| A car plowed through Black Lives Matter protesters in Times Square, and the NYPD had to deny accusations it was one of its unmarked vehicles Posted: 04 Sep 2020 03:06 AM PDT  The police told local media that the driver was involved in a separate pro-Trump rally that crossed paths with the Black Lives Matter protesters.
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| Zombie fires spark record Arctic CO2 emissions Posted: 03 Sep 2020 07:03 AM PDT  This summer's carbon emissions from Arctic wildfires were a third higher than last year's levels.
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| A Ukrainian airline banned a passenger for life after she opened a jet's emergency exit door and walked around on the wing Posted: 04 Sep 2020 08:51 AM PDT  Passengers reportedly heard the passenger complain that she was "too hot" and opened the emergency exit to cool down.
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| Remains of sailor killed in Pearl Harbor returned home Posted: 03 Sep 2020 09:34 AM PDT  Navy Fireman First Class Hadley Heavin, 23, was on the USS West Virginia when torpedoes and bombs destroyed the battleship on December 7, 1941.
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| Oregon governor, others call for end to protest violence Posted: 03 Sep 2020 05:56 PM PDT  With protests in Portland nearing the 100-day mark, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and other Democratic leaders on Thursday called for an end to violence even as federal agents were continuing to arrest protesters who allegedly assaulted law enforcement officers. Protests have erupted daily in the Pacific Northwest city since the killing of George Floyd. The statement does not single out the small minority of left-wing protesters who have been setting fires, vandalizing buildings and throwing objects at police.
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| The Democrats’ Dangerous Delegitimization of the Election Posted: 03 Sep 2020 12:14 PM PDT  A recent deep dive in the Washington Post's Outlook section, "What's the Worst That Could Happen?" exploring various potential outcomes of the 2020 presidential election, found that in "every scenario except a Biden landslide, our simulation ended catastrophically." According to the Post, any other outcome is destined to spark "violence" and a "constitutional crisis."Or, in other words, nice country you got there . . .Every assumption in the article, written by Rosa Brooks, a Georgetown University law professor and co-founder of the Transition Integrity Project, is awash in the conspiratorial paranoia that's infected the modern Democratic Party. It's a world where Trump officials -- played, quite implausibly, by Joe Biden partisans Michael Steele and Bill Kristol -- are "ruthless and unconstrained right out of the gate" but the genteel statesmen of Team Biden "struggled to get out of reaction mode." It is a place where Republicans aren't only reflexively seditious and autocratic, but a "highly politicized" Supreme Court tries to steal the election.In their "war game" scenarios, however, it's the Democrats who refuse to accept the will of courts to adhere to the constitutionally prescribed system rather than hysteria, and it's the Democrats who wishcast the wholly imaginary "popular vote" into existence.One of the scenarios, we learn, "doesn't look that different from 2016" -- a contest in which, it must be pointed out, not one vote has been proven to be uncounted or altered. In that outcome, America is confronted with "a big popular win for Mr. Biden, and a narrow electoral defeat."In the real world, incidentally, that scenario is called a "Trump victory."In the fictional war game, however, John Podesta, playing the role of Biden, contends that his party won't let him concede the race, and instead alleges "voter suppression" -- the catch-all go-to every time a Democrat loses -- and persuades the Democratic governors of Trump-won states such as Wisconsin and Michigan to send pro-Biden electors to the Electoral College. In the meantime, California, Oregon, and Washington threaten to secede from the union if Trump takes office. The Democratic House unilaterally names Biden president. "At that point in the scenario," the New York Times' Ben Smith explains, "the nation stopped looking to the media for cues, and waited to see what the military would do."This scenario is what a real-life "coup" might resemble. It is, needless to say, utterly insane that Democrats would destroy the nation's long-standing and peaceful transition because they refuse to accept the mandated process of electing the president. All of which is to say the proactive -- and retroactive -- delegitimization of the Trump presidency has been a successful four-year project. It permeates the entire Democratic Party's information complex.First, Democrats convinced millions of Americans that a handful of inept and puerile social-media ads were enough to overturn a presidential election in the most powerful nation on earth. By 2017, a majority of Democrats believed that vote tallies had been tampered with by Russians, somehow without a trace of evidence.Since then, Democrats have been working to convince themselves there is no legitimate way in which Trump could win the election again. A large number of high-profile left-wing columnists have laid the groundwork to make this case and high-profile politicians have joined them. Hillary Clinton's advice to Biden not long ago was to not concede defeat on the night of the November 3 election no matter what happens. In January during the impeachment trial, Representative Adam Schiff said, "The President's misconduct cannot be decided at the ballot box, for we cannot be assured that the vote will be fairly won." House speaker Nancy Pelosi has noted that "Let the election decide'" is a "dangerous position" because Trump is already "jeopardizing the integrity of the 2020 elections.""It's worth pointing out that *almost* no one thinks Trump will actually win more votes," Chris Hayes told his followers not long ago. "I think if he wins the electoral college and loses the popular vote *again* you're looking at the worst legitimacy crisis since secession."A far bigger crisis for the United States is that liberal pundits tell their audience that the method of winning an election in the United States, one that every president in history of the country relied on, should be considered a crisis of legitimacy.What is worth pointing out as well is that the dynamics of the presidential election would be completely different if the popular vote actually existed. But candidates do not compete for the popular vote, so they can neither "win" nor "lose" it. If they did try to win the popular vote, they would cater to the largest population centers, and no one else, and elections would look very different. I'm not sure that that setup would work out for Democrats exactly as they imagine, but it doesn't matter. A popular vote undercuts federalism, one of the foundational ideas of the Founding. And that's the point.If you haven't noticed, it's working. A recent USA Today poll found that 28 percent of Biden's supporters say they aren't prepared to accept a Trump victory as "fairly won," and 19 percent of President Trump's supporters say the same about a potential Biden victory. So a significant minority of American voters don't believe the next election will be legitimate before it has even been conducted. What happens when every long line at the polls and every Facebook meme and every delayed mail-in ballot is turned into a nefarious plot by the enemy to snatch democracy from the rightful winner? It's going to be ugly, indeed. If their "war games" are to be believed, that's what Democrats are counting on.Editor's Note: An earlier version of this article stated that "almost half" of Americans doubt the legitimacy of the next election. It has been updated to more accurately reflect the poll numbers it cites.
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| The Navy sent him to prison for smuggling explosives. A ‘wanted’ poster for him was sent to the Keys Posted: 03 Sep 2020 05:41 PM PDT  A U.S. Navy sailor on the lam for almost 15 years after escaping military prison in Washington state where he was beginning a three-year sentence for trying to smuggle explosives into the country could be in South Florida, officials say.
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| Protests over the death of Daniel Prude turned tense overnight in Rochester as demonstrators demanded justice Posted: 04 Sep 2020 03:55 AM PDT  The response from Rochester and NY state police to Daniel Prude protesters was described by one City Council member as "unnecessarily aggressive."
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| French spy master joins effort to deliver Lebanese reforms, sources say Posted: 03 Sep 2020 08:16 AM PDT  France's intelligence chief has joined efforts to push Lebanon to deliver a new government and reforms, Lebanese sources said on Thursday, buttressing President Emmanuel Macron's bid to pull the country out of a devastating economic crisis. Macron is center stage in international efforts to press fractious Lebanese politicians to address a crisis seen as the biggest threat to Lebanon's stability since the 1975-1990 civil war. During his visit to Lebanon on Tuesday, Macron gave Lebanese politicians until the end of October to start delivering reform, warning they could face sanctions if corruption gets in the way.
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| Facebook said it removed 2 of Rep. Clay Higgins' posts for violating the company's policies against inciting violence after the congressman suggested killing armed protesters Posted: 03 Sep 2020 02:43 PM PDT  Rep. Clay Higgins wrote that he'd "drop any 10 of you where you stand" if demonstrators showed up to a Louisiana protest with guns.
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| Image of Palestinian under Israeli soldier's knee sparks outrage Posted: 04 Sep 2020 08:09 AM PDT  Footage of an Israeli soldier throwing a Palestinian activist to the ground and kneeling on his neck has sparked outrage in the Palestinian territories and beyond.
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| House GOP candidate praised as an upcoming ‘star’ by Trump, posts photo of herself holding a gun next to images of ‘Squad’ members Posted: 04 Sep 2020 08:53 AM PDT  Marjorie Taylor Greene, conservative Republican candidate for Georgia's 14th congressional district, has caused outrage online by posting a threatening image to Facebook.The pro-Trump candidate posted a picture on Thursday morning in which she stands holding a firearm next to images of the "Squad" — representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, and Ilhan Omar.
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| Democrats request Hatch Act probe of Republican convention Posted: 03 Sep 2020 11:48 AM PDT  Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are seeking an investigation into what they call repeated violations of the federal Hatch Act by members of the Trump administration during last month's Republican National Convention. The 1939 law is intended to limit political activity by federal employees in their official capacity, although it does not apply to the president and vice president. Throughout the convention, administration officials "repeatedly used their official positions and the White House itself to bolster President (Donald) Trump's re-election campaign," the lawmakers wrote in a letter to the independent Office of Special Counsel.
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| NHC ups chances of development for three tropical waves in east Atlantic Posted: 03 Sep 2020 06:32 PM PDT  Three tropical waves in the east Atlantic were getting closer to forming Friday morning, and the National Hurricane Center started tracking another wave near the still-surviving Tropical Depression Omar.
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| 'You shoot at the police, expect us to shoot back': Ohio sheriff responds to protest 'lawlessness' Posted: 03 Sep 2020 03:03 PM PDT  Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones said in a statement Wednesday that he won't allow individuals to harm his deputies.
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| A barista at a Target Starbucks was fired for a satirical TikTok showing how to make a 'Blue Lives Matter' drink with 'bleach' Posted: 03 Sep 2020 01:41 PM PDT  A barista who made a "Blue Lives Matter" drink in a TikTok video was fired, according to Target, which housed the Starbucks store near Indianapolis.
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| Iranian judge in Romania committed suicide, prosecutors say Posted: 04 Sep 2020 06:50 AM PDT  A fugitive Iranian judge whose corpse was found in a Bucharest hotel in June had committed suicide by jumping from a hotel's 5th floor, Romanian prosecutors said on Friday. Gholamreza Mansouri, 52, fled corruption charges in Iran last year, one of several judges accused during a high-profile trial. European pro-democracy groups had also accused him of human rights violations.
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| Part of Trump’s border wall at risk of collapse just months after it was built Posted: 04 Sep 2020 06:57 AM PDT  Part of the Trump administration's border wall between the US and Mexico is at risk of collapsing just months after it was constructed, new engineering reports claim.The border wall, constructed at the shore of Rio Grande, which forms part of the border between the US and Mexico, is at risk of collapsing due to construction flaws, new reports to be filed in federal court this week allege.
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| President Trump urges Iran to spare life of popular wrestler Posted: 04 Sep 2020 01:04 AM PDT |
| Venezuelan charged in Miami money laundering case gunned down by motorcycle assassin Posted: 02 Sep 2020 11:10 AM PDT  A Venezuelan businessman charged in Miami with laundering millions of dollars from oil contracts was gunned down Tuesday by a motorcycle assassin in Venezuela, according to authorities.
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| A man in Minnesota who attended the Sturgis, South Dakota, motorcycle rally that drew more than 400,000 people has died of COVID-19 Posted: 02 Sep 2020 03:17 PM PDT  The man, who has not been identified, was in his 60s and had underlying health conditions, the Minnesota Department of Public Health told Insider.
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| Jimmy Lai: Hong Kong tycoon found not guilty in intimidation trial Posted: 03 Sep 2020 12:58 AM PDT  The court ruled the Hong Kong entrepreneur was not guilty over an incident three years ago.
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| New tsunami simulations show 'the big one' could cause devastation on Washington coast Posted: 03 Sep 2020 04:16 AM PDT  Experts advise residents to prepare after Washington State Department of Natural Resources simulations show coastal communities would be devastated by a large Cascadia Subduction Zone event.
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| Trump's press secretary refuses to blame Russia for the nerve-agent attack on Putin's top opponent Posted: 03 Sep 2020 11:39 AM PDT  Other world leaders have explicitly demanded an explanation from the Russian government for Navalny's poisoning.
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| Israel announces partial national lockdown after coronavirus surge Posted: 03 Sep 2020 10:59 AM PDT  Israel will impose a partial national lockdown next week to battle a coronavirus infection surge, the head of its pandemic task force said on Thursday, shouting his exasperation in an emotional television address. The health official, Ronni Gamzu, said Israel was facing a "pivotal moment" in trying to contain the spread of COVID-19, with some 3,000 new cases now reported daily in a population of nine million. Other health experts have said political in-fighting among members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition government has led to a slow response to a second wave of cases after a national lockdown flattened the infection curve in May.
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| 'Mama, I need you': She was on her deathbed after being run over by a car, but COVID-19 rules kept her family from visiting Posted: 04 Sep 2020 03:02 AM PDT  Family members are angry they were not able to help Emily Murkerson through the last painful week of her life in a Florida hospital.
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| Letters to the Editor: Democrats will hand Trump four more years if they don't strongly condemn rioting Posted: 03 Sep 2020 03:00 AM PDT  This election will be determined by swing voters who might be convinced by the president's argument that Biden cannot keep them safe.
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| Black Lives Matter supporters disrupt Loeffler event Posted: 03 Sep 2020 01:36 PM PDT  U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler has made opposition to the demands of the Black Lives Matter movement a centerpiece of her effort to win conservative support in her campaign, and Thursday, supporters of the movement again pushed back. A former state Senate candidate and one other woman shouted down Loeffler when she made a campaign appearance with U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton in a northern Atlanta suburb. The protesters began to chant "Black lives matter!" after one of them shouted questions critical of Loeffler's description of Black Lives Matter.
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| One killed, three people wounded in Miami-area shooting, police say Posted: 04 Sep 2020 03:18 AM PDT  One man was killed and three others wounded in what Miami-Dade County police say was a drive-by shooting late Thursday night.
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| Oil tanker towed from Sri Lanka shoreline amid spill fears Posted: 04 Sep 2020 06:30 AM PDT  The navy begins towing the ship after a fire on board raises fears of an environmental catastrophe.
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| Texas Governor Declares a Victory Over COVID. What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Posted: 04 Sep 2020 12:55 AM PDT  Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has already seen his state's reopening waylaid by a resurgent coronavirus pandemic this summer, so a recent tweet from the governor that seemed to indicate he could be ready to do it all over again has alarmed local officials."I'm concerned about how far he goes," Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, a Democrat, told The Daily Beast. "I'll have to wait and see where he goes."The dynamics are just the latest in ongoing tensions between the red state governor and local blue leaders. In a tweet Monday, Abbott touted that he "said last month that Texas wouldn't have anymore lockdowns—despite demands from mayors & county judges insisting on," such a move. "Since my last orders in July, Covid numbers have declined—most importantly hospitalizations," Abbott said in the tweet. "I hope to provide updates next week about next steps." The governor's tweet came in response to an account called "Deep in the Heart of Texas" tweeting at Abbott that "those of us in the restaurant industry need this clarity in our future," after pointing to a video of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis saying earlier that day "we will never do any of these lockdowns again." No other details were given by the governor and a spokesperson for Abbott did not respond to requests for comment seeking more information. The stakes for Abbott are high in Texas after the state's reopening capsized this summer and cases surged, hitting nearly 10,800 new daily cases on July 15, according to state data. That same month, some Democratic leaders called for the governor to give them the power to do local stay at home orders.The state's situation may have improved since then, but Peter Jay Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine, said Texas still has "a pretty high level of transmission." "I don't know what the goals are then by rolling back," Hotez said. "There's no victory here. There's still a very poor quality of life in the metro areas in Texas." As of Wednesday, the state's test positivity rate stood at 8.98 percent, according to state health data, while hospitalizations in the state had fallen from nearly 10,900 on July 22 to 4,075 as of Thursday's report with the daily new case number coming in at 3,899. And with those numbers in mind, the upcoming flu season is seen as another challenge that wouldn't be made easier if the state reopens too quickly. "Whether it's Texas or not… I don't really understand why we would consider relaxing any type of public health measures that we have in place like masking and distancing and certain high risk areas being off limits, more or less, until we get past the flu season at least," said Dr. Rodney E. Rohde, professor and chair of the clinical laboratory science program at Texas State University. Texas Just Hit 10,000 COVID Deaths, and It's 'Flying Blind'A handful of elected officials and public health experts stated bluntly that now isn't the time for the governor to make a reopening push, with the possible reopening of bars in the state a major worry for some like Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins. "If the governor opens bars back up, or makes masking permissive rather than a requirement then he'll squander the gains that we've worked so hard for and the community has sacrificed so long for and we'll be right back in the mess that we were in a month after Open Texas," Jenkins, a Democrat, warned. The Houston area in particular has been hit hard by the coronavirus, and in Harris County the risk level is still listed as severe, meaning there is "a severe and uncontrolled level of COVID-19," according to the county's website. As The Daily Beast previously reported in July, a surge in cases were flooding the area's health care system as calls for a lockdown became more persistent. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, who in mid-July called for a two-week shutdown, picked the governor apart in a statement this week about the Republican's handling of the pandemic pointing to "disastrous" results following the state's reopening in May as he worried about the future. "And now that numbers are better like in April, the governor is about to embark on the same course again," Turner, a Democrat, said. "It is frustrating that he is making decisions that impact all of us without including local officials in the process. The State is about to repeat its mistake, expecting a different result."After Texas began reopening in May, Abbott's reopening push fell apart in late June as the state's coronavirus situation worsened and he halted the state's re-opening over concerns about hospitalizations and new cases. In the days to come, the Republican also closed bars, limited restaurant capacity and made a statewide mask executive order for "counties with 20 or more positive COVID-19 cases," according to a July 2 statement from the governor's office. More than 40 counties are exempt from the order, according to the Texas Division of Emergency Management. When both policies and behaviors in Texas became more relaxed in early May that led to "alarming increases in cases and hospitalizations," in some places the following month Lauren Ancel Meyers, the director of the University of Texas at Austin COVID-19 modeling consortium, told The Daily Beast. The stricter policies and change in behavior that came about because of that then slowed transmission of the virus, Meyers said. "The longer we hold on to the precautionary behavior and the policies the more we will see cases and hospitalizations continue to decline," Meyers said. "It's reasonable to consider changes in policy that may provide some economic and social relief, however, only if done with extreme caution and really strong messaging around the responsibility we all have to take precautions when we're going out in public, to not go out in public if we or anyone in our household even has the slightest symptom of COVID. " While some local officials were clearly troubled by what could come from Abbott's office next week, Deaf Smith County Judge D.J. Wagner welcomed the idea of easing statewide restrictions. "Oh absolutely," the Republican said. "Yeah, we've got to get on with life." That wasn't a feeling shared on the Texas/Mexico border by Maverick County Judge David Saucedo. The local Democrat warned that he didn't think "we're out of the woods yet," and lamented that numbers in border communities have been "pretty high.""In my community, I'm seeing that we're still a hotspot," Saucedo said. "…After every holiday we've seen an uptick in cases go up and we don't want to get into that danger zone again."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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| China cracks down on Inner Mongolian minority fighting for its mother tongue Posted: 03 Sep 2020 10:21 AM PDT  Teachers and students have refused to comply with a new bilingual education program in Inner Mongolia. The state is cracking down in response.
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| Facebook has banned an Indian politician from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling party for violating its rules on hate speech Posted: 03 Sep 2020 04:38 AM PDT  Facebook's attitude to right-wing figures has been at the center of a political debate in India following an explosive Wall Street Journal report.
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| Belarusian leader reshuffles security chiefs in face of mass protests Posted: 03 Sep 2020 03:13 AM PDT  Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko promoted hardline loyalists to top posts in his security apparatus on Thursday in an effort to strengthen his grip on the former Soviet republic after weeks of mass protests and strikes. Lukashenko, facing the biggest challenge to his 26-year rule, accompanied the reshuffle with instructions to act tough in the face of what he has repeatedly alleged is foreign aggression ahead of talks with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and a Russian government delegation. "The country is working, although many, especially our neighbors, would like us to collapse," Lukashenko said, referring to the European Union states bordering Belarus.
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| Sen. Chris Coons says Wisconsin voters will back Joe Biden because they want a uniting, optimistic president Posted: 03 Sep 2020 01:46 PM PDT  Delaware Sen. Chris Coons, Democratic member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, joins Jon Scott with insight on 'Bill Hemmer Reports.'
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| Fact check: Former US presidents vary in their public statements about Trump Posted: 03 Sep 2020 05:47 PM PDT  The claim that all former US presidents have denounced President Donald Trump is partly false.
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| Video in Black man's suffocation shows cops put hood on him Posted: 02 Sep 2020 04:10 PM PDT  A Black man who had run naked through the streets of a western New York city died of asphyxiation after a group of police officers put a hood over his head, then pressed his face into the pavement for two minutes, according to video and records released Wednesday by the man's family. Daniel Prude died March 30 after he was taken off life support, seven days after the encounter with police in Rochester.
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| Tree-cutter pinned to ground for 4 days when it falls on him, Minnesota sheriff says Posted: 03 Sep 2020 11:43 AM PDT  The man spent over 100 hours trapped under a tree, officials say.
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| Georgia man who struck reporter's rear pleads guilty to sexual battery Posted: 02 Sep 2020 11:20 AM PDT  Reporter Alex Bozarjian was covering a run last year when her backside was smacked by a runner.
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| Here’s Where Jeffrey Epstein Donated Right Before His Arrest Posted: 03 Sep 2020 01:17 AM PDT  In the year before his arrest for trafficking minors, Jeffrey Epstein used his shadowy foundation to lavish $891,440 across a dozen nonprofits—including one group in France that was created shortly before Epstein's contribution.Epstein's Gratitude America Ltd. donated tens of thousands throughout 2018 to the obscure group in Paris, along with a Lithuanian ballet company, and an Italian psychology group that offers psychotherapy and sexual counseling.The French group, whose name translates to "Association for the Promotion of National Cultural Policy Conducted in the 80s and 90s of the Twentieth Century," launched in July 2018 with $57,897 from Epstein, public records reveal. The organization lists an address in the 14th arrondissement, in a building mostly occupied by doctors' offices. But the Association wasn't listed among the building's buzzers and mailboxes, and it doesn't appear to have any online presence or known ownership.REVEALED: We Found Billionaire Pedophile Jeffrey Epstein's Secret CharityEpstein frequently visited Paris, where he owned an $8.6-million apartment steps from the Arc de Triomphe. Indeed, police handcuffed the sex offender on a New Jersey tarmac, just after he returned from France in July 2019.Several of Epstein's victims claimed the financier abused them in Paris, according to lawsuits filed against his estate. One survivor, Teala Davies, said Epstein flew her from Madrid to Paris, where he crept into her room and raped her in 2003. Another woman, identified as Mary Doe, claimed Epstein invited her to his Parisian home and "arranged for her to attend a concert accompanied by a world-famous supermodel."Virginia Giuffre, who says Epstein kept her as his sex slave, claimed Epstein and his alleged accomplice, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, abused her in France, too. (Maxwell, who is awaiting trial in a federal prison on charges related to Epstein's teen sex trafficking ring, denies Giuffre's accusations.)Epstein Accuser Says He Tried to Traffic Her to Famous Hollywood ProducerGiuffre has also accused Maxwell of ordering her to have sex with the owner of a large hotel chain during one trip to France, according to a cache of recently unsealed court records. The encounter occurred around the time of Naomi Campbell's birthday party, Giuffre claimed. In a deposition, Giuffre said she had sexual contact with Maxwell in a fancy hotel overlooking the Champs-Elysées, and that Maxwell "brought in a redheaded French girl" after approaching her in Paris. Maxwell was allegedly trying to teach Giuffre to recruit victims."She walked up to this French girl to show me how easy it was for her to procure girls," Giuffre testified. "I wasn't very good at it. And, you know, it was part of my training... to bring in other girls. So she walked up to her. Within five minutes she had her number and that girl came over later that night to the hotel and serviced Jeffrey."Epstein's Paris apartment didn't just house victims; he invited former friends, including disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein, to visit. While in Paris, Weinstein reportedly tried to assault one woman in Epstein's circle who was giving the film mogul a nonsexual massage.Last September, French police asked for victims and witnesses to come forward for their own investigation into Epstein's alleged abuse. Cops also raided Epstein's Paris apartment and the offices of Karin Models, the agency of Epstein's friend and his accused procurer of underage girls, Jean-Luc Brunel. According to Giuffre, Brunel once bought three French girls from their parents as a gift to Epstein. Brunel has denied Giuffre's claims and any involvement with Epstein's trafficking ring.Maritza Vasquez, a former bookkeeper for Brunel's MC2 agency, claimed in a 2010 deposition that Epstein and Brunel were trying to start a new company with a woman in Paris but the venture never materialized. Epstein provided instructions to Brunel "saying that he wanted to have the same contracts as… Donald Trump," Vasquez added, referring to Trump's shuttered modeling agency, "and that he wanted to have the same kind of benefits for the scouters."Meanwhile, Gratitude America bankrolled "Associazione MinD," a psychology organization in Rome for two years in a row, with a $25,000 donation in 2018 and $60,000 in 2017. Associazione MinD did not return messages left by The Daily Beast.According to its website, the group "was born in 2015 from the idea of 3 young psychologists to promote knowledge of the psychological world, through clinical and training activities, using different artistic and creative forms."The other international donation, for $28,543, went to a ballet theater in Vilnius, Lithuania. One online directory of companies indicates the group is the Baltic Ballet Theater, which did not return an email seeking comment.Gratitude America's money appears to have come exclusively from a $10-million donation in 2015 from investor Leon Black, whom the attorney general of the U.S. Virgin Islands recently subpoenaed over his relationship with Epstein.The charity, created in 2012, didn't list expenditures until four years later. By then, Epstein's accountant Richard Kahn had replaced Epstein as president of the group. The financier's longtime personal attorney, Darren Indyke, was vice president, while U.S. Virgin Islands tax attorney Erika Kellerhals was secretary and treasurer. (Indyke and Kahn are the co-executors of Epstein's more than $600-million estate.)Jeffrey Epstein's Right-Hand Mystery MenGratitude America donated to several nonprofits linked to people in Epstein's orbit—including the Junior Tennis Champions Center (JTCC) in College Park, Maryland, where Next modeling agency honco Faith Kates' son worked. JTCC received $10,000 from Gratitude America in 2018 and $25,000 the year prior. Last year, Kates would only provide a vague comment on the JTCC donation, saying "My son volunteered in high school and I believe they gave back the donation."Harvard's Hasty Pudding theater troupe received $50,000 from Epstein in 2018, and another $50,000 in 2016. As we previously reported, Celina Dubin—the daughter of Epstein's former girlfriend Eva Dubin and her husband Glenn, who was accused of sexual misconduct by Giuffre—was a member of the Hasty Pudding Institute. (The Dubins have denied Giuffre's claims.) The son of Epstein's accountant George V. Delson, who prepared tax returns for the hedge-funder's defunct C.O.U.Q. Foundation, solicited a $25,000 donation for the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. Lawrence Delson, a professor at NYU and the Fashion Institute of Technology, serves on the theater's board of trustees.Bonnie Monte, the theater's artistic director, said her organization knew nothing about the anonymous donor. "Lawrence did solicit the donation which we did not know anything about," Monte told The Daily Beast. "We did try to do some research to find out where it came from. We never knew who the anonymous donor was until over a year later, after Jeffrey Epstein's death." Monte said she looked online but could only find an unrelated Florida-based veterans charity called Gratitude America.Delson, who didn't return messages, told Monte "in the interest of transparency, in case anybody asks," that the $25,000 came from one of Epstein's foundations. "I said who is Jeffrey Epstein?" Monte recalled replying, adding that she was "horrified" to learn who Epstein was and figured it was good his money was going to charity.The latest tax filings for Epstein's charity also reveal a $500,000 donation to the Kuhn Foundation, which received $150,000 from Epstein in 2017.CNBC previously revealed Epstein agreed to provide $1.4 million in funding for a PBS science show created by Robert Kuhn called "Closer to Truth." That show never got off the ground due to a lack of funding following Epstein's suicide.Kuhn told CNBC he met Epstein multiple times in New York and that a group of scientists, which he declined to name, introduced them. Kuhn claimed he didn't know about the sexual abuse accusations against Epstein which he described as "totally reprehensible." He added, "It is an example of the corruption of power distorts your own reality and then exercises this power over people who are psychologically defenseless."Epstein funded a slew of other organizations he's backed over the years, including a $25,000 donation to the New School; $10,000 to the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation; and $35,000 to the Edge Foundation, a society of science and tech intellectuals which hosted the exclusive "Billionaires' Dinners" Epstein attended.Ghislaine Maxwell Bragged About 'Pal' Jeff BezosHumanity Plus, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit which says it's "dedicated to elevating the human condition" through technology, received $100,000 from Epstein in 2018. (The group previously operated as the World Transhumanist Association, which received $20,000 from another Epstein group in 2011.)In a statement on its website, Humanity Plus said Gratitude America did not include Epstein's name on the donation. "This donation of $100,000 was put to a good cause as evidenced in Humanity+ tax Schedule B, Part 1 that states the donation was granted to educational research and development of Artificial Intelligence, the ethical use of AI, and increasing awareness of how AI can benefit humanity," the group said."This AI research is diametrically opposed to the exploitative and abusive behaviors of Mr. Epstein that were recently revealed in the news. At the time we accepted this donation from Gratitude America, Ltd., Humanity+ had no knowledge of Mr. Epstein's horrific alleged criminal activity, and we strongly condemn it."In 2018, Gratitude America also donated $25,000 to the Cancer Research Wellness Institute (CRWI), a California nonprofit founded by the late Howard Straus, who was the son of alternative cancer therapy doctor Max Gerson. Epstein's charity shelled out $75,000 to CRWI the year before.Before he died in June 2019, Straus told The Daily Beast in an email that he'd never heard of Gratitude America or Epstein, and that he personally thanks donors no matter the size of their contributions. "A donation of that size would be the single largest donation we've ever seen, and believe me, we'd notice!" Straus wrote."I am president of CRWI, and can assure you we have NEVER received a donation of that magnitude from ANYONE. I would know," Straus said. "We are perennially short of funds, and would love to be the recipient of such largesse, but not from sexual predators," Straus added, before apparently referring to President Trump, "like the Orange Shitgibbon or his imitators.'— with additional reporting by Erin Zaleski and Barbie Latza NadeauRead 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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| Highest Nile waters for a century swamp Sudan Posted: 03 Sep 2020 11:09 PM PDT  On Sudan's Tuti Island, where the Blue and White Nile meet, the highest river waters since records began have left people struggling to hold back the rising floods.
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| The Justice Department is reportedly preparing to file antitrust charges against Google Posted: 03 Sep 2020 01:11 PM PDT  Google controls about 90% of web-search traffic, dominates online advertising, and is already the target of antitrust action led by 50 states.
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