| COVID-19 warning for expectant mothers — especially Black and Hispanic women Posted: 06 Jul 2020 04:00 AM PDT  The CDC updated its website to include expectant mothers, particularly Black and Hispanic women, among those who may be at increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19.
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| DeSantis cuts $28 million from disease treatment at Florida prisons as pandemic's toll worsens Posted: 06 Jul 2020 01:16 PM PDT  Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis used his veto powers late last month to excise from the state budget a $28 million initiative to treat prisoners for hepatitis C and the coronavirus. It was one of many vetoes DeSantis made in the proposed $93.2 billion state budget.
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| ‘Let me borrow your bike’: Atlanta police officer takes passing man’s bicycle to chase fleeing murder suspect Posted: 07 Jul 2020 06:27 AM PDT  Police in Atlanta were able to apprehend a murder suspect thanks to a passerby's bicycle.The Atlanta Police Department said in a statement that the suspect had been seen around the Old Fourth Ward area last Tuesday when one cop commandeered a bicycle to chase the man down.
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| FBI chief says China threatens families to coerce overseas critics to return to China Posted: 07 Jul 2020 08:03 AM PDT  FBI Director Christopher Wray on Tuesday urged China-born people in the United States to contact the FBI if Chinese officials try to force them to return to China under a program of coercion that he said is led by Chinese President Xi Jinping. Wray issued the unusual appeal in an address to a think tank in which he reiterated U.S. charges that China is using espionage, cyber theft, blackmail and other means as part of a strategy to replace the United States as the world's dominant economic and technological power.
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| Fox News says it 'mistakenly' edited Trump out of a photo with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell Posted: 06 Jul 2020 10:00 AM PDT  The network showed the edited photo during a segment on Maxwell, who was arrested on charges that she helped facilitate Epstein's sex trafficking.
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| Kremlin vows to retaliate against fresh UK sanctions against Russians Posted: 07 Jul 2020 04:08 AM PDT  The Kremlin spokesman says that Moscow will respond to new UK sanctions against Russian citizens including a senior investigator and prison officials. Britain on Monday used a new legislation drafted in the memory of a killed Russian tax adviser to sanction 25 Russian nationals linked to prosecution and mistreatment of tax adviser Sergei Magnitsky as well as 20 Saudis involved in the murder of a journalist in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, told reporters on Tuesday that Moscow "can only lament such hostile steps." "We will certainly rely on reciprocity and respond in the way that fits Russia's interests," he said. Alexander Bastrykin, Russia's top investigator and a university friend of Vladimir Putin, is arguably the most senior official to have been slapped by the new sanctions and his name is likely to anger the Kremlin. As the head of the Investigative Committee, Mr Bastrykin is accused of covering up the mistreatment of Mr Magnitsky who died in prison after a year in pre-trial detention in 2009. A tax lawyer, Mr Magnitsky discovered a massive tax scam involving Russian tax authorities and ended up jailed by the same officials he had exposed. A Russian presidential commission concluded that he was beaten to death in prison. Most of the people on the sanctions list are lower-level officials and prison staff including two prison doctors who faced charges of negligence but were never convicted. All of them will now be subject to travel bans and asset freezes but it is not immediately clear if they have any property in Britain. The United States adopted the Magnitsky Act in 2012, targeting money of senior Russian officials kept in Western banks. Russia then responded with travel bans as well as a ban on American adoptions of Russian children. The Kremlin has outlawed institutions such as the British Council during previous diplomatic spats between the two countries, which does not leave Moscow much British property to target this time.
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| Trump Aide Peter Navarro’s Bonkers CNN Interview: ‘Give Peace a Chance, Give Hydroxy a Chance’ Posted: 07 Jul 2020 08:26 AM PDT  White House trade adviser Peter Navarro appeared on CNN on Tuesday morning for yet another off-the-rails interview, this time devoting much of his energy to promoting anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine following a disputed new study finding some efficacy in treating the coronavirus.Last week, in the wake of the Food and Drug Administration revoking the emergency use of hydroxychloroquine due to serious safety issues and lack of benefit for COVID-19 patients, a Michigan study found the Trump-touted drug helped patients survive from the virus. The findings, however, were quickly disputed by other experts, who noted that the study excluded a large number of patients who hadn't yet been discharged from the hospital.Appearing on CNN's New Day, Navarro quickly brushed off a series of questions from anchor John Berman about the rapid surge of new coronavirus cases in several states, immediately hyping hydroxychloroquine as a game-changer that can greatly reduce mortality rates.Navarro would go on and claim that the reason the United States is experiencing rising cases is because of high asymptomatic spread, ignoring the rising hospitalizations and the fact that other developed countries are experiencing rapid decreases in confirmed cases. At the same time, the Trump aide kept referring to the disease as the "China virus" while pivoting to his favorite malaria drug."Peter, I promise to get to hydroxychloroquine," Berman noted at one point, attempting to question Navarro about mask-wearing."Look, you guys beat that one to death and I won't get involved in that," Navarro griped over a question about the president publicly wearing a mask, accusing CNN of making a "meme" out of it.Navarro, in between attempts to inject hydroxychloroquine into the conversation, also advised against additional lockdowns to stem the spread of the virus, warning that more stay-at-home orders will cause people to "die from alcoholism and depression."Berman eventually got to the study of the controversial drug, prompting Navarro to explicitly call for the FDA to reverse its stance on hydroxychloroquine's emergency use as a COVID-19 treatment. The CNN anchor, meanwhile, pointed out that this study was double-blinded and randomized, the gold standard in clinical trials."Give peace a chance, give hydroxy a chance," Navarro shot back.The lengthy conversation would careen to a wild ending when Berman attempted to confront Navarro on the president's tweet attacking NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace, who is Black, and White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany's refusal to address Trump's position on Confederate flags.Claiming it wasn't his "lane" as he's "not a surrogate," Navarro went on to say that he doesn't "see race" because he is from California. He then shared a story from his youth that shaped his current racial views."My awakening on the race issue was when I was eight years old in a Woolworth's store in West Palm Beach, Florida, when I walked over and I took a drink from the colored water fountain because I wanted to see colored water," he said. "And this woman came up to me and just gently said, 'You can't drink from that.' I go, 'Why?' She says, 'That's for colored people.' I'm 8 years old and that didn't make sense to me. I'm a Californian, we don't see race out there."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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| Olson Kundig’s Latest Design Embraces Its Hawaiian Habitat Posted: 06 Jul 2020 11:46 AM PDT |
| Russian space official, ex-journalist, charged with treason Posted: 07 Jul 2020 04:53 AM PDT  A former journalist who worked as an adviser to the director of Russia's state space corporation was detained Tuesday on charges of passing military secrets to a Western nation, accusations that many of his colleagues dismissed as absurd. Ivan Safronov, who had written about military and security issues for a decade before becoming an adviser to Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin, was detained outside his apartment in Moscow by agents of the Federal Security Service (FSB), the main KGB successor agency.
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| New York officials say a perfect storm of problems has made it an especially deadly summer in the city: 'It's guns. It's the gangs. It's the lack of jobs.' Posted: 06 Jul 2020 01:57 PM PDT  A recent surge in New York City shootings has continued into July 4 weekend, with 11 killed and more than 60 injured.
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| Australia warns of 'arbitrary detention' in China Posted: 07 Jul 2020 03:15 AM PDT  Australia warned its citizens Tuesday they could face "arbitrary detention" if they travel to China, the latest sign of growing tensions between the two nations. The foreign ministry issued the warning in updated travel advice, which also noted that Chinese authorities had detained foreigners for allegedly "endangering national security". Australia has already told its citizens to avoid all international travel due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the updated advice did not raise the overall level of the warning against travel to China.
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| Democratic challengers in two tight U.S. Senate races step up fundraising Posted: 06 Jul 2020 03:48 PM PDT  Democratic contenders for two Republican-held U.S. Senate seats on Monday said they accelerated fundraising in the second quarter, pointing to their momentum in what were already seen as competitive races. To win the Senate, Democrats need to pick up three seats if the party wins the White House and four if not.
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| Protests May Have Spread Coronavirus, Some Cities Say Posted: 06 Jul 2020 09:29 AM PDT  Officials in Los Angeles, Seattle, and Miami-Dade County, Fla., have acknowledged that anti-police protests and riots may have led to increased spread of the coronavirus, according to a Fox News report.All three cities have experienced an uptick in coronavirus cases after weeks of protesting sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody. Many Democrats and public-health professionals alike had voiced support of the demonstrations, including Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti. Two days after maintaining that there wasn't "any conclusive evidence" showing a connection between protests and a surge in cases of the virus, Garcetti did an about-face, saying the county's public-health director "does think some of the spread did come from our protests."The county reported a record 3,187 new coronavirus cases on Friday, the highest daily total since the start of the pandemic, according to health officials on Sunday.Still, Garcetti didn't admonish protestors. "It's not the act of protesting — that's a great and American thing to do no matter what your opinion is . . . but protesting without maintaining physical distancing, without wearing your mask, without having sanitizer – we just have to be smart. Whether you're at a protest or at your home, whether in your workplace or whether you're out shopping, these rules don't change." In Miami-Dade protests were a "contributing factor" to spiking cases, a spokesperson for the mayor told Fox News.A team of medical experts who advise Mayor Carlos A. Giménez have told him that based on information in local emergency rooms, the protests were a contributing factor to the spread of the virus, "along with our community letting its guard down and not social distancing or wearing masks, as mandated. Graduation parties, house parties and restaurants illegally turning into clubs after midnight all contributed to the spike."Giménez issued a curfew last week in an attempt to curb the spread of the virus in the county.Meanwhile, Seattle city health official James Apa told Fox News any impact of protests was marginal: "A small percentage of the total number of cases reported going to a protest, which may or may not mean they acquired it there. Protests are not driving our upsurge in cases."In New York, though WNBC reported that over the course of a week the city's percentage of positive coronavirus cases rose for four consecutive days, mayor Bill de Blasio's office maintained that the protests had not affected community spread in the city. "Based on our health indicators, which measure hospital admissions, number of people in ICU and percentage of New Yorkers testing positive, we have seen no indication of an uptick in cases," Avery Cohen, de Blasio's deputy press secretary, told Fox News. While cases in Los Angeles, Seattle, and Miami-Dade are all increasing, cases in New York City have been steadily declining, though it remains unclear if potentially asymptomatic cases among the mostly young crowds are going undetected. Last month, the city drew criticism for its decision not to ask people if they participated in Black Lives Matter protests during contact tracing calls to monitor the spread of coronavirus. Governor Andrew Cuomo, however, told New Yorkers last month, "If you were at a protest, go get a test, please."
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| The Lincoln Project continues anti-Trump ad campaign Posted: 07 Jul 2020 09:04 AM PDT  On Tuesday, the Lincoln Project, a conservative political action committee formed in late 2019, released an ad titled "Whispers," which suggests those in President Trump's inner circle are secretly mocking him. This is the latest in a series of attack ads produced and distributed by the committee, whose members include George Conway, Steve Schmidt and other prominent Republicans who oppose Trump. Yahoo News has assembled a compilation of some of the Lincoln Project's most controversial advertisements.
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| Georgia's governor is deploying as many as 1,000 National Guard troops after deadly shootings in Atlanta over a violent Fourth of July weekend Posted: 06 Jul 2020 03:30 PM PDT  Dozens of Georgians were shot over the weekend. Five people were killed, including an eight-year-old girl.
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| Florida surpasses 200,000 COVID-19 cases as July 4th holiday weekend comes to a close Posted: 06 Jul 2020 09:26 AM PDT  Florida surged past 200,000 total COVID-19 cases Sunday, exactly one month after most of the state entered Phase 2 of its reopening plan.
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| The Trump Family’s Civil War Could Blow Us All Up Posted: 07 Jul 2020 07:38 AM PDT  Mary Trump's legal battles against her uncle might seem like a fun little political soap opera, but it's way more than that, Mary's lawyer Ted Boutrous explains on the latest episode of The New Abnormal. The attempt to stop her tell-all book before publication—"I think it's really an effort to intimidate people from speaking, to intimidate the press. But also it's a political tool. It's a fundraising tool. It seems to excite people who support President Trump," he tells hosts Molly Jong-Fast and Rick Wilson. So, what exactly will the book tell us about Donald Trump? Boutrous couldn't say too much yet, but what he did reveal looks, um, not-so-hot for the president: "The more people see what he was like before, and really understand the kind of person he is and was, the more people will be horrified that he's the president."Then! The Daily Beast's Kate Briquelet—who has broken some of the biggest stories about Jeffrey Epstein's cabal—joins the dynamic duo to talk about the arrest of Epstein 'madam' Ghislaine Maxwell. "There are power players in New York," she explains "who are very nervous that Ghislaine is going to spill the secrets." Ben Stiller Dishes on Trump's Obsession with ZoolanderShe also shares some of the wildest (read: disturbing) accusations she's heard about the accused pedo duo, including that Epstein wanted a "baby ranch" in New Mexico. Plus! Does Trump know how to listen to a podcast? Could Kanye's "run for president" could really, really backfire? How is Ye like Vermin Supreme? And what the hell is "the McKinsey of grift?"Listen to The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher.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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| Supreme Court won't throw out ban on robocalls to cellphones Posted: 06 Jul 2020 08:19 AM PDT  A group of fundraisers, political organizations and pollsters filed a lawsuit alleging the prohibition was unconstitutional.
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| U.S. Sends Major Military Muscle to the South China Sea Posted: 06 Jul 2020 02:22 PM PDT  The joint exercise included a B-52 bomber that flew all the way from Louisiana on a 28-hour-long mission.
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| As divisions threaten America, the pressure to cancel presidents is dangerous Posted: 06 Jul 2020 02:00 AM PDT  After Woodrow Wilson, who's next? Thomas Jefferson? FDR? JFK? Jimmy Carter? Gerald Ford? We remove tributes to our imperfect presidents at our peril.
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| Mexican military finds plane in flames and truck carrying drugs Posted: 05 Jul 2020 07:01 PM PDT  Mexican military officials said on Sunday they discovered a small plane from South America in flames after it made an illegal landing on the Yucatan Peninsula possibly carrying hundreds of kilos of drugs. Nearby, military officials said they also found a truck carrying drugs that appeared to be cocaine, packaged into 13 parcels weighting 30 kg (66 pounds) each, and likely coming from the plane. With an estimated value of more than 109 million pesos ($4.9 million), the loss would have a "significant" impact on criminal organizations, said a statement from the Mexican military.
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| 15 Air-Purifying Plants to Cleanse Your Space of Chemicals and Toxins Posted: 06 Jul 2020 02:17 PM PDT |
| White House defends Trump claim that ‘99%’ of virus cases are ‘harmless’ Posted: 06 Jul 2020 12:20 PM PDT  White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Monday responded to President Trump's claim that "99 percent" of coronavirus cases are "totally harmless."
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| A rare case of brain-eating amoeba has been confirmed in Florida. Officials are telling residents to avoid tap water, and to swim with nose clips. Posted: 06 Jul 2020 07:38 AM PDT  The Florida Department of Health had to issue a warning for residents to avoid nasal contact with tap water.
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| Did Doxxing of an Oklahoma Councilwoman Lead to a Neighbor Being Raped? Posted: 07 Jul 2020 01:36 AM PDT  A city council member in Norman, Oklahoma, proposed a police budget cut. Then officers for that department posted her address online. Days later, a woman who lived in the other half of her duplex was raped by an assailant who allegedly made a political threat.The attack was a case of retaliation and mistaken identity, the council member alleges.Alexandra Scott, a Norman council member who won the Democratic nomination for her state Senate seat last month, is an outspoken critic of her city's police force. When racial justice protests swept the nation in June, Scott proposed slashing the Norman Police budget by $4.5 million. During a city council meeting about defunding, she also discussed a stalking incident she experienced, which she said police handled improperly. Now a pair of Norman Police officers are under investigation for allegedly posting Scott's personal information online, which Scott says may have led to the sexual assault of her neighbor.These 911 Emergency Dispatchers Are Ready to Defund the PoliceDefunding the police is a fraught issue across the country, but especially in Norman, where police have made their disagreements with elected officials well known. Amid calls to slash the city's police budget by millions, council members voted to reallocate $865,000 from the department. The move didn't cut the police's overall budget (it mostly vetoes the department's requested raise, but keeps the department's coffers at slightly above last year's budget) but it was enough for the city's police union to file a lawsuit against city council this month. Scott's criticism of Norman Police has made her a favorite villain in some pro-police circles in the city. A recent Facebook post shared by a Norman Police officer called her "another AOC," in reference to the New York representative who has become a boogeyperson for conservatives. That same police officer, John Barbour, is one of two under investigation for sharing Scott's personal details shortly after her testimony on police defunding. In posts first reported by the Norman Transcript, Barbour made a Facebook post sharing an unredacted video of police responding to Scott's 911 call in May. (Although details of the video remain unconfirmed, they align with Scott's own testimony about calling 911 on a stalker that month.)Neither Scott nor Norman Police returned The Daily Beast's requests for comment. Barbour declined to comment, referring The Daily Beast to the Norman Police public information officer, as his case was under investigation. A spokesperson for the group Norman Citizens for Racial Justice said Scott's address was identifiable in the post. "After Alex shared her story of solidarity during that [city council] study session, an officer released an unredacted report and some footage of her making a police report fairly recently," the spokesperson told The Daily Beast. "Those items that the officer uploaded to Facebook had her home address on there."This Utah Police Chief Was Promoted Even After His Racist Posts Were Exposed. Now Residents Want Him Out.When Barbour was met with criticism online for the video, he responded sarcastically. "So what I am getting is that if the issue was the officer let everyone see, but when someone slanders the fine officers on open record meeting it's not ok to find out the proof," he posted, apparently accusing Scott of being dishonest in her testimony.Barbour removed the video but shared a recent police report (from when Scott was arrested at a recent protest) that contained her address. In comments viewed by The Daily Beast, Barbour accused Scott of participating in a riot. When commenters noted that "you can't just call protesters rioters … There was no riot," Barbour responded, "If you say so….but I bet state law says different."Another Norman Police officer, Michael Lauderback, appears to have also shared Scott's personal information using the Facebook handle "Tired Ofthehate," which was linked to his legal name. Lauderback posted a picture of a sexual assault report Scott made in 2015. Lauderback could not be reached for comment and appears to have since deleted his Facebook account.Both officers are now under investigation for posting Scott's personal information, the Norman Record reported. The police department noted that since Barbour claimed to have obtained the video from a third party who obtained it through a public records request, the officers' posts appear to be legal.But Scott and Norman Citizens for Racial Justice said the posts play into a larger culture of harassment that has emerged on Norman-centric social media. "Most of the targeting happened after we started advocating for defunding the police," the Racial Justice spokesperson told The Daily Beast, noting that many people in her group were experiencing harassment from a "ReOpen Norman" Facebook page.In a since-deleted Facebook post, Scott said that social media activity had led to real-world horror for her and a neighbor."People were passing around my address on social media (and wherever else) for 2 weeks & making light of my experiences with assault and stalking," she wrote. "I've received threatening messages and voicemails from men stating they, 'hoped I didn't need the police' when something happened."Scott claims those threats came to a head late last month. Her address, which was shared publicly, is in a duplex building. On June 27, someone broke into the other half of the duplex and assaulted Scott's neighbor."She was raped by [a] stranger who broke into her side of our duplex last night. She had been out with her father, he dropped her off around Midnight and left. Then she was assaulted in her hallway," Scott wrote in the now-deleted post. "Her rapist dug his elbow into her neck, pushed her into the wall, and told her 'Maybe next time you'll learn your lesson.' He threw her on the ground and raped her."The attack, she said, was intended for her. "They got the wrong woman," she wrote. Norman Police released a statement acknowledging the incident and the prior publication of the address on social media although, in a heavily redacted police report obtained by the Transcript, the incident is described as a burglary.Since Norman Police officers posted Scott's address, it has circulated on right-wing Oklahoma pages, where it remains online. 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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| NASA's powerful Hubble space telescope has beamed back a striking photo of a 'fluffy' galaxy with a ghostly, empty center Posted: 06 Jul 2020 02:33 PM PDT  The photo from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope shows how newborn stars have used up all the gas at this galaxy's center.
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| Iraqi jihadism expert Hisham al-Hashemi killed Posted: 06 Jul 2020 01:01 PM PDT  Renowned jihadism expert Hisham al-Hashemi was shot outside his home in Baghdad on Monday and died shortly thereafter at a local hospital, Iraqi officials told AFP. Hashemi was an authoritative voice on Sunni jihadist factions including the Islamic State group, but was also frequently consulted by media and foreign governments on domestic Iraqi politics and Shiite armed groups. The investigator assigned to the killing told AFP that Hashemi, 47, walked out of his home in east Baghdad and was getting into his car when three gunmen on two motorcycles fired at him from metres away.
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| North Korea Would Use Lethal 'Swarm' Attacks to Fight Posted: 06 Jul 2020 03:30 PM PDT  How is South Korea is preparing to defeat them?
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| Iran records highest daily death toll from COVID-19 Posted: 07 Jul 2020 03:44 AM PDT  The 200 deaths reported on Tuesday exceed the previous record from Sunday, when the ministry reported 163 deaths in a day. The Islamic Republic has recorded a total of 11,931 deaths and 245,688 infections from the coronavirus, ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said in a statement on state TV. Iran was one of the hardest hit countries early in the pandemic.
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| The Best Glassware to Upgrade Your Summer Beverages Posted: 06 Jul 2020 02:03 PM PDT |
| DeVos rejects part-time reopening for schools amid pandemic Posted: 07 Jul 2020 10:38 AM PDT |
| A white Florida man who was filmed yelling at a Black homeowner while waving a BB gun also faked being a Navy SEAL for years, report says Posted: 07 Jul 2020 03:12 AM PDT  Joseph Fucheck had claimed he was a Navy SEAL in his tirade in North Miami-Dade, Florida. He was arrested for the incident last month.
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| Portland Police See 240 Percent Yearly Increase in July Shootings Posted: 06 Jul 2020 02:46 PM PDT  Portland police have responded to 17 shootings so far this month, a 240 percent increase when the city saw five in the same timeframe last year, the department announced Monday.One shooting earlier this month injured a man, while another resulted in an infant child putting a spent bullet in her mouth, police revealed. In a statement, Portland police chief Chuck Lovell called the spike "alarming.""Gun violence negatively impacts everyone in our community and the increase we are seeing is alarming," he said. "As a community, we must come together to send a message that shootings in our City are unacceptable."Portland has faced weeks of unrest following the death of George Floyd in May. Over the weekend, police declared a riot after a bronze sculpture honoring Oregon's pioneers was set ablaze outside the city's justice center. The Fourth of July marked the city's 38th consecutive day of civil unrest.The head of Portland's police union released his own statement on Monday, calling on officials to take action."As riots continue, it is obvious to everyone that this is no longer about George Floyd, social justice, or police reform," Portland Police Association president Daryl Turner said. "This is about a group of individuals intent on causing injury, chaos, and destruction by rioting, looting, starting fires, throwing rocks, bottles, mortars, urine, and feces at peaceful protestors, as well as the police."Last month, protestors attempted to set up an "autonomous zone" in Portland's Pearl District, near an apartment building where Mayor Ted Wheeler reportedly lives, but were stymied by police.
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| Biden campaign rolls out new fonts from typeface powerhouse Hoefler & Co. Posted: 06 Jul 2020 01:24 PM PDT  The fonts are from the same company behind typefaces for the Obamas, Rolling Stone, Twitter, Tiffany & Co., the Guggenheim, Condé Nast and Nike.
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| Outrage as Mississippi election commissioner complains 'the Blacks' are registering to vote in high numbers Posted: 06 Jul 2020 12:31 PM PDT  A Mississippi elections official became the subject of social media fury over the weekend when she tweeted that she was "concerned" about an increase in black voters."I'm concerned about voter registration in Mississippi," Gail Welch, an elections commissioner in Jones County, Mississippi wrote. "The blacks are having lots [of] events for voter registration. People in Mississippi have to get involved, too."
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| Saudi opens hajj registration for foreign residents Posted: 06 Jul 2020 08:19 AM PDT  Saudi Arabia on Monday opened hajj registration for foreign residents in the kingdom, saying they will make up 70 percent of the pilgrims after it scaled-back the annual ritual due to coronavirus. Saudi Arabia has said it will allow only around 1,000 pilgrims already present in the kingdom to participate in this year's hajj, scheduled for the end of July, a far cry from the 2.5 million who attended the five-day pilgrimage last year. Foreign residents, aged between 20 and 65 who have no previous health ailments such as diabetes and heart conditions, are allowed to register on https://localhaj.haj.gov.sa., the hajj ministry said.
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| China Has a Plan to Crush the Tibetan Diaspora Posted: 06 Jul 2020 07:40 AM PDT  Beijing's communists demand obedience. They are able to control Tibetans inside their borders today. Tomorrow, with a selection of the next Dalai Lama, they will go after the Tibetans in Dharamshala and elsewhere.
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| European Commission refuses to apologise after accusations of meddling in Croatia's elections Posted: 06 Jul 2020 05:03 AM PDT  The European Commission refused to apologise on Monday after its president appeared in a party political video for the ruling party before elections in Croatia. Ursula von der Leyen was accused of meddling in the national vote and of breaching expectations of neutrality after the video for the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), which won Sunday's election, was posted at the weekend. The commission's chief spokesman said on Monday the video clip, which was filmed in the EU executive's studios by its staff, was meant as a contribution "in her personal capacity". He told reporters at the daily press briefing in Brussels that "mistakes" were made, including the use of a backdrop featuring the Commission headquarters and the EU flag, but refused to say sorry. "Mistakes were made and the important thing is to make sure that such mistakes are not repeated," he said, after numerous questions over whether Mrs von der Leyen would apologise for the gaffe. The spokesman blamed the video's Croatian producers for adding a title reading European Commission President to the clip of Mrs von der Leyen. He said Mrs von der Leyen thought it was ""good thing for European democracy" for commissioners to have "an active political life", provided they respected their code of conduct. The commission president was reported to the European Ombudsman, which investigates maladministration in the EU institutions, after breaking the long-standing taboo. "She wishes to ensure that the appropriate procedures are in place to avoid such an unintentional error creeping in again in the future," the spokesman said. Croatia's HDZ, which must now try and form a coalition government, is a member of the centre-right pan-EU European People's Party, which counts Mrs von der Leyen as a member. Other EPP politicians, such as the leaders of Austria, Latvia and Bulgaria and Ireland former prime minister Leo Varadkar, as well as Croatia's EU Commissioner Dubravka Šuica,, appeared in the video. Angela Merkel, an ally of Mrs von der Leyen, did not.
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| Israel feels exposed as U.S. drops satellite-imaging cap Posted: 06 Jul 2020 01:51 AM PDT  An Israeli official flagged a possible security risk on Monday following a U.S. move to allow American providers to sell clearer satellite images of Israel and the Palestinian territories. Under a 1997 U.S. regulation known as the Kyl-Bingaman Amendment, satellite images of Israel and the Palestinian territories used in services like Google Earth could show items no smaller than 2 metres (6.56 ft) across. The curb, Israel had argued, would help prevent enemies using public-domain information to spy on its sensitive sites.
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| Chicago Police Seize Gun Decorated With Trump Image Posted: 06 Jul 2020 07:41 AM PDT  The Chicago Police Department seized a gun decorated with President Trump's image over the weekend.
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| The dying man was sent back to his cell. A look at how COVID-19 kills Florida prisoners Posted: 06 Jul 2020 04:56 PM PDT  On April 5, when Florida's positive coronavirus cases were one-sixteenth the number they are today, 69-year-old Jeffrey Sand went to the infirmary at Blackwater River Correctional Facility, a privately managed state prison near Pensacola.
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| Supreme Court hands victory to school voucher lobby – will religious minorities, nonbelievers and state autonomy lose out? Posted: 07 Jul 2020 05:15 AM PDT  The Supreme Court's recent decision that Montana cannot exclude donations that go to religious schools from a small tax credit program could have consequences felt far beyond the state.The 5-4 ruling in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, which came down June 30, follows on from recent cases that have expanded what counts as discrimination against religion under the U.S. Constitution, making it harder for states to deny grants to faith-based institutions.From my perspective as a scholar of law and religion, this latest ruling could massively limit states' ability to exclude religious schools from all sorts of funding, including controversial voucher programs which allow state funds to be used by parents to send children to a private school. And rather than preventing religious discrimination, the court's decision may actually support a system that discriminates against religious minorities and those of no faith. A win for voucher advocatesThe Espinoza decision was quickly hailed as a major win by supporters of school vouchers, including Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. It isn't the first time they have cheered the court.In 2002, the Supreme Court, in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, ruled in favor of a voucher program in Ohio which overwhelmingly benefited religious schools. The court held that the program did not violate the U.S. Constitution's Establishment Clause which limits government support for, and promotion of, religion.That decision broke with a long line of previous cases, which held that government could not use taxpayer dollars to fund religious education. In the years following the Zelman decision, public support for school voucher programs has grown. The election of President Donald Trump and appointment of DeVos as education secretary gave the pro-voucher lobby powerful advocates in the administration. The White House has made vouchers a central plank of their schools policy, with Trump likening "school choice" – a term that includes the use of vouchers – as the "civil rights statement" of the decade.Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has paved the way for religious schools to benefit from vouchers through a series of rulings.In addition to Zelman, and as a precursor to Espinoza, the justices ruled in 2017 that a Missouri program that provided free playground chips for resurfacing, could not deny access to a religious school seeking to resurface its playground. In that case, Trinity Lutheran v. Comer, the justices held that refusing the grant contravened the Constitution's Free Exercise Clause, which prohibits discrimination against religion, among other things.Until then, the doctrine had been limited to situations in which a government discriminated against a religion through hostility toward that faith, such as when the City of Hialeah, Florida, created a series of ordinances to discriminate against the practice of Santeria. In a footnote in the Trinity Lutheran case, the justices specifically noted that the decision was limited and did "not address religious uses of funding" such as for attendance at religious schools. But in Espinoza, the Supreme Court has essentially ignored that narrower reading. Instead, the court held that exclusion of donations to religious schools from the state tax credit program discriminates against religion. Siphoning fundsThis has significant implications for school vouchers. It could force states to include religious schools in any program that is open to private nonreligious schools. So if a state allows for parents to use vouchers to take a child out of the public school system, then religious schools must be allowed to benefit from those funds.But rather than preventing religious discrimination, the expansion of voucher plans, in my view, may actually encourage it.The majority of private schools are religious – and in some areas with voucher schemes religious schools make up more than 90% of private schools.In most districts, religious schools that can afford to take voucher students represent only a few larger denominations that are able to highly subsidize religious education. For example, in the Cleveland School District involved in the Zelman case, 96% of voucher recipients went to religious schools representing just one or two denominations. But vouchers strip money from public education – every voucher going to a private school means a loss of per student funding for public schools.This would force the parents of religious minorities, agnostics and atheists to choose between sending their children to a school that may provide religious teaching that goes against their wishes or leave their children in public schools that will be further drained of funding and students.The Espinoza ruling did leave the door ajar a little when it comes to limiting vouchers to religious private schools. The court draws a tightrope-like line between discrimination based on religious status – the fact that a school is religious – and situations where the denial of funding is based on concerns the funds will support religious functions.But precedent suggests walking this tightrope might be difficult for states and school districts. The Supreme Court's decision in Zelman upheld vouchers for religious schools including those which proselytize. It is hard to imagine how a state might prevent funds from going to a faith-based school without it being seen as denying funding based on that school's religious status. Of course, states can simply not have voucher or tax credit programs for private schools – the Espinoza decision makes it clear that this is acceptable. And some states already do this. For example, Michigan explicitly prevents taxpayer money going to private schools regardless of whether those schools are religious or not.But even these bans on taxpayer funding for private education are increasingly being challenged by school voucher enthusiasts and religious groups. Put on noticeIn Espinoza, the Supreme Court has put states and school districts on notice that if they have voucher programs they can not prevent taxpayer money from being used at religious private schools. That could leave some parents with an uncomfortable choice between sending a child to a public school that is losing funding as a result of vouchers or a religious private school that may proselytize their children.This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.Read more: * An old debate over religion in school is opening up again * Are yoga and mindfulness in schools religious?Frank S. Ravitch does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
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