigo Duterte, told a briefing.
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| US ambassador says Iran is world No. 1 sponsor of terrorism Posted: 06 Aug 2020 03:18 PM PDT  The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations called Iran "the world's number one sponsor of terrorism" on Thursday and warned Russia and China that they will become "co-sponsors" if they block a resolution to extend the U.N. arms embargo on Iran. Ambassador Kelly Craft said the United States hopes Russia and China "will not be co-sponsors of the number one state that sponsors terrorism" and "will see the importance of peace in the Middle East."
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| Could a World War II Shipwreck Cause the Next Beirut-Like Explosion? Posted: 07 Aug 2020 07:36 AM PDT  The SS Richard Montgomery is basically a bomb waiting to go off.
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| Videos show Black inmate John Neville saying 'I can't breathe' before fatal injury; sheriff apologizes Posted: 06 Aug 2020 11:54 AM PDT  A North Carolina sheriff apologized before videos were released showing John Neville telling jailers he can't breathe as he was fatally injured.
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| CNN’s Poppy Harlow Confronts Larry Kudlow With All the Times He’s Been Wrong About the Coronavirus Posted: 07 Aug 2020 08:49 AM PDT  White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow doesn't have the best track record when it comes to predictions. And CNN anchor Poppy Harlow was more than ready with the receipts when he came on her show to talk about the coronavirus fallout Friday morning. Harlow began her interview by asking Kudlow if he and President Donald Trump are "worried" about the slowdown in the recovery. "I don't know that there's a slowdown. These job numbers will go up and down," Kudlow replied. When Harlow noted that only 1.8 million jobs were added in July compared to 4.8 million in June, he said, "That is true, and it's going to be uneven as it always is." Kudlow continued to push the administration's argument that a $600 weekly federal unemployment benefit has been a "disincentive" for Americans to go back to work. And when Harlow asked for evidence, he pointed to a University of Chicago study that supposedly supports that claim. "But, Larry, the University of Chicago survey, it doesn't conclude what you're arguing," Harlow said. "I know you don't want to incentivize people to go to work when it's a dangerous situation for them to go because the virus is not under control," she added, noting that she talked to the author of that study who said "it's a mistake to draw the conclusion as you have been and the White House has been that right now it's a disincentive to go back to work." All Kudlow could say in response was, "We can argue one academic versus another, I think history shows this is probably not sustainable in the long term." > Asked to explain why he's been wrong about the coronavirus at every turn -- he said the virus was "contained" in February, for instance -- Kudlow takes umbrage with Poppy Harlow for "nitpicking" pic.twitter.com/bNvNP8Qj4r> > -- Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 7, 2020But the most contentious moment of the interview came later when Harlow confronted Kudlow for his rhetoric over the past several months about the pandemic itself. "I'm wondering why you have consistently downplayed the severity of the pandemic," she said. "Back on February 25th you said 'it's pretty close to airtight.' February 28th, 'It's not going to sink the American economy,' March 6th, 'Let's not overreact, America should stay at work.' And just on June 12th, 'There is no emergency, there is no second wave,' but since June 12th, 45,978 Americans have died from COVID."Kudlow attempted to defend his consistent downplaying of the virus' severity but after a few moments he just resorted to attacking his interviewer. "I kind of resent your little nitpicking here because I don't know what that has to do with today's job numbers," he said."I'm not nitpicking, Larry," Harlow replied. "I think people listen to you and the president when you say things about the pandemic." Ultimately, he may have been chastened enough to acknowledge his own fallibility when it comes to predicting the future. "I think, again, the health guidelines that we have put out are in fact working, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed, maybe prayerfully, that we've seen the worst of this extension so we'll see what happens." "We all are, Larry," Harlow said. CNN's Brianna Keilar Comes at Trump Campaign's Mercedes Schlapp for Falsely Smearing Her Military HusbandRead 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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| Chicago rapper FBG Duck killed in brazen daytime shopping attack Posted: 05 Aug 2020 12:35 PM PDT  The attack was committed in the Gold Coast luxury shopping district by four gunmen in two vehicles.
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| An emergency medicine physician projects that if schools open in the fall, they'll close by the end of October with COVID-19 outbreaks Posted: 05 Aug 2020 09:20 PM PDT  One doctor said reopened schools could shut down again by the end of October, citing the "confluence" of the flu season and increased exposure.
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| Commission on Presidential Debates rejects request to change schedule Posted: 06 Aug 2020 03:39 PM PDT  The Trump campaign has accused former Vice President Joe Biden of trying to avoid debating President Trump; Rich Edson reports.
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| China sentences fourth Canadian to death on drug charges Posted: 07 Aug 2020 12:49 AM PDT  China has sentenced a fourth Canadian citizen to death on drug charges in less than two years following a sharp downturn in ties over the arrest of an executive of Chinese tech giant Huawei. Ye Jianhui was sentenced Friday by the Foshan Municipal Intermediate Court in the southern province of Guangdong. Another suspect in the case was also given the death penalty and four others sentenced to between seven years and life in prison, it said.
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| Sri Lankan PM claims landslide victory, strengthening Rajapaksa family's hand Posted: 06 Aug 2020 01:26 PM PDT  Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa's party claimed a landslide victory as vote counting in the country's election came to a close on Thursday evening, prompting fears among minority groups. "Our biggest victory has been that people have trusted us and we are ready to uphold that trust," the Prime Minister told The Telegraph as the results came in. However, critics worry that it further strengthens the hand of the Sinhalese Buddhist nationalist Rajapaksa family, with fears they could rewrite the constitution and further target minorities. In November 2019, Mahinda's younger brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa was voted in as president. Mahinda himself has previously served as president, and Gotabaya as defence secretary. The brothers remain under scrutiny for alleged war crimes committed during the fight against the Tamil Tigers and the family has been accused of corruption and nepotism. At least four members ran in Wednesday's parliamentary elections. Still, the brothers' party - a new party called the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna - was expected to win by a large margin with about 80 percent of the votes counted, clinching the majority of the 225 seats in Parliament for Mahinda to return as prime minister. The Rajapaksas were hoping for a two-thirds majority that will allow them to make a much debated constitutional amendment, giving them the power to revert to an all powerful executive presidency system. Amid the coronavirus pandemic and political apathy created by a divided opposition, voter turnout was the lowest in decades. Nonetheless, more than 70 percent of eligible voters went to the polls. The snap election was called after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa dissolved Parliament in March, six months ahead of schedule, but was later delayed twice because of the pandemic. Since his election in November, Gotabaya has spearheaded a "campaign of fear", according to Human Rights Watch, targeting opposition lawyers, activists, and journalists, including earmarked arrests, intimidation, and threats. However, he has gained popularity with some for implementing a rapid lockdown and extended curfew to curb the coronavirus. With a population of 22 million, Sri Lanka has officially recorded only 11 COVID-19-related deaths, although critics dispute the figures. People in quarantine centres were not able to cast their votes on Wednesday. Although the election authorities set an advanced polling day for those under quarantine for July 31, it was later cancelled as there was no legal provision for advanced voting.
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| Judge dismisses GOP lawsuit over House's proxy voting system established due to COVID-19 Posted: 07 Aug 2020 08:48 AM PDT  A federal judge tossed out a GOP-led lawsuit aiming to halt an unprecedented proxy voting system established by the House due to the COVID pandemic.
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| Putin’s Got Big Problems in Russia’s Provinces Posted: 07 Aug 2020 01:37 AM PDT  MOSCOW—The city of Khabarovsk, a sprawling, industrial metropolis about 5,000 miles east of the capital—the Bolsheviks turned it into a hub for serving Siberian prison camps, in the middle of nowhere by design—is about as far from the seat of Russian power as geographically possible. But it's suddenly at the center of Russian politics these days. For the past three weeks, thousands of people have come out daily in Khabarovsk to protest the country's top-down rule, what President Vladimir Putin once called his "vertical of power. "Wake up, cities, our Motherland is in trouble," protesters chanted in the rain one Friday evening. Banners that read, "Putin, you lost my trust!" and "Down with the Tsar!" floated above people's heads.Despite the Kremlin's best efforts to hide them, problems have been bubbling up in Russia's provinces, transforming local issues into the most dynamic arena for dissent, protest, and opposition in the country's political system and fueling Russia's version of post-lockdown unrest. The arrest of Khabarovsk's popular regional governor sparked the anti-Putin uprising that has drawn up to 60,000 people into the streets in this usually sleepy backwater. The arrested governor was a member of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, which had for years been loyal to Putin. Yet even the party's leader, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, told The Daily Beast that the provincial protests could spread, as people are fed up with the lies and media manipulation in the Putin system. "This is a genuine, wonderful, peaceful protest, but federal television channels do not cover them, and that offends people," he said.Millions of Russians are still watching the Far East rallies online. People are outraged by unemployment, corruption, pollution, and failing government. "For as long as we have a one-party system, you will have the Khabarovsk protests," Zhirinovsky recently declared from the tribune of the State Duma. "I have suggested to them a long time ago to have at least two parties, but they want to have the majority," Zhirinovsky told The Daily Beast about Putin's United Russia party. Putin continues the tradition of single-party system that began under Lenin, Zhirinovsky said.Two thousand miles away from Khabarovsk sits another provincial city, Norilsk, with its giant factory that is the source of a fifth of the world's nickel and half of the precious metal palladium. Norilsk is the world's northernmost city and also Russia's most polluted; visitors stepping off a plane are greeted by air that leaves an unforgettable metallic taste in the mouth. But even by Norilsk's own abysmal standards, this summer was a horrific one for the environment: Its factory, Norilsk Nickel, spilled hundreds of thousands of gallons of red-hued diesel fuel into what locals now call "rivers of blood." The rain smells of chemicals. The diesel fuel spill was caused by the collapse of a rust-covered storage tank at a heat and power plant on May 29. Local bureaucrats and the factory kept quiet about the disaster for two days as the red, oily rivers spread pollutants through the fragile tundra environment in what Greenpeace would later call the "biggest environmental catastrophe in the history of Russia's Arctic." Authorities initially tried to hide the disaster, in the same way state television channels have attempted to ignore the protests in Khabarovsk. Russians only learned of the spill from social media. Six weeks later, with still no word of any official reprimand for the spill, the factory dumped another round of toxic waste—this time, intentionally—right onto the tundra.Two reporters from the independent paper Novaya Gazeta, Yelena Kostyuchenko and Yuri Kozyrev, had traveled to Norilsk after the spill to see the pollution with their own eyes. The reporters discovered a stream with orange bubbles and a lake covered in white foam, surrounded by dead trees. But it had nothing to do with the diesel spill. "Two large pipes were pumping and dumping white toxic waste with a sharp chemical smell onto the tundra when we arrived," Kostyuchenko told The Daily Beast. Novaya Gazeta's report raised the alarm with local prosecutors and police, so the factory sent a bulldozer to quickly dismantle the pipes. Then, the bulldozer accidentally crushed a police car while backing up. Environmentalists witnessed a wild scene: A huge number of Norilsk Nickel's security services were demolishing their factory's pipes in front of police and officials from the emergency ministry and Russia's natural resources regulatory agency, Rospotrebnadzor.Meanwhile, some Russian politicians started to call for the Kremlin to take control of the factory—owned by the country's richest oligarch, Vladimir Potanin—and nationalize it. Potanin, a former member of the Communist Party, obtained the Norilsk factory on the cheap during the privatization of the 1990s. Since then, he's seemed untouchable. After all, according to Kremlin-watcher Mikhail Zygar, the billionaire has always paid up for problems at the factory in the only currency that counts: loyalty to the Russian president. "People like Potanin are happy to pay for all [Putin's] projects, for anything he ever wants," said Zygar, author of All the Kremlin's Men: Inside the Court of Vladimir Putin. Soviet and post-Soviet bureaucrats have a long history of attempting to hide the truth about disasters from the public, no matter how deadly—most famously after the 1986 nuclear accident in Chernobyl. Last year, an experimental missile exploded in the Arctic, releasing radioactivity into the air, and the official reaction was silence. So, too, in the first days after the fuel spill. Officials were even reluctant to break the bad news to Putin himself. "One has to earn the right to report bad news to Vladimir Vladimirovich," said Sergei Markov, a political analyst close to the Kremlin. "It must have taken a few days before the decision-makers on various steps of power figured out who would be the one to break the news."On the fifth day after the fuel spill, four people lined up shoulder to shoulder to report the truth about the accident to Putin in an online meeting: the oligarch Potanin; Svetlana Radionova, the head of Rospotrebnadzor; Yevgeny Zinichev, the minister of emergency situations; and Viktor Uss, the Krasnoyarsk regional governor.Zinichev told the president that "the event itself, the emergency situation, was localized on June 1. We have installed booms, so there is no development." Radionova, in contrast, talked about "unprecedented" pollution. "We registered an increase by dozens of thousands of times," after the diesel fuel spilled into the rivers, she told Putin.Potanin was the last to speak. He promised to dip into his wealth and pay for the damage. The accident would cost "not a ruble from the state budget." Putin wanted to know how much, exactly, the company was going to pay. The billionaire paused.Putin pressed Potanin on how much money he was willing to pay to compensate for the damage. "Billions and billions" of rubles, or tens of millions of dollars, the oligarch finally told the president. "And how much does one reserve tank cost that you are going to replace now? If you replaced it on time, there would not have been such damage and such cost to the environment," the president replied.According to Forbes Real Time, which gauges wealth, in the weeks after the accident Potanin's net worth dropped by more than $3.6 billion, but he is currently worth $23 billion, which still allows him the title of Russia's richest man. The World Wide Fund for Nature has addressed an open letter to Potanin, calling him personally to "take the full responsibility" for polluting the Arctic. But money for the clean-up aside, Potanin is unlikely to face real repercussions for the spill. Earlier this summer Putin's inspector, Radionova, flew to Norilsk to calculate fines for the factory—but, according to Transparency International, she flew there on Potanin's own Bombardier Challenger private jet, instead of taking a regular flight. Radionova has also been accused of corruption by the foundation of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, which revealed documents for luxurious real estate in Moscow and Nice that suggest Radionova is the owner. "Such wealth cannot be explained. It is so outrageous," Navalny said in his report on YouTube, viewed by more than 3 million people. Meanwhile, experts warn that Russia is ill-equipped to prevent another environmental disaster. After the diesel spill, a member of the board of directors at Norilsk Nickel, Yevgeny Shvarts, admitted on a television talk show that the storage tank that had collapsed was the newest piece of equipment at his company. "This is terrifying: One of Russia's richest companies considers a tank made in 1985 their newest piece of equipment. That means things are much worse than we thought," the show's host, Vladimir Slivyak, told to The Daily Beast. He expressed concern that many other Russian factories are also storing diesel fuel in even older tanks: "Such accidents might take place any time." 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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| As legal battle over school reopening proceeds, DeSantis stresses importance of sports Posted: 06 Aug 2020 10:33 AM PDT  Flanked by coaches, athletes and politicians, Gov. Ron DeSantis Thursday used sports to emphasize his support of school reopenings.
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| One American is dying every 80 seconds from coronavirus as Trump shrugs off death toll: ‘It is what it is’ Posted: 05 Aug 2020 12:19 PM PDT  At least one person in the United States has died every 80 seconds on average over the last seven days, according to new research, as President Donald Trump said the nation's soaring death toll "is what it is" in a recent interview.The grim figures were first reported by NBC News on Wednesday, which noted its own tally revealed 7,486 people died in the last seven days due to Covid-19.
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| Ohio Supreme Court to hear armed school staff training case Posted: 07 Aug 2020 08:57 AM PDT |
| DOJ moves to seize property from Ukrainian oligarch linked to Rudy Giuliani Posted: 06 Aug 2020 02:31 PM PDT |
| Children rapidly deported from the United States strain Guatemalan shelters Posted: 06 Aug 2020 06:07 AM PDT  Hundreds of migrant children rapidly expelled from the United States under a coronavirus immigration policy are returning to shelters in Guatemala where virus testing and bed capacity are regularly stretched to their limits. Shelter operators, government officials in the Central American nation and international organizations said they are seeing rising numbers of children being sent back to Guatemala alone, with some unable to return to their homes because of domestic abuse or gang violence. "Child protection services, which were already overstretched and under-resourced have now been further compromised by COVID-19," said United Nations children's agency UNICEF spokesman Christopher Tidey.
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| Air Force general Charles 'CQ' Brown makes history as first African American service chief Posted: 07 Aug 2020 08:58 AM PDT  Gen. Charles "C.Q." Brown is also the first African American to sit on the Joint Chiefs of Staff since Colin Powell was chairman.
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| US sanctions Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam Posted: 07 Aug 2020 07:43 AM PDT  The United States on Friday slapped sanctions on Hong Kong's leader Carrie Lam and 10 other senior figures, in a major new step against China's clampdown in the semi-autonomous city. In the most significant US action since China imposed a tough security law, Ms Lam and the other leaders of the Asian financial hub will have any assets in the United States blocked. The move also criminalises any US financial transactions with them. "The United States stands with the people of Hong Kong and we will use our tools and authorities to target those undermining their autonomy," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the United States was acting because Beijing had violated its promise of autonomy that it made to Hong Kong before Britain handed back the territory in 1997. "Today's actions send a clear message that the Hong Kong authorities' actions are unacceptable and in contravention of the PRC's commitments under 'one country, two systems' and the Sino-British Joint Declaration, a UN-registered treaty," Mr Pompeo said. The Treasury Department said that Lam, as chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, "is directly responsible for implementing Beijing's policies of suppression of freedom and democratic processes." Other sanctioned officials include Chris Tang, commissioner of the Hong Kong Police Force, and Luo Huining, director of the Liaison Office, Beijing's office in the city.
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| Sen. Susan Collins says House COVID relief bill is dead on arrival, urges Democrats to be more realistic Posted: 06 Aug 2020 03:40 PM PDT  Maine Sen. Susan Collins, Republican member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, joins Guy Benson on 'The Guy Benson Show.'
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| ICE detained hundreds of Mississippi chicken plant workers. Now managers are charged Posted: 06 Aug 2020 01:59 PM PDT  The indictments mark the first criminal action prosecutors have taken against company managers after ICE took close to 700 workers into custody last year during a massive raid on food processing plants.
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| Within 11 days of schools opening, dozens of students and teachers have gotten COVID-19: 'I truly wish we'd kept our children home' Posted: 06 Aug 2020 12:10 PM PDT  Schools began reopening several weeks ago. Dozens of students and staff have already tested positive for COVID-19.
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| Pelosi rips Trump for 'degrading' plan to give nomination acceptance speech from the White House Posted: 06 Aug 2020 08:59 AM PDT  Speaker Nancy Pelosi has sharply criticised Donald Trump for suggesting he will "probably" accept the Republican presidential nomination in a speech at the White House, an unprecedented move that could open Trump administration aides up to an array of federal ethics crimes."You don't have political events at the White House," Ms Pelosi, the longtime California Democrat, said in an interview with MSNBC on Wednesday. "You can't do it."
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| Court reverses order to shut down Dakota Access pipeline Posted: 05 Aug 2020 02:17 PM PDT  A federal appeals court on Wednesday reversed a judge's order that shut down the Dakota Access pipeline pending a full environmental review. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided with pipeline owner Energy Transfer to keep the oil flowing, saying a lower-court judge "did not make the findings necessary for injunctive relief." The appeals court said it expects the parties to "clarify their positions" in the lower court.
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| How Is New York Having Crazy Parties With No COVID Surge? Posted: 07 Aug 2020 01:36 AM PDT  Bikini-packed pool parties. Insane backyard blowouts. Unhinged prom bashes.Spectacular scenes of COVID-19 recklessness have emerged from New Jersey in recent weeks, alarming state leaders into implementing new restrictions to curb the tide of rising coronavirus cases and prompting plenty of snickering about the Jersey Shore. But a looming question has plagued experts as similar signs of non-compliance have been witnessed across the Hudson River in New York—without the same upticks.New Jersey and New York have had similar regulations, travel restrictions, and contact tracing efforts. Giant, raucous boat parties in New York are making headlines, too. So why aren't infection rates following suit the same way? Why are two states that were both early coronavirus hot spots on seemingly divergent courses all these months later?As of Thursday, New Jersey's case rate per 100,000 people was 30 over the past seven days, according to The New York Times. The state had a positivity rate of 1.77 percent on its tests over the past week, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center. For the past month, that number was 1.52 percent. The state was testing 2.3 people per 1,000, a rate that was trending downward according to Johns Hopkins.Those figures might seem perfectly fine in the abstract, but they amounted to an ominous trend."The numbers are setting off alarms," New Jersey Gov. Philip Murphy said last Friday. "We are standing in a very dangerous place."Meanwhile, New York's case rate per 100,000 was 24 over the past seven days, according to the Times. This week, the state had a positivity rate of 0.97 percent on its tests, according to Johns Hopkins. For the past month, that number was 1.06 percent. The state was testing 3.5 people per 1,000, a rate that was trending upward according to Johns Hopkins.Conversations with a wide array of public health experts, local health officials, and disease modelers suggested the reasons for the split were still very much out of focus. But hypotheses ranged from subtle differences in pandemic restrictions to the perception of New York as being more inclined toward aggressive enforcement, deterring non-compliance and would-be spreaders from traveling there.'Worse Than New York': How Coronavirus Exploded in South Carolina"Up until this week the restrictions on indoor gatherings were way too high" in New Jersey, said Dr. David Rubin, the director of PolicyLab at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, which has modeled the pandemic in collaboration with the White House Coronavirus Task Force. "That was really problematic, particularly with people gathering on the Jersey Shore, which also has a long coastline and is a big vacation destination."Of course, New Jersey's cases and test positivity rates were nowhere near as concerning as those in hot zones like Texas or Florida. And New York is still finding more COVID-19-positive people on any given day than its neighbor, thanks to its much larger population. But the trendlines in Jersey have concerned state authorities, and last Friday, Murphy squarely placed the blame for new cases on residents not following the rules."Everyone who walks around refusing to wear a mask, or who hosts an indoor house party, or who overstuffs a boat, is directly contributing to these increases," Murphy told reporters. "This has to stop."It didn't.Just one day later, about 300 bikini-clad and maskless guests spilled out of a massive pool party in Alpine, New Jersey, when police showed up to break up the crowd, NBC New York reported. The party was advertised on social media and by DJs as "The Lavish Experience Pool Party," and the unidentified host told local reporters that "it got out of control."Promoters had posted about the party, and party buses pulled up outside. "It's been happening all summer," one neighbor told The New York Post. "The owner of the house doesn't care, the mayor doesn't care. There's cursing, loud music, drugs."Alpine Mayor Paul Tomasko, for what it's worth, told the local NBC station that such parties were under investigation by local police, state officials, and the county prosecutor's office.A few weeks earlier, a "BikiniPalooza" event was held at the same mansion, with some neighbors calling it "a night club." It received the same promotional treatment, according to posts on Instagram.Murphy has said the event involved "close congregation and not a lot of face covering, if any."In the aftermath, the governor announced on Monday that he would reduce the limit on indoor gatherings to 25 percent capacity, capped at 25 people total. Until this week, it had been capped at 100. By contrast, Gov. Andrew Cuomo's executive order on COVID-19 has for some time prohibited crowds of non-essential workers over 50 people indoors. The rate of transmission in New Jersey jumped from 0.87 a month ago to 1.48 on Monday, Murphy said, meaning that people were spreading the virus more readily."This is no time for complacency, for selfishness, or for thinking that someone else can wear a mask but not you," Murphy tweeted on Wednesday. "Do your part."Carrie Nawrocki, executive director at the Hudson Regional Health Commission, which oversees a population of about 675,000 and includes Jersey City, said her area has seen "extensive delays with testing turnaround time," making it "difficult to get an accurate picture of the daily cases we have."Nawrocki said that there has not been a significant increase in case numbers among the 18-29 age group, but that she doesn't "think that's necessarily the age group that's going to get tested as often, especially if they are not adhering to social distancing.""We have enough contact tracers and disease investigators for every new case that comes in, so we are reaching out to everyone and we haven't identified one specific reason why people are getting COVID," said Nawrocki. "My guess would be that they have to do with travel."That being said, NJ.com reported that state officials warned in recent weeks that the 18-29 age group was the fastest-growing in the state to test positive for COVID-19, and Murphy has certainly pointed the finger at large indoor parties hosted by younger people. Dozens of new cases have been traced to house parties in towns like Westfield and Middletown.Still, the same recklessness—yelling, cheering, drinking and singing without masks—has been reported in New York City. On bistro patios, on crowded boats, and in the middle of crowded streets."We're drinking to everyone's health," a 31-year-old consultant who was drinking a beer with running buddies at a sports bar told Bloomberg News last month. "We could've stopped the virus a long time ago if they gave us clear directions. Now, they want to blame it on us."Last weekend, officials in New York City broke up an alleged sex party of about 30 people in Midtown on Friday and then, a day later, busted a party boat filled with 170 revelers. Authorities arrested the owners of the ship, the Liberty Belle, for allegedly violating the state's ban on large crowds and for running a bar without a license.On Sunday, the New York State Liquor Authority issued violations for 24 city establishments that violated social distancing guidelines, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office. The state has also reportedly opened an investigation into a July 25 outdoor charity concert in the Hamptons that was attended by more than 2,000 people. As of this weekend, the total number of pandemic-related charges in the state had hit 503, according to ABC News."It's disrespectful," Cuomo said Monday. "It's illegal. It violates public health. It violates public decency. What if one of the people on that cruise gets sick and dies?"Rubin posited that the main difference between both states could be a matter of enforcement. Or, just as important when it comes to deterrence in the context of disease containment, the perception of enforcement."My impression of Gov. Cuomo is that kind of tough stance with anyone who might try to defy the rules," said Rubin. At the very least, the two states' travel advisory websites show a tonal difference on that score. That matters because, according to Dr. Brittany Kmush, an assistant professor at Syracuse University and expert on epidemiology and infectious diseases, "the biggest risk in both states is importation from higher risk areas.""The self-quarantine is voluntary, but compliance is expected," according to the New Jersey public health department website's travel advisory page. The New York health department meanwhile, "expects all travelers to comply and protect public health by adhering to the quarantine.' But, significantly, it also stipulates that it reserves "the right to issue a mandatory quarantine order" on any given individual, for which a violation is subject to a penalty of up to $10,000 or imprisonment up to 15 days, according to the state's website. New York City also made a show of announcing checkpoints to enforce a quarantine on out-of-state travelers this week."If people don't believe there's any penalty, they're just going to defy orders," said Rubin. "These are very important differences.""Even though both states have the same travel restrictions, the perception of the consequences differ by the states," Kmush added.New Jersey has made its own show of enforcement, too—or, at least, it did in the past.N.J. Gym Owners Drop F-Bombs in Off the Rails CNN InterviewFrom April through June, State Attorney General Gurbir Grewal and State Police Superintendent Patrick Callahan released regular round-ups of enforcement actions against violators of Murphy's executive orders. Just in the first weekend, they reported that officers had issued more than 200 summonses in Newark alone, each carrying a sentence of up to six months and a fine as large as $1,000. Local police also famously busted a party of 30 people at a house in the town of Rumson and arrested the homeowner and an allegedly unruly guest. Cops cuffed a Toms River man after crashing another party of 20 at his abode. Authorities in West Windsor took a 16-year-old year into custody who they accused of hacking on a 52-year-old in a Wegmans supermarket. And 13 people were charged with second-degree terroristic threats during an emergency in as many incidents in just the first half the month, after they reportedly coughed or spit on police and claimed to be carrying the virus. The round-ups went from daily to weekly in May, to ending entirely after June 5 as the state moved forward with reopening.Asked for comment, Murphy's office deferred to Grewal's team, who did not provide a response by press time. The New Jersey Department of Health did not respond to a request for comment for this story."I got the sense that New Jersey was not enforcing things as strongly as New York is, where Cuomo has cracked down on bars and is wielding more penalties than other governors are, and that's keeping people in line," said Rubin. For guidelines and restrictions in other states, what will matter in case counts, he said, is: "Are these just empty threats? Or is there just more teeth to them?"In any case, Rubin said, "Our models are seeing sea levels rise everywhere around New York, but we don't know exactly why New York has been insulated from the resurgences we're seeing in New Jersey and Pennsylvania." Or, as Kmush put it: "I really don't think we'll know the answer to this for years."—With additional reporting by William BreddermanRead more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. 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| Letters to the Editor: Jackie Lacey's husband has a right to protect his home. Why charge him with assault? Posted: 07 Aug 2020 03:00 AM PDT  David Lacey didn't hurt anyone when Black Lives Matter demonstrators showed up at his home shortly after 5 a.m. one morning.
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