id
int64 0
6.94k
| text
stringlengths 17
61.8k
| label
int64 0
1
| text_label
stringclasses 2
values |
|---|---|---|---|
900 | Title: Coronavirus patient suffered 4-hour erection from blood clot
A coronavirus patient in France suffered a four-hour erection due to a blood clot that may have been triggered by the illness, doctors have warned.
The 62-year-old man experienced the painful condition known as priapism while in the intensive care unit at a Le Chesnay hospital, according to a case report in The American Journal of Emergency Medicine.
Doctors initially applied an ice pack to the area, but after four hours his erection still had not disappeared.
Using a needle, they instead decided to drain the blood from his penis and discovered that it was full of blood clots, the report said.
Doctors said blood clots are common among coronavirus patients, but his case was the first known of priapism, which is caused by blood trapped in the penis.
“The clinical and laboratory presentation in our patient strongly suggests priapism related to SARS-CoV-2 infection,” doctors wrote.
But more research is needed into the link between the strange case of blood clotting and the virus, they said.
“Although the arguments supporting a causal link between COVID-19 and priapism are very strong in our case, reports of further cases would strengthen the evidence,” the report said. | 0 | non |
901 | Title: Russians vote to allow Putin’s rule to extend for 16 more years
MOSCOW — Russian voters approved changes to the constitution that will allow President Vladimir Putin to hold power until 2036, but the weeklong plebiscite that concluded Wednesday was tarnished by widespread reports of pressure on voters and other irregularities.
With the nation’s polls closed and 30% of all precincts counted, 74% voted for the constitutional amendments, according to election officials.
For the first time in Russia, polls were kept open for a week to bolster turnout without increasing crowds casting ballots amid the coronavirus pandemic — a provision that Kremlin critics denounced as an extra tool to manipulate the outcome.
A massive propaganda campaign and the opposition’s failure to mount a coordinated challenge helped Putin get the result he wanted, but the plebiscite could end up eroding his position because of the unconventional methods used to boost participation and the dubious legal basis for the balloting.
By the time polls closed in Moscow and most other parts of Western Russia, the overall turnout was at 65%, according to election officials. In some regions, about 90% of eligible voters cast ballots.
On Russia’s easternmost Chukchi Peninsula, nine hours ahead of Moscow, officials quickly announced full preliminary results showing 80% of voters supported the amendments, and in other parts of the Far East, they said over 70% of voters backed the changes.
Kremlin critics and independent election observers questioned the turnout figures.
“We look at neighboring regions, and anomalies are obvious — there are regions where the turnout is artificially (boosted), there are regions where it is more or less real,” Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of the independent election monitoring group Golos, told The Associated Press.
Putin voted at a Moscow polling station, dutifully showing his passport to the election worker. His face was uncovered, unlike most of the other voters who were offered free masks at the entrance.
The vote completes a convoluted saga that began in January, when Putin first proposed the constitutional changes. He offered to broaden the powers of parliament and redistribute authority among the branches of government, stoking speculation he might seek to become parliamentary speaker or chairman of the State Council when his presidential term ends in 2024.
His intentions became clear only hours before a vote in parliament, when legislator Valentina Tereshkova, a Soviet-era cosmonaut who was the first woman in space in 1963, proposed letting him run two more times. The amendments, which also emphasize the primacy of Russian law over international norms, outlaw same-sex marriages and mention “a belief in God” as a core value, were quickly passed by the Kremlin-controlled legislature.
Putin, who has been in power for more than two decades — longer than any other Kremlin leader since Soviet dictator Josef Stalin — said he would decide later whether to run again in 2024. He argued that resetting the term count was necessary to keep his lieutenants focused on their work instead of “darting their eyes in search for possible successors.”
Analyst Gleb Pavlovsky, a former Kremlin political consultant, said Putin’s push to hold the vote despite the fact that Russia has thousands of new coronavirus infections each day reflected his potential vulnerabilities.
“Putin lacks confidence in his inner circle and he’s worried about the future,” Pavlovsky said. “He wants an irrefutable proof of public support.”
Even though the parliament’s approval was enough to make it law, the 67-year-old Russian president put his constitutional plan to voters to showcase his broad support and add a democratic veneer to the changes. But then the coronavirus pandemic engulfed Russia, forcing him to postpone the April 22 plebiscite.
The delay made Putin’s campaign blitz lose momentum and left his constitutional reform plan hanging as the damage from the virus mounted and public discontent grew. Plummeting incomes and rising unemployment during the outbreak have dented his approval ratings, which sank to 59%, the lowest level since he came to power, according to the Levada Center, Russia’s top independent pollster.
Moscow-based political analyst Ekaterina Schulmann said the Kremlin had faced a difficult dilemma: Holding the vote sooner would have brought accusations of jeopardizing public health for political ends, while delaying it raised the risks of defeat. “Holding it in the autumn would have been too risky,” she said.
In Moscow, several activists briefly lay on Red Square, forming the number “2036” with their bodies in protest before police stopped them. Some others in Moscow and St. Petersburg staged one-person pickets and police didn’t intervene.
Several hundred opposition supporters rallied in central Moscow to protest the changes, defying a ban on public gatherings imposed for the coronavirus outbreak. Police didn’t intervene and even handed masks to the participants.
Authorities mounted a sweeping effort to persuade teachers, doctors, workers at public sector enterprises and others who are paid by the state to cast ballots. Reports surfaced from across the vast country of managers coercing people to vote.
The Kremlin has used other tactics to boost turnout and support for the amendments. Prizes ranging from gift certificates to cars and apartments were offered as an encouragement, voters with Russian passports from eastern Ukraine were bused across the border to vote, and two regions with large number of voters — Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod — allowed electronic balloting.
In Moscow, some journalists and activists said they were able to cast their ballots both online and in person in a bid to show the lack of safeguards against manipulations.
Kremlin critics and independent monitors pointed out that the relentless pressure on voters coupled with new opportunities for manipulations from a week of early voting when ballot boxes stood unattended at night eroded the standards of voting to a striking new low.
In addition to that, the early voting sanctioned by election officials but not reflected in law further eroded the ballot’s validity.
Many criticized the Kremlin for lumping more than 200 proposed amendments together in one package without giving voters a chance to differentiate among them.
“I voted against the new amendments to the constitution because it all looks like a circus,” said Yelena Zorkina, 45, after voting in St. Petersburg. “How can people vote for the whole thing if they agree with some amendments but disagree with the others?”
Putin supporters were not discouraged by being unable to vote separately on the proposed changes. Taisia Fyodorova, a 69-year-old retiree in St. Petersburg, said she voted yes “because I trust our government and the president.”
In a frantic effort to get the vote, polling station workers set up ballot boxes in courtyards and playgrounds, on tree stumps and even in car trunks — unlikely settings derided on social media that made it impossible to ensure a clean vote.
In Moscow, there were reports of unusually high numbers of at-home voters, with hundreds visited by election workers in a matter of hours, along with multiple complaints from monitors that paperwork documenting the turnout was being concealed from them.
At the same time, monitoring the vote became more challenging due to hygiene requirements and more arcane rules for election observers.
The Golos monitoring group pointed out at unusual differences between neighboring regions: in the Siberian republic of Tyva over 73% voted in the first five days, while in the neighboring Irkutsk region, turnout was about 22% and in the neighboring republic of Altai, it was under 33%.
“These differences can be explained only by forcing people to vote in certain areas or by rigging,” Golos said.
Observers warned that the methods used to boost turnout, combined with bureaucratic hurdles that hindered independent monitoring, would undermine the vote’s legitimacy.
“There is a big question about the results of this vote,” Melkonyants said, adding that its outcome “can’t really bear any legal standing.” | 0 | non |
902 | Title: House panel passes ban on Confederate flag on military bases
The House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday approved an amendment to ban the display of the Confederate battle flag on all Defense Department property.
The amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act was introduced by Rep. Anthony Brown (D-Md.), an Iraq War vet, and includes exceptions for museum exhibits, state-approved license plates and the gravesites of Confederate soldiers, the Military Times reported.
“Recent, tragic events have underscored how much farther we have to go to heal the racial divisions that have plagued this country since our founding,” Brown said in a statement after the vote, referring to the death of George Floyd at the hands of police and other cases of police misconduct, The Hill reported.
“Prohibiting the display of the Confederate flag — a symbol that for so many represents white supremacy, oppression and terror — in our military is an important step in that reckoning.”
The ban would include military work spaces, break rooms, living quarters, bumper stickers and personal apparel, and service members could face punishment for disobeying the order.
The move comes amid a national debate over symbols of the Confederacy, including the flag and statues of Confederate officers, that has even reached the White House.
Critics charge that allowing the flag to be displayed or the statues to remain in public space glorifies traitors who tried to destroy the Union.
Supporters, including President Trump, say they are part of the American heritage.
The Navy and Marine Corps last month banned all public displays of the Confederate flag, saying the move was made to “ensure unit cohesion, preserve good order and discipline, and uphold the Navy’s core values of honor, courage and commitment,” according to the Military Times.
Army Gen. Robert Abrams said in a statement that even though “some might view it as a symbol of regional pride, many others in our force see it as a painful reminder of hate, bigotry, treason and a devaluation of humanity … we cannot have that division among us.”
Army officials said they were reviewing the issue, but had not yet moved to ban the symbol as they awaited guidance from Defense Secretary Mark Esper.
Air Force officials had not made any changes on the issue.
If the new amendment becomes law, it would force those services and all Defense Department personnel to ban the so-called “Stars and Bars.”
But the amendment has to make its way through the full House and Senate before it would become law.
And Trump vowed to veto it if it includes a provision from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) mandating that military forts and installations named for Confederate officers such as Robert E. Lee be renamed.
“I will Veto the Defense Authorization Bill if the Elizabeth ‘Pocahontas’ Warren (of all people!) Amendment, which will lead to the renaming (plus other bad things!) of Fort Bragg, Fort Robert E. Lee, and many other Military Bases from which we won Two World Wars, is in the Bill!” the commander-in-chief tweeted.
Senators included the fort name change plan in an early draft of the legislation, but were expected to debate the move in the days ahead. | 0 | non |
903 | Title: Rudy Giuliani: BLM a Marxist group 'planning to destroy police'
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said Wednesday that Black Lives Matter is a “Marxist organization” that “has been planning to destroy the police for three years.”
The Republican and lawyer for President Trump told reporters at the White House he’s outraged by Mayor Bill de Blasio’s decision to paint “Black Lives Matter” on Fifth Avenue near Trump Tower.
“Black Lives Matter is a Marxist organization run by three avowed Marxists — go check. Black Lives Matter has been planning to destroy the police for three years. They’ve finally gotten stupid Democrat mayors to agree with them,” Giuliani said.
The former mayor, remembered for “cleaning up” the city between 1994 and 2001, said de Blasio and other Democrats are responsible for lawlessness.
“Right now murder is up 58 percent under the regressive Democrat mayor who is typical of Democrat mayors all over the country. They are a disaster. They are a danger to their people,” he said.
De Blasio is moving to cut $1 billion from the NYPD operating budget and another half-billion from its capital budget in response to nationwide protests against the killing of George Floyd by Minnesota police.
Black Lives Matter is both a diverse social movement and the name of a national organization — whose leaders include co-founder Patrisse Cullors, who described herself and fellow co-founder Alicia Garza as “trained Marxists.”
Giuliani is an unpaid attorney to Trump and did not say what he was doing at the White House.
But he blasted Trump’s Democratic challenger Joe Biden as mentally unfit for office and attacked a New York Times story that alleged Russia offered bounties to Taliban fighters to kill Americans.
“There was nothing you could do about it until it’s verified. I mean, Joe Biden would act on it. But Joe Biden remember isn’t all there. He’s not working with a full deck. If you don’t see that, there’s something wrong with you. If you don’t see that the man is cognitively impaired,” he said.
Giuliani mocked Biden’s press conference Tuesday, saying: “Yesterday during his interview he took long pauses when answering questions and he had a teleprompter. He’s having trouble reading, not just thinking.”
The source of the story is “some kind of a felon in the federal government” and a “deep state criminal” who leaked raw intelligence before it could be verified, Giuliani said.
“I can’t think of a worse crime,” the one-time US attorney said. “He should be caught and he should go to jail for 20 to 30 years.” | 0 | non |
904 | Title: Family of Vanessa Guillen say suicidal serviceman killed her
The family of missing Fort Hood soldier Vanessa Guillen said they believe her body has been found — and that a serviceman who killed himself Wednesday is responsible for her death.
“We believe that her remains were found,” family attorney Natalie Khawan said at a press conference aired by NBC News.
“We believe that the suspect has killed himself in the morning, and that, unfortunately, doesn’t provide us much information about how this happened, why this happened, why a beautiful young soldier is not with us today.”
“Protocol was breached in every manner,” Khawan said. “We lost one of our own in our own base.”
The 20-year-old soldier, a member of the 3rd Cavalry Regiment, was last seen on April 22 in the parking lot of Regimental Engineer Squadron Headquarters. Officials suspected foul play and said her car keys, room key, ID card and wallet were found in the armory where she was working.
Her disappearance sparked a nationwide search and a $25,000 reward for information.
The family now believes she may have been found — although her sister says they haven’t given up “hope.”
“The human remains have yet not been confirmed, and I won’t lose hope,” Lupe Guillen said Wednesday.
Partial remains were found in a shallow grave near the Leon River, just east of the Texas Army base, next to a burned mound that was searched by military investigators nearly two weeks ago, the Washington Post reported.
“We were standing on top of her little body,” Tim Miller, founder of the nonprofit missing-person search group Texas EquuSearch, told the outlet.
Miller said the remains were covered by concrete and appeared to be normal turf due to rainstorms, saying, “I have never seen anything like it.”
“I think this is the best outcome there could have been,” Miller said. “I was worried Vanessa was going to be one of them that was never found.”
Meanwhile, Army investigators said an unidentified serviceman believed to be tied to Guillen’s disappearance was confronted by police in Killeen near the base early Wednesday and “reportedly displayed a weapon and took his own life,” the Washington Post reported.
Police have not identified that soldier, nor a second suspect in the case — the estranged wife of a former Fort Hood soldier — who is in custody.
“The person who took his own life earlier today in Killeen after being sought by Killeen police and federal marshals was a soldier from Fort Hood and had fled the base earlier in the day,” the US Army Criminal Investigation Division said in a statement Wednesday, according to Fox News.
“A civilian has been arrested in connection with Vanessa Guillen’s disappearance. The civilian suspect is the estranged wife of a former Fort Hood Soldier and is currently in custody in the Bell County Jail awaiting charges by civilian authorities.” | 0 | non |
905 | Title: Police identify Antonio Mays Jr. as 16-year-old killed in CHOP shooting
Advertisement
The teen killed during a shooting near Seattle’s Capitol Hill Organized Protest zone has been identified as Antonio Mays Jr., according to media reports.
Mays was shot dead early Monday after driving his Jeep Cherokee near one of the makeshift barriers around the lawless area dubbed the CHOP, the Daily Mail reported.
Callers to 911 said they saw several people fire into the white SUV. A 14-year-old boy, who has not been publicly named, was also critically wounded during the shooting.
New video released by Seattle police Wednesday shows acts of violence inside the zone and gunmen prowling the streets on the night of Mays’ death.
Mays’ killing marked the second near the cop-free protest zone. A week earlier, another shooting left a 19-year-old man dead and a 33-year-old man wounded.
Cops finally moved in Wednesday to clear out the CHOP, which was created around a deserted police precinct, after the city’s mayor issued a vacate order.
For more than two weeks, protesters have occupied several blocks around the Seattle Police Department’s East Precinct, which was abandoned following standoffs and clashes with demonstrators calling for an end to police brutality after the death of George Floyd. | 0 | non |
906 | Title: Congressional Black Caucus considers next steps for reparations
Congressional Black Caucus members are planning their next legislative moves after the House passed their own Democrat-backed police reform bill — and reparations appear to be on the table.
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) says her longstanding legislation to form a commission to study reparations is gaining interest in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed black man whose killing by a white police officer sparked nationwide outrage, The Hill reports.
She told the outlet she is hoping to tap into the wave of enthusiasm to bring the bill to a vote before the end of the year.
Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.), who serves as CBC chairwoman, predicted during a recent conference call that Lee’s bill would get a vote on the House floor by the end of this session of Congress.
“It will be voted on out of committee and on the floor before this session is over,” she said.
Lee introduced the legislation in January 2019, but the bill started to gain some traction in April, when 2020 Democratic hopefuls like Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) endorsed it.
In recent months, presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden added supporting the study of reparations to his platform, which is now included on his campaign website.
The House conducted a July 2019 panel discussion on the matter, but the legislation still did not advance far enough to capture national attention.
Speaking to the Guardian in June, Lee echoed her confidence in the bill, saying that this moment in history was providing an opening for reparations.
“Look at the protests. Look at the protesters. We are winning the hearts and minds of the American people. That’s why I think the time to pass reparations is now,” she told the outlet.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) is willing to bring Lee’s bill up for a floor vote if it were to pass the Judiciary Committee, which is led by a co-sponsor of the bill, Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY).
With Nadler in control of the committee, the bill should almost certainly make it through regardless of GOP pushback.
Nadler, however, has not yet scheduled anything related to the legislation.
Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill Monday, House Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said that was likely because Democratic leaders were awaiting recommendations from the CBC before pushing any legislation.
“It is my expectation that we won’t see Chairman Nadler or the Judiciary Committee move on anything within his jurisdiction until the Congressional Black Caucus has weighed in about what our moving-forward agenda will be in the context of systemic racism in America,” he said. | 0 | non |
907 | Title: Man with bazooka walks with anti-police protesters in Missouri
Advertisement
Heavily armed men, including a man with a bazooka, marched alongside anti-police protestors in Missouri after a black man was run over by a white cop.
The so-called “People’s Protection Group” arrived in Florrisant Tuesday with a heavy arsenal of weapons to protect people following ongoing clashes with police.
Many in the group, clad in military-style clothing, arrived with AR-style rifles — while one had a bazooka slung across his body.
They were seen talking to cops and protest organizers — with the bazooka-carrying man joining the march and raising his fist in solidarity.
The protests started in early June after video showed a then-detective, Joshua Smith, hitting a black suspect with his SUV during an arrest, then chasing and attacking him.
Smith was fired after he was charged with felony assault, felony armed criminal action and misdemeanor assault. His attorney says it was an accident.
Protesters are also calling for the firing of the other two officers involved, both of whom were cleared of any wrongdoing — with the marches becoming “more aggressive and confrontational,” Florissant police said.
On Saturday, more than a dozen arrests were made as protesters “began throwing frozen water bottles, glass bottles, batteries and rocks at officers,” who fired Mace and bean bags, police said.
Four more arrests were made Monday night, with police also sharing graffiti allegedly left by protesters.
With Post wires | 0 | non |
908 | Title: Mike Pompeo wants UN to extend arms embargo against Iran
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged the United Nations Security Council to extend the arms embargo against Iran — which he described as the “world’s most heinous terrorist regime” – and stand by the international body’s commitment to “its finest ideals.”
“This chamber has a choice: Stand for international peace and security, as the United Nations’ founders intended, or let the arms embargo on the Islamic Republic of Iran expire, betraying the UN’s mission and its finest ideals, which we have all pledged to uphold,” Pompeo told the group Tuesday via a video presentation.
The secretary of state explained that unless the arms embargo is extended, Iran will hold a “sword of Damocles” over the economic stability of the Middle East and put a target on cities in the region, Europe and Asia.
“If you fail to act, Iran will be free to purchase Russian-made fighter jets that can strike up to a 3,000-kilometer [1,864-mile] radius, putting cities like Riyadh, New Delhi, Rome, and Warsaw in Iranian crosshairs,” the US’ top diplomat said.
“Iran will be free to upgrade and expand its fleet of submarines to further threaten international shipping and freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf, and the Arabian Sea,” he said.
The arms embargo against Iran is slated to expire in October as part of the Iran nuclear deal that President Trump withdrew the US from in May 2018.
“Because of the flawed nuclear deal negotiated by the previous American administration, the arms embargo on the world’s most heinous terrorist regime is scheduled to expire on October 18th, a mere four months from now. Four months,” Pompeo said.
If the US resolution to extend the arms embargo indefinitely isn’t approved — likely because of a veto from either Russia or China — Pompeo said the Trump administration would invoke a provision of the 2015 deal to reimpose all UN sanctions against Iran.
China, Russia, Germany, France, the European Union and the United Kingdom are all still part of the Iran deal.
Speaking later, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif told the Security Council that the US violated the pact by withdrawing and urged the body to lift the embargo on Oct. 18.
“The council must not allow a single state to abuse the process,” Zarif said.
Russia and China appeared to be cool toward the US resolution.
“It is obvious that the ultimate goal is to antagonize Iran and push it to radical retaliation, which will become an invitation for further sanctions,” Russia’s US Ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia said.
China’s UN Ambassador Zhang Jun said the US “has no right to trigger” the provision because Trump pulled out of the accord.
With Post wires | 0 | non |
909 | Title: AOC, de Blasio trade barbs over NYPD cuts: 'She's just wrong'
It’s a clash of the lefty titans.
Firebrand Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Mayor Bill de Blasio are engaged in another public spat — this time after Hizzoner called the lawmaker “just wrong” when she accused him of fudging his $1 billion cut to the NYPD budget.
During an interview on CNN’s “New Day” on Wednesday morning, de Blasio was asked about a statement from the congresswoman in which she said he was using “budget tricks” and “funny math” to make it look like he had defunded the city’s police department.
“Well, she’s just wrong,” he said.
“The facts are, we took money from the NYPD, put it into youth programs. We are reducing the size of the NYPD but still in a way that can keep us safe.”
Ocasio-Cortez (D-Bronx) responded Wednesday afternoon to Hizzoner’s remarks with a tweet of a New York Times report that accused Big Apple officials of achieving the cuts with a “budgetary sleight of hand: Moving school safety officers under the Department of Education.”
The sweeping reduction to the NYPD’s $6 billion budget, passed by the City Council on Tuesday evening, was made possible in part by transferring the department’s school safety cops to other city agencies — saving $349.5 million.
Meanwhile, 1,163 cops were trimmed from the department, while overtime will be reduced by $352 million.
Ocasio-Cortez, a Democratic socialist, said the budget cuts, which she described as a “disingenuous illusion,” didn’t go far enough in a statement released Tuesday.
“This is not a victory. The fight to defund policing continues,” she said. “Defunding police means defunding police. It does not mean budget tricks or funny math. It does not mean moving school police officers from the NYPD budget to the Department of Education’s budget so the exact same police remain in schools.”
The two progressives last traded blows when de Blasio praised the NYPD’s response to violent protests in the city — with AOC calling the comments “unacceptable.” | 0 | non |
910 | Title: Trump touts economic progess, warns Biden would roll back gains
President Trump on Wednesday warned that Americans’ retirement accounts and the stock market would tank if Joe Biden were elected president following the former veep’s pledge to kill the administration’s tax cuts.
“WOW. Record Growth in 2nd Quarter! Under Corrupt Joe Biden and his MASSIVE Tax and Regulation increases, Markets, and your 401k’s, will PLUNGE! Expect a Record 2021!” the commander-in-chief tweeted.
The president also retweeted a post from his son Eric echoing the same warning.
“’I’m going to get rid of most of Trump’s tax cuts’ – I’m sure that would be good for the economy, wages, jobs and 401k’s,” Eric Trump had tweeted.
Biden told potential donors to his campaign Monday that his administration would end most of Trump’s multitrillion-dollar tax cuts — even though “a lot of you may not like that,” CNBC reported.
“I’m going to get rid of the bulk of Trump’s $2 trillion tax cut,” Biden said, “and a lot of you may not like that but I’m going to close loopholes like capital gains and stepped-up basis,” according to the outlet.
Biden’s warning came as he laid out policy goals during a virtual campaign fundraiser.
The stock market on Tuesday — the end of the second quarter — scored its biggest quarterly percentage gain in more than 20 years as improving economic data bolstered investors’ confidence that the US economy was making a comeback.
The gains have been fueled by massive fiscal and monetary stimulus and the easing of restrictions imposed to combat the pandemic, analysts said. | 0 | non |
911 | Title: Brazilian man busted for running illegal bar in his pet shop
This pet shop is giving new meaning to the “hair of the dog.”
A man in Brazil put a new twist on the classic speakeasy when he was busted running an illegal bar under the disguise of a pet shop amid the country’s coronavirus shutdown, according to a report.
A total of 16 revelers were caught tossing back cold ones at a secret bar in a hidden wing of what appeared to be a pet store in the city of Petropolis, according to city authorities who raided and shut down the business.
But while there were plenty of boozehounds — there were zero actual animals inside, city officials said, according to Reuters.
“The owner served customers behind a closed door. They came in through the adjacent pet shop,” the spokesman said.
None of the down-low drinkers were wearing masks or practicing social distancing, and the owner was fined an unspecified amount.
Under the city’s lockdown, bars are not allowed to open but pet shops can because they are considered an essential service.
The shop, which was not named in the report, had pet food but lacked proper registration papers, the spokesman said.
Observers were quick to poke fun of the illicit watering hole — saying it’s the perfect spot to order a greyhound or a funky monkey.
“I’ll have a snakebite and back please,” one observer quipped on Twitter.
Others pointed out the story is also the plot of a classic episode of “The Simpsons,” titled The Beer Baron. In the episode, Moe disguises his bar as a pet shop after Mayor Quimby discovers that alcohol has been banned in Springfield for centuries.
With Post wires | 0 | non |
912 | Title: Belgium dismantles statue of former king who brutalized Congo
Belgium on Tuesday dismantled the statue of King Leopold II, the former monarch held responsible for the deaths of millions of Africans, as the country’s current king expressed his “deepest regrets” for Belgium’s colonial past.
King Philippe’s words had resounding significance since none of his predecessors went so far as to convey remorse. In a letter to the Congolese president, Felix Tshisekedi, Philippe proclaimed his “deepest regrets” for the “acts of violence and cruelty” and the “suffering and humiliation” inflicted on Belgian Congo.
The removal of King Leopold II’s statue took place only hours after Philippe’s letter was published. The monarch, who ruled Belgium from 1865 to 1909, plundered Congo and forced many of its people into slavery to extract resources for his own profit. Some experts estimate that his brutal treatment of the country left as many as 10 million Congolese dead.
After a short ceremony, Leopold’s bust in Ghent was taken away from the small park where it stood amid applause. It will be transferred to the warehouse of a Ghent city museum pending a decision from a city’s commission in charge of decolonization projects.
Belgium has long struggled to come to terms with its colonial past. But the international protests against racism that followed the May 25 death of George Floyd in the United States have given a new momentum to activists fighting to have monuments such as Leopold removed.
Meanwhile, regional authorities also promised history course reforms to better explain the true character of colonialism while the federal Parliament decided that a commission would look into Belgium’s colonial past.
After Leopold’s claimed ownership of Congo ended in 1908, he handed it over to the Belgian state, which continued to rule over the colony — 75 times Belgium’s size — until the African nation became independent in 1960.
In his letter, Philippe stressed the “common achievements” reached by Belgium and its former colony, but also the painful episodes of their unequal relationship.
“At the time of the independent State of the Congo, acts of violence and cruelty were committed that still weigh on our collective memory,” Philippe wrote, referring to the period when the country was privately ruled by Leopold II from 1885 to 1908.
“The colonial period that followed also caused suffering and humiliation,” Philippe said. “I want to express my most deepest regrets for these wounds of the past, the pain of which is today revived by discrimination that is all too present in our societies.” | 0 | non |
913 | Title: Hundreds of elephants mysteriously die in Botswana
Hundreds of elephants were found dead in Botswana in a mysterious mass-die off that has experts demanding urgent testing, according to a report.
At least 350 carcasses have been discovered near the county’s northern Okavango Delta since May, most of which were clustered around watering holes, The Guardian reported.
“This is a mass die-off on a level that hasn’t been seen in a very, very long time. Outside of drought, I don’t know of a die-off that has been this significant,” said Niall McCann, the director of conservation at the UK-based charity National Park Rescue.
“It’s a conservation disaster — it speaks of a country that is failing to protect its most valuable resource.”
The two most likely causes of death are poisoning or an unknown pathogen, however, the Botswana government has not yet tested samples so there’s no way of telling whether the animals pose a risk to people, according to the outlet.
“When we’ve got a mass die-off of elephants near human habitation at a time when wildlife disease is very much at the forefront of everyone’s minds, it seems extraordinary that the government has not sent the samples to a reputable lab,” McCann said in a reference to the coronavirus crisis.
“There is no precedent for this being a natural phenomenon but without proper testing, it will never be known.”
Witnesses say some of the elephants were seen walking around in circles — a sign of neurological impairment — and some appeared weak and emaciated.
“If you look at the carcasses, some of them have fallen straight on their face, indicating they died very quickly. Others are obviously dying more slowly, like the ones that are wandering around. So it’s very difficult to say what this toxin is,” said McCann.
Cyanide poisoning, which is often used by poachers in Zimbabwe, could be a cause of death but scavenging animals do not appear to be dying after eating the carcasses, according to local reports cited by the outlet.
Mary Rice, executive director of the Environmental Investigation Agency in London, also stressed the need for testing.
“There is real concern regarding the delay in getting the samples to an accredited laboratory for testing in order to identify the problem — and then take measures to mitigate it,” said Rice.
“The lack of urgency is of real concern…There have been repeated offers of help from private stakeholders to facilitate urgent testing which appear to have fallen on deaf ears.”
She added, “[The]increasing numbers are, frankly, shocking.”
Of the total number of elephants found dead, roughly 70 percent were near watering holes. Elephants of all ages and both sexes have been dying — an indication more could die in the coming weeks, according to experts. | 0 | non |
914 | Title: GOP kicks Republican off powerful committee for skipping meetings
House Republicans ousted one of their own from a highly influential committee — as colleagues grew frustrated that the lawmaker hadn’t been seen or heard from on Capitol Hill in months.
The sophomore class of House Republican lawmakers have voted Rep. Francis Rooney (R-Fla.) off the influential GOP Steering Committee, a House Republican leadership source confirmed to The Post.
The Steering Committee is charged with handing out committee assignments to lawmakers and includes numerous members of House GOP leadership.
Rooney, who is not seeking a third term, will be replaced on the powerful 31-member panel by Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas).
According to The Hill, Rooney was aware that the closed-door meeting on his seat was taking place, but opted not to participate.
Rep. Jack Bergman (R-Mich.) tried to reach him several times by phone, but was unsuccessful, the outlet reports.
Members of the House GOP Conference had grown frustrated with the retiring congressman in recent months, when Rooney stopped showing up for votes or meetings, even before the coronavirus pandemic sent lawmakers to their home districts, Politico reports.
The Florida Republican’s last vote, according to his website, was cast on Feb. 13, nearly a month before the pandemic forced Americans into lockdown.
“Francis has been MIA here for quite some time,” one senior GOP lawmaker told The Hill. “The group tried to have him join via telephone to discuss the issue as there was an upcoming steering committee meeting — but Francis no-showed. So, they voted to replace him.”
Another committee member described Rooney, a wealthy businessman, as being “checked out for awhile.”
When reached for comment by The Post, a spokesman for Rooney said, “Issues relating to the steering committee are supposed to be confidential, which is why I have no comment.”
Rooney had also ruffled feathers within his own party recently when he broke with Republicans and publicly expressed his support for the Democrat-backed proxy voting proposal.
Last week, Rooney designated Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) to serve as his proxy vote, filing a letter with the House Clerk confirming his decision.
Rooney wrote the letter despite the fact that House GOP lawmakers had filed a lawsuit challenging the practice and encouraged their members to not use the system.
Rooney, as first reported by Roll Call, was the first Republican to consider giving in to Democrats and embracing the practice, though he later backed away from the idea and was recorded as not voting. | 0 | non |
915 | Title: White man accused of pulling gun on black homeowner, using racial slurs
A white Florida man is facing felony hate crime charges after allegedly pulling a gun on a black homeowner during a slur-filled rant, according to a report.
Homeowner Dwayne Wynn was speaking with a neighbor on June 14 when Joseph Max Fucheck pulled up in a red Jeep Cherokee and put a real estate flyer in Wynn’s mailbox, in Miami’s Little River neighborhood, the Miami Herald reported.
Wynn walked over and removed the flyer, at which point Fucheck returned, the Herald said, got out of the Jeep — and accused Wynn of stealing the flyer from someone else’s mailbox.
“You’re a motherf—ing nosy neighbor,” Fucheck allegedly yelled. “No wonder why you have people like you getting shot because you act stupid.”
“Damn right I carry a motherf—ing gun,” he added. “I’m a 35-year-old Navy SEAL, head of the SWAT team in Hillsborough County.”
Fucheck then sped off, allegedly using the N-word before leaving.
Wynn filmed the encounter on his mobile phone, which he later turned over to police, prompting Fucheck’s arrest Tuesday.
“This incident was about much, much more than the obnoxious behavior of an irate man arming himself and screaming at someone he did not know and had no reason to fear,” Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a statement.
“With this arrest, we are alleging today that the incident was about hate and intimidation, pure and simple,” Rundle said.
Fucheck, 58, could face 30 years in prison if convicted of the assault and weapons charges.
The arrest is not Fucheck’s first brush with the law, the outlet reported — he has criminal convictions for grand theft, exploiting the elderly and obstruction of justice.
He also has been accused of stalking twice and ordered to stay away from his ex-wife’s new husband, and accused of “psychotic behavior and repeated aggression,” according to one petition. | 0 | non |
916 | Title: Gun-wielding St. Louis man says he was victim of 'terrorism'
The St. Louis man who went viral, along with his wife, for brandishing guns at Black Lives Matter protesters in their tony neighborhood claims he was the victim of “social intimidation” and “terrorism.”
In a Tuesday night interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo, Mark McCloskey, 63, reiterated statements that he and his wife, Patricia, 61, feared for their lives when they wielded their firearms outside their mansion Sunday night near protesters heading toward Mayor Lyda Krewson’s home to demand her resignation.
Cuomo questioned McCloskey about whether anything happened to his family or property.
“Yeah, it’s called social intimidation, it’s called terrorism,” he said. “Chris, what’s the definition of terrorism? To use violence and intimidation to frighten the public. That’s what was happening that night. That’s what happened to me, and that’s the damage I suffered.”
He shot down any suggestion that his actions made him the face of opposition to the Black Lives Matter movement.
“That is a completely ridiculous statement,” McCloskey said. “I was a person scared for my life who was protecting my wife, my home, my hearth, my livelihood. I was a victim of a mob that came through the gate. I didn’t care what color they were. I didn’t care what their motivation was. I was frightened, I was assaulted, and I was in imminent fear that they would run me over, kill me, burn my house.”
“I didn’t take the time to see their birth certificates or anything else,” he added. “I was defending my house, my life, my wife and what I’ve spent 32 years building there.”
Their attorney, Albert Watkins, has said the McCloskeys are longtime civil rights activists.
The pair, both personal injury lawyers, grabbed a semi-automatic rifle and a silver pistol when two or three protesters — who were white — violently threatened them and their property, Watkins has said.
They “acted lawfully” out of “fear and apprehension, the genesis of which was not race-related,” he claimed earlier this week.
“My clients are completely behind and endorsed the message of BLM,” Watkins told CNN. “What they are not capable of doing is embracing the abject utilization of that noble message that we all need to hear over and over and over again as a license to rape, rob, pillage, bowl over all of our rights.” | 0 | non |
917 | Title: ‘Throuple’ expecting first child wants girlfriend to breastfeed
Advertisement
And baby makes four!
A Colorado “throuple” says they’re expecting a child together — with the biological parents hoping their girlfriend will help breastfeed, according to a report.
Though Lo Taylor is carrying the baby, she and her husband, Mike Taylor, want to give their girlfriend, Jess Woodstock, a more hands-on role raising the little one, News.com.au reported.
“I wanted Jess to be in this baby as much as possible because it will look like me and Mike, so we want as much of her DNA as we can get too,” Lo told the outlet.
The Taylors were already married when they had a threesome with Woodstock in July 2018 that quickly progressed to something more serious.
“I remember the day after we met Jess we were at her house and we both agreed we wanted to see more of this girl, we both just loved being around her, it was organic like any normal relationship,” Lo said.
The future mom, who is due in late December, acknowledged that “some women might be funny about letting another person nurse their child.”
Woodstock said she plans to sync up her cycle and hormones with Lo to stimulate her body’s milk production, the outlet reported.
“At this point, I don’t see myself bearing a child but to still be able to have that skin-to-skin contact with this baby and being able to nurture it in that way is so important to me,” Woodstock said.
Woodstock said she finds it “special” that she can “take some of that burden off Lo so she is able to rest and recuperate.”
And she praised the expectant mom for allowing her to have such an intimate role in their growing family.
“Not a lot of women can say, ‘I’m going to take this shift off and let my girlfriend breastfeed tonight,'” Woodstock said. | 0 | non |
918 | Title: Gov. DeSantis refuses to push back Florida reopening over coronavirus
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced he won’t roll back the state’s reopening despite a recent spike in coronavirus cases, arguing that allowing people to go to work is “not what’s driving” the spread of the illness, according to a report.
“We’re not going back, closing things,” DeSantis told reporters Tuesday, according to Fox News.
“I don’t think that that really is what’s driving it, people going to a business is not what’s driving it. I think when you see the younger folks, I think a lot of it is more just social interactions, so that’s natural. Obviously, you had a lot of different activities going on in different parts of the state. … So that’s just the reality.”
DeSantis stopped short of ordering Sunshine State residents to stay home, instead urging younger people to “protect the vulnerable” by social distancing and steering clear of elderly people.
“We’re open, we know who we need to protect, most of the folks in those younger demographics, although we want them to be mindful of what’s going on, are just simply much, much less at risk than the folks who are in those older age groups,” DeSantis said.
On Sunday, DeSantis blamed young people for the recent rise in infections, saying the demographic is difficult to “control.”
“If you look at that 25 to 34 age group, that is now by far the leading age group for positive tests,” DeSantis said at a press conference. “They’re going to do what they’re going to do.”
His announcement came after leaders of other states with rising case numbers temporarily paused reopenings — including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who last week ordered all bars closed, and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, who issued a new shutdown order.
Officials in hard-hit New York and New Jersey have also debated slowing reopenings, with New Jersey pausing plans for indoor dining Monday.
Florida has reported 152,434 confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of Wednesday afternoon and at least 3,505 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. | 0 | non |
919 | Title: Nearly all soldiers in Army survival course have coronavirus
Almost every soldier enrolled in a special survival course at Fort Bragg has tested positive for COVID-19, according to the US Army.
The 90 soldiers were in the final hours of the 19-day “Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape” course at the North Carolina base when some started feeling sick, a spokesman told Task & Purpose.
All but eight eventually tested positive for the coronavirus — with eight of the 20 teachers and staff involved also infected, said Janice Burton, a spokeswoman for the course. All involved in the course are in quarantine and so far none have required hospitalization, she said.
“They had about six hours left to go, and so we pulled them out because the guys reported feeling sick,” Burton told Task & Purpose. “So they missed six hours but they finished the course.”
The course in the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School teaches soldiers how to avoid being captured by the enemy and to survive in the field, as well as resist questioning if captured.
It is part of the Army’s 53-week Special Forces Qualification Course (Q Course), Burton told Army Times. The next course has been pushed back until July 13.
“The health and wellness of our students and staff is our top priority,” said the school’s Maj. Gen. Patrick Roberson.
“We will do everything we can to protect our students and their families.”
With Post wires | 0 | non |
920 | Title: Meeks aims to replace Engel as Foreign Affairs chairman: report
With Rep. Eliot Engel facing apparent defeat in the New York primary, Democrats have already begun jostling behind closed doors to replace the chairman of the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee, multiple sources told The Post.
Rep. Gregory Meeks, one of Engel’s New York congressional colleagues, is expected to make a play for the gavel along with Rep. Brad Sherman of California — a move made all the more awkward by the fact Engel has refused to concede the race, in which he trails by 10,183 votes with 10,710 mail-in ballots yet to be counted.
“The body is not even dead yet,” said a source close to the New York congressional delegation, adding, “Meeks is trying to build support.”
Sherman is next in line to chair the panel but is expected to face a stiff challenge from Meeks, who has the backing of the influential Black Congressional Caucus.
“Greg has been on the Foreign Relations Committee the whole time he’s been in the House,” said another source close to the New York congressional delegation.
“He’s done a lot working with Caribbean countries, South America and the South Pacific,” the source added, noting the Queens lawmaker’s work on helping eradicate the drug trade in Colombia.
The source noted that Sherman has a year or two more seniority on the committee but added, “There’s not enough people of color in leadership.”
However, some of Meeks’ foreign trips have raised eyebrows, including a junket to Azerbaijan in 2013 that was paid for by the country’s state-owned oil company.
Engel, from The Bronx, has refused to concede the race for New York’s 16th Congressional District almost one week after his primary challenger, Jamaal Bowman, a Justice Democrats-backed former middle school principal, declared victory.
Despite Bowman’s large lead, Engel’s camp is holding out hope that mail-in ballots can save him. He would need nearly every single mail-in vote to go his way.
Whoever is picked for the top job will play a crucial role is helping set America’s foreign policy, particularly toward Israel, and will perform oversight of President Trump’s foreign agenda, which is currently being roiled by news of an alleged Russia-Taliban bounty on US troops.
Sherman made a play for the chairmanship in 2012 but was defeated.
Another Democratic congressional source noted that Sherman isn’t as well liked among his Democratic colleagues and said a black chairman was needed as the nation experiences a powerful reckoning on race in America.
“In this era, nobody is better suited than Greg Meeks to hold Trump accountable and begin the arduous process of repairing our relationships abroad,” the source said, noting Trump’s frosty relationship with some of America’s allies.
“He’s smart, well liked and has a tidal wave of support from the 54-member Congressional Black Caucus and others throughout Capitol Hill,” he added.
“There’s no question Greg Meeks should be the first black chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.”
Neither Sherman nor Meeks’ office responded to requests for comment. | 0 | non |
921 | Title: Elijah McClain's father wants everyone in son's death to be 'held accountable'
The father of Elijah McClain called for those responsible for his 23-year-old son’s death in police custody to be “held accountable for their actions,” as federal authorities probe the case.
“I don’t understand it, I just don’t understand it,” grieving father LaWayne Mosley told CBS News. “He’s just a bundle of joy. I mean, just my baby. My baby boy.”
McClain, a Colorado massage therapist, was stopped by cops in Aurora on Aug. 24 while walking home from a corner store and placed in a chokehold after a 911 call about a suspicious person in the area. He told police, “I can’t breathe.”
McClain, who was black, was injected with the sedative ketamine by paramedics and went into cardiac arrest. He was declared brain-dead and was taken off life support days later.
Federal officials revealed Tuesday that they have been reviewing McClain’s death as a potential civil rights violation.
Last week, Colorado officials reopened the investigation amid mounting pressure — including a petition with 3 million signatures.
“In the most obvious cases, officers shoot black people,” said Mari Newman, Mosley’s attorney, told CBS. “But likewise, Tasers can be lethal. Chokeholds can be lethal. Ketamine can be lethal.” | 0 | non |
922 | Title: Groom infects 100 guests with coronavirus, dies two days later
A wedding in India turned out to be a coronavirus super-spreader, killing the groom – whose family ignored his wishes to postpone the nuptials amid his spiking fever — and infecting more than 100 guests, according to reports.
The 30-year-old software engineer developed diarrhea and a high fever before his June 15 wedding, but his family forced him to swallow a painkiller and go through with the ceremony, which was attended by more than 360 people in Paliganj, the Hindustan Times reported.
Two days later, his condition took a turn for the worse and he died on the way to a hospital, according to the news outlet. His body was quickly cremated without being tested for the coronavirus.
All of the deceased man’s close relatives were tested for the illness on June 19 and 15 were confirmed to be infected.
In a desperate attempt to prevent the spread of the disease, a camp was set up where samples were taken from the other attendees. Of those, 86 have tested positive, officials said Tuesday.
The bride was not among those who tested positive for the bug.
“Even though he was feeling unwell by June 14 and wanted the wedding deferred, family heads from both sides advised against it, citing huge financial losses if the arrangements had to be canceled,” a relative told the Indian Express about the groom.
Another relative, who tested negative, said no one suspected that the groom had COVID-19.
“As rural areas are almost COVID-free, we were relaxed,” the relative told the news outlet.
By the day of the wedding, he was running a high temperature, raising some concerns among his relatives, who “prayed that it was not COVID infection,” the relative said.
“He performed all the pre-wedding functions after taking Paracetamol,” he added, referring to the brand name for over-the-counter acetaminophen.
Community official Chiranjeev Pandey said: “Our first priority now is to prevent the infection and break the chain. We have sealed parts of the neighboring Meetha Kuan, Khagari and some parts of the sub-urban marketplace of Paliganj.” | 0 | non |
923 | Title: Seattle PD releases video of violence in 'nightmare' CHOP zone
New video shows gunfire and violence from Seattle’s cop-free protest zone — as police finally moved in to clear it out on Wednesday.
Footage posted by Seattle police showed the frenzy unfold inside the autonomous Capitol Hill Organized Protest area over the course of the last 10 days.
“This has got to be the end of CHOP in my opinion,” says a person running from gunfire in one of the clips.
“I think it’s pretty much over after this. This is kind of a nightmare.”
The Capitol Hill Organized Protest — or “CHOP” zone — was created around a police precinct abandoned by cops during protests over the death of George Floyd, and has been beset by days of violent confrontations, including the fatal shootings of two teens.
In one clip, dated the same night 16-year-old killed Antonio Mays Jr. was killed, a person can be seen prowling the area with a long gun while others crouch behind barricades. | 0 | non |
924 | Title: Pompeo: US handled intel on possible Russian bounties 'incredibly well'
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday that US spy agencies responded “incredibly well” to intelligence on possible Russian bounties for killing US troops in Afghanistan.
Pompeo said Russia undercutting the US in the almost 19-year Taliban insurgency “is nothing new” and that members of Congress have long been aware of it.
“We took this seriously, we handled it appropriately. The Russians have been selling small arms that have put Americans at risk there for 10 years. We’ve objected to it … When I meet with my Russian counterparts, I talk with them about this each time. ‘Stop this,'” Pompeo said at a press conference.
Pompeo, a former CIA director, pivoted between coyly declining to confirm reports on the alleged bounties and describing the US response as well-handled.
“I can assure you that whatever reporting it is that you’re referring to that we responded in precisely the correct way with respect to making sure that our forces were postured appropriately,” he said.
Pompeo added, however: “The CIA’s put out a statement, the DNI has put out a statement. But I can tell you, the intelligence community handled this incredibly well.”
Democrats this week blasted President Trump over a report that said he was briefed — but did not act — on intelligence that Russia paid bounties to kill US troops. Members of Congress received briefings on the specific intelligence after the report.
US intelligence leaders deny Trump was briefed and say the information was unconfirmed. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Tuesday the intelligence may never be confirmed because it leaked.
Pompeo questioned Democrats in Congress who are claiming to be “shocked and appalled.” He said lawmakers have long had information on Russia’s role in Afghanistan.
“The fact that the Russians are engaged in Afghanistan in a way that’s adverse to the United States is nothing new,” Pompeo said. “So members of Congress are out there today suggesting that they are shocked and appalled by this, they saw the same intelligence that we saw. So it would be interesting to ask them what they did when they saw whatever intelligence is that they are referring to. They would have had access to this information as well.”
Trump tweeted Wednesday that the initial report on the alleged bounties was written “to slander me & the Republican Party.”
“I was never briefed because any info that they may have had did not rise to that level,” Trump wrote.
The report, however, created Republican divisions on Trump’s plan to include Russia in the next G-7 summit meeting. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday he opposes the idea. Pompeo said it was Trump’s call, but that “we need to talk to the Russians.” | 0 | non |
925 | Title: Rayshard Brooks: Ex-cop Garrett Rolfe released on $500K bond
The ex-Atlanta cop charged with murder in the shooting death of Rayshard Brooks was released from jail on a $500,000 bond, according to reports.
Garrett Rolfe, 27, made bail just hours after an Atlanta judge set the bond in the June 12 police shooting that sparked outrage throughout the Georgia city and beyond, CNN reported Wednesday.
Rolfe walked out of the Gwinnett County Jail shortly after midnight, the sheriff’s office told the outlet.
Rolfe surrendered at the jail on June 18, and faces 11 charges in Brooks’ death, including felony murder.
The ex-cop is charged with shooting Brooks in the back twice as he fled police outside a Wendy’s fast-food restaurant in the city. A second cop at the scene, Devin Brosnan, faces aggravated assault charges in the case and was put on administrative leave after the shooting.
Prosecutors had asked Fulton County Superior Court Judge Jane Barwick that Rolfe remain in jail without bail, or, at minimum, that bail be set at $1 million. But the judge ruled that Rolfe had ties to the community and did not represent a flight risk. | 0 | non |
926 | Title: Christopher Columbus statue removed outside Columbus City Hall
A statue of Christopher Columbus was taken down in Columbus, Ohio, Wednesday morning amid renewed criticism over the legacy of the explorer.
Crews arrived around 3 a.m. with a crane to remove the bronze statue from its perch outside Columbus City Hall, news station WBNS reported.
The statue, which will be placed for safekeeping in a city facility, had been a gift from the people of Genoa, Italy, in 1955.
But Columbus’ namesake city has experienced renewed calls to re-evaluate symbols associated with him — as critics characterize him as a symbol of white supremacy responsible for the destruction of indigenous cultures.
Mayor Andrew Ginther announced last month that the statue would be coming down, saying it doesn’t represent the city’s values, news station WSYX reported.
“For many people in our community, the statue represents patriarchy, oppression and divisiveness,” Ginther said. “That does not represent our great city, and we will no longer live in the shadow of our ugly past.”
He asked the Columbus Art Commission to evaluate the diversity and inclusiveness of all public art, including other monuments, statues and art installations.
Several statues of Columbus across the country have been vandalized or torn down in recent weeks — including one toppled by protesters in Richmond, Virginia, and another that was beheaded in Camden, New Jersey. | 0 | non |
927 | Title: Jared Kushner shakes up Trump campaign team after Tulsa rally
White House senior adviser Jared Kushner is shaking up his father-in-law’s re-election team, “reassigning” the campaign official in charge of organizing rallies after the smaller-than-advertised Tulsa event debacle, a campaign official tells The Post.
Kushner tapped Jeff DeWit, who previously served as chief financial officer of NASA and COO of President Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, to replace Trump campaign chief operating officer Michael Glassner.
Glassner worked on the 2016 campaign and had been serving as 2020 COO since December 2016.
The news was first reported Tuesday evening by Axios.
Glassner was described by one source familiar with the situation as the fall guy in the aftermath of the rally, where the campaign saw an attendance of 6,000 people, after predicting crowds of about 100,000.
Despite Glassner taking the fall, individuals within the campaign did not view him as necessarily responsible for what went wrong in Oklahoma.
Under Glassner and campaign manager Brad Parscale, the team went about planning the Tulsa rally the same way they had organized previous campaign events.
As one source told Axios, “He did what he always did, and it just didn’t work post-COVID.”
“I think he knew he was going to take the punishment for this,” the source added. “It was on his watch.”
Glassner will now be handling the campaign’s various lawsuits.
The decision by Kushner appears to have been made without much input from Trump or Parscale.
The commander in chief was not made aware that Glassner was turned into the scapegoat before the decision was made to “reassign” him, the New York Times reports. Parscale, meanwhile, was not told either, according to Bloomberg.
In a statement to The Post, campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said, “This is not a reaction to Tulsa.”
“Michael Glassner is moving into the long-term role of navigating the many legal courses we face, including suits against major media outlets, some of which will likely extend beyond the end of the campaign. He is one of the founding members of Team Trump and his dedication to the success of the President is unmatched.”
Kushner plays an unofficial yet towering role on the campaign team. Top campaign officials report back to the nation’s most powerful son-in-law with updates on significant campaign matters on a regular basis.
Since December, he has been overseeing a major attempt to overhaul the Republican Party platform ahead of the November election.
The effort is being led by campaign adviser Bill Stepien in tandem with the Republican National Committee, with all involved reporting back to Kushner with any developments.
Trump’s son-in-law has told confidants he wants to shrink the GOP’s exhaustive manifesto of party positions down to the size of a single card that could fit in people’s hands. | 0 | non |
928 | Title: Florida teacher busted after bragging about oral sex with teen
A Florida teacher has been charged with having oral sex with a 15-year-old boy at a school graduation ceremony — getting busted after bragging about it to other guests, according to officials.
Middle school teacher Leslie Bushart, 49, told investigators that she was drunk when she took the juvenile aside at the Lakeland ceremony to try to smoke marijuana with him, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.
“She said, ‘I was so intoxicated that I couldn’t light it — so instead, I had oral sex with a 15-year-old boy,'” Sheriff Grady Judd said Friday of the teacher’s alleged confession.
“She said to us, “Yeah, I kinda do that when I get drunk,'” Judd said.
Soon after her encounter with the teen, Bushart — a teacher for 29 years — confessed to other guests, who told the boy’s mother, Judd said.
“And you can imagine that she wasn’t too pleased about that set of circumstances,” the sheriff said of the showdown at the graduation for the boy’s sister’s class.
Confronted, Bushart fled the party — but soon contacted the boy’s mom on Facebook Messenger to try to justify her assault by saying she was drunk, the department said in a release.
She was arrested Thursday and charged with lewd battery after her confession, the statement said.
Records show she was still in Polk County Jail as of Wednesday morning, held without paying $15,000 bond. An attorney was not listed.
“It shocks our conscience that a school teacher of all people would do such a thing,” the sheriff said, adding she “needs to go to state prison for her conduct.”
Bushart — who was earning $48,769 a year — was placed on administrative leave and Polk County Public Schools is moving forward with her termination, a spokesman told the Ledger. | 0 | non |
929 | Title: Trump sends condolences to widow of prominent Japanese activist
President Trump has written a letter of condolence to the widow of a prominent Japanese activist who died recently without ever seeing his daughter who was abducted by North Korea in 1977.
Yokota Megumi was 13 when she vanished on her way home from school in Niigata, in northwestern Japan, but it wasn’t until two decades later that it was revealed that the Hermit Kingdom was behind the abduction.
Her father, Yokota Shigeru, died June 5 at age 87.
He and his wife Sakie, along with several other families of Japanese nationals kidnapped by North Korea, formed a group in 1997 that has worked to raise awareness about the abductions, the Japan Times reported.
“The First Lady and I are saddened to learn of the loss of your husband Shigeru,” the president wrote Tuesday in a letter addressed to the widow.
“It was my great honor to meet you and your husband during my visit to Japan in 2017. I was moved by your unflinching determination to reunite with your daughter Megumi and to ensure that all families of abductees know the truth regarding the whereabouts of their loved ones,” Trump wrote.
“Thanks to the tireless advocacy of you and your husband, the North Korea abduction issue remains a primary focus for Japan and the United States. We join you and your sons, Takuya and Tetsuya, in continuing this important work to finally bring Megumi home.”
Sakie thanked Trump for his message and pledged to continue efforts to bring Megumi back, Japan’s NHK reported.
Japan claims that North Korea abducted at least 17 people to train agents in Japanese language and culture to spy on South Korea.
Pyongyang has confirmed that Megumi was abducted but has since alleged that she struggled from depression and died by suicide in 1994, according to UPI — but the family has never accepted that claim.
Trump raised the abductions issue during his summits with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in 2018 and 2019. | 0 | non |
930 | Title: Italian police seize record amount of amphetamines shipped from Syria
ROME – Italian police said on Wednesday they had seized about 14 tonnes of amphetamine pills worth around 1 billion euros ($1 billion) arriving from Syria, in what they described as the world’s single largest operation of its kind.
Investigators said they impounded three container ships that had docked in the southern Italian port of Salerno and found 84 million pills of the drug Captagon inside machinery and large paper cylinders for industrial use they were carrying.
“It is possible that the local Camorra crime groups are involved in this business,” Lieutenant Colonel Giordano Natale told Reuters.
Used in the 1960s to treat narcolepsy and depression, Captagon is one of several brand names for fenethylline hydrochloride, a drug compound belonging to a family of amphetamines that can inhibit fear and ward off tiredness.
Captagon is popular in the Middle East and widespread in war-torn areas such as Syria, where conflict has fuelled demand and created opportunities for producers.
Production was initially concentrated in Lebanon and the Islamic State group sells it to finance its activities, police said in a statement.
It said Captagon was known as the “drug of the Jihad” after being found in militant hideouts, including one used by the Islamists who killed 90 people at the Bataclan theatre in Paris in 2015.
Italian authorities believe the coronavirus lockdown cross Europe has hindered the production and distribution of synthetic drugs, forcing traffickers to organize shipments from Syria, where these activities have not slowed down.
In a raid two weeks ago, Italian police seized 2,800 kg (6,172 pounds) of hashish and 1 million Captagon pills in the port of Salerno. The shipment was hidden among counterfeit clothing items. | 0 | non |
931 | Title: Australia to lock down 300,000 in Melbourne suburbs after coronavirus spike
MELBOURNE – Authorities will lock down more than 300,000 people in suburbs north of Melbourne for a month from late on Wednesday to contain the risk of infection after two weeks of double-digit rises in new coronavirus cases in Australia’s second-most populous state.
Australia has fared better than many countries in the pandemic, with around 7,920 cases, 104 deaths and fewer than 400 active cases, but the recent jump has stoked fears of a second wave of COVID-19, echoing concerns expressed in other countries.
Globally, coronavirus cases exceeded 10 million on Sunday, a major milestone in the spread of a disease that has killed more than half a million people in seven months.
From midnight, more than 30 suburbs in Australia’s second-biggest city will return to stage three restrictions, the third-strictest level in curbs to control the pandemic. That means residents will be confined to home except for grocery shopping, health appointments, work or caregiving and exercise.
The restrictions will be accompanied by a testing blitz that authorities hope will extend to half the population of the area affected and for which borders will be patrolled, authorities said. The measures come as curbs ease across the rest of the state of Victoria, with restaurants, gyms and cinemas reopening in recent weeks.
Victoria recorded 73 fresh cases on Tuesday from 20,682 tests, following an increase of 75 cases on Monday. State premier Daniel Andrews warned on Wednesday that the return of broader restrictions across city remained a possibility.
“If we all stick together these next four weeks, we can regain control of that community transmission … across metropolitan Melbourne,” Andrews said at a briefing. “Ultimately if I didn’t shut down those postcodes I’d be shutting down all postcodes. We want to avoid that.”
Victoria’s spike in cases has been linked to staff members at hotels housing returned travelers for which quarantine protocols were not strictly followed. Victorian state authorities have announced an investigation into the matter.
“We’ve had an increase in cases but they’re almost all in a very defined geographic area,” said acting chief medical officer Paul Kelly.
“Most of the cases are continuing to be based on family clusters … (which) have this single link back to quarantine failure in a couple of hotels in central Melbourne. So that leads me to think this is not a widespread issue at the moment.”
Some other Australian states and territories are preparing to open borders, but applying limits and quarantine measures to citizens of Victoria as the school holiday season gets underway.
South Australia, the country’s fifth-most populous state, has had just three new cases in the past month. But citing the spike in coronavirus infections, on Tuesday it canceled its scheduled reopening to other parts of the nation.
New South Wales (NSW), Australia’s most populous state, has stopped short of closing its borders to all Victorians, but those holidaying from hotspot areas – not permitted under NSW rules – can be handed a fine of A$11,000 ($7,596) or jailed if they are detected, state authorities said. State cases rose by 14 overnight, all returned travelers in quarantine.
The delays reopening internal borders cast doubts over a federal plan to set up “travel bubble” with neighboring New Zealand that would allow movement between the two countries. | 0 | non |
932 | Title: Trump blasts de Blasio for NYPD cuts, 'denigrating' Fifth Avenue
President Trump blasted Mayor Bill de Blasio after the New York City Council approved slashing the NYPD’s budget by $1 billion, urging the Big Apple to spend the money “fighting crime.”
“NYC is cutting Police $’s by ONE BILLION DOLLARS, and yet the @NYCMayor is going to paint a big, expensive, yellow Black Lives Matter sign on Fifth Avenue, denigrating this luxury Avenue,” the president wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.
“This will further antagonize New York’s Finest, who LOVE New York & vividly remember the horrible BLM chant, ‘Pigs In A Blanket, Fry ‘Em Like Bacon’. Maybe our GREAT Police, who have been neutralized and scorned by a mayor who hates & disrespects them, won’t let this symbol of hate be affixed to New York’s greatest street. Spend this money fighting crime instead!” Trump continued.
About two hours later, de Blasio responded on Twitter, telling the president “here’s what you don’t understand.”
“Black people BUILT 5th Ave and so much of this nation. Your ‘luxury’ came from THEIR labor, for which they have never been justly compensated. We are honoring them. The fact that you see it as denigrating your street is the definition of racism,” he said in a posting.
De Blasio later announced that he’ll be there Thursday morning when the painting begins.
The city council just after midnight Wednesday passed an $88.1 billion budget that cuts $1 billion in spending from the police department.
NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea on Tuesday called the cuts “concerning” and warned they would “impact our ability, I believe, to keep New Yorkers safe in some way, shape and form.”
“Cutting overtime, cutting head strength at a time of rising crime, is going to be an extreme challenge for the men and women of this department — extreme,” Shea said.
The cuts come as the rate of shootings has increased in the city.
The NYPD recorded 63 shootings between June 22 and last Sunday — an increase of 26 from the same one-week period last year. | 0 | non |
933 | Title: Seattle mayor orders clearing out of police-free 'autonomous zone'
Seattle’s no-cop “autonomous zone” is finally being cleared out following a vacate order issued by the city’s mayor early Wednesday.
Mayor Jenny Durkan authorized police to remove protesters who are “unlawfully occupying Cal Anderson Park area” — dubbed the Capitol Hill Organized Protest zone.
“Persons who refuse or intentionally fail to obey this closure order to move and disperse from the area will be subject to arrest,” says the order, posted online.
Durkan also ordered police to set up a “security buffer” around the area, which includes the East Precinct. Police abandoned the station house on June 8 — when protesters took over City Hall before camping out outside the building.
The dismantling of the CHOP comes after two teens were shot and killed in the zone that spans multiple blocks in the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood.
“As I have said, and I will say again, I support peaceful demonstrations. Black Lives Matter, and I too want to help propel this movement toward meaningful change in our community,” said Police Chief Carmen Best. “But enough is enough. The CHOP has become lawless and brutal. Four shootings — two fatal — robberies, assaults, violence and countless property crimes have occurred in this several block area. ”
Dozens of officers in riot gear and armed with batons moved in around 5 a.m. to announce they were clearing out the area — then gave protesters eight minutes to comply, KOMO News reported.
Cops used bicycles to push protesters back about five feet at a time, while warning them to disassemble or face arrest — and the possible use of chemical weapons, according to MyNorthwest.
They then began tearing down tents and wooden barricades.
“A lot of chaos, you hear many, many voices,” Debora Killman, who was sleeping in a tent, told KOMO News. “But then I heard on the megaphone it’s either going to be the police or National Guard so that’s when I started saying OK, it’s time to get up.”
Most demonstrators appeared to peacefully leave CHOP and nearby Cal Anderson Park, according to reports.
Police said on Twitter that as of 9:25 a.m. local time, 31 people were arrested as of early Wednesday morning on failure to disperse, obstruction, assault and unlawful weapons possession charges.
One of those arrested, a 29-year-old man, had a “large metal pipe and kitchen knife” on him when he was taken into custody, they said.
Cops also said city workers found “improvised” spike strips — designed to deflate car tires — in the area of CHOP.
Best said she wasn’t sure when the East Precinct would reopen.
The so-called leaderless autonomous zone had descended into violence, with a 16-year-old boy shot dead on Monday, about a week after a 19-year-old man was gunned down in the area.
Both victims were black, according to local reports. | 0 | non |
934 | Title: White man confronts black woman driving in her neighborhood: video
A black Massachusetts woman shared a disturbing video of a white man following her in his BMW as she drove in her own neighborhood — accosting her to ask what she was doing in the area.
“I just got Karen’d? This man followed me home because I went to pick up DOG FOOD at somebody’s house!” Julia Santos, 21, tweeted, using the term for entitled white women in social media, after the man stopped her while she was driving home in Groveland on Monday.
The driver of the convertible Beemer cornered her on a side street and began peppering her with questions about what she was doing in her neighborhood, where she has lived her entire life, about 35 miles north of Boston, the Boston Globe reported.
“So what are you driving up Juniper Terrace for?” the creep asks.
Santos explained that she had just picked up the dog food after seeing a post online offering free chow.
“I don’t feel safe right now,” she then says.
“You don’t feel safe? I don’t feel safe with you driving around in my neighborhood,” he replies.
“Why?” Santos asks.
“Too many people,” he says.
“Or is it because I’m black? Is that why?” Santos asks.
“No,” he says. “I don’t know what color you are. What color are you?”
After a couple of minutes, a neighbor watching the conversation from her car chides the man for harassing Santos.
“I don’t like the fact that this poor girl is being harassed,” the neighbor is heard saying.
“I don’t like the fact that she’s in my neighborhood,” the man says.
Santos told the Boston Globe that she was still “a little shaken up” by the incident, which has gone viral on social media.
“But I am so happy and relieved about the amount of support I’ve received inside and outside my community,” she said, adding that while she has experienced her “fair share of racism” in her life, it was “nothing as scary as this.”
“I honestly wasn’t sure what was going to happen,” she told the newspaper. “I am so relieved my neighbor was there and I have no idea what could’ve happened to me if she wasn’t.”
She said the incident “represents where we are right now as a country.”
“I just think especially in this racial climate, some people are walking on eggshells,” she added. “Meanwhile, some people … have just gone full racist mode.”
Groveland Police Chief Jeffrey Gillen said he was “deeply disturbed” by the incident, which is being investigated.
Police said they have identified and spoken with the man who accosted Santos, but did not release his name.
“The fact that a resident of our town could face accusation and be followed around like a criminal should make everyone stop in their tracks and consider how we treat one another,” Gillen told the Globe.
“On a personal note, I have lived in this area for my entire life and have been a police officer here for more than 30 years,” he added.
“I have met many of the families in Groveland, including the victim’s family, and watched families grow here. … Our job as police officers is to not only keep people safe but also feel safe in Groveland.” | 0 | non |
935 | Title: Portland police use tear gas to break up rioters
Police used tear gas to disperse rioters wreaking havoc in Portland, Oregon, Tuesday night, new video shows.
The footage shows the moment canisters of 2-chlorobenzylidene malononitrile, commonly called CS gas, are deployed in an effort to break up the crowd, as some protesters take out their phones to record the incident.
“CS gas is being used, disperse from the area,” a warning blared from a speaker.
Police said the riot was declared in the area of North Lombard Street around 10 p.m. after protesters set off commercial-grade fireworks at officers and tried to set fire to dumpsters and trash cans in the middle of the street.
The demonstrators were throwing “full cans, baseball sized rocks, and water bottles at officers,” police said in a statement.
Protests have been raging in the city over the past few weeks. | 0 | non |
936 | Title: UN says 140 million females `missing’ due to son preference
UNITED NATIONS — More than 140 million females are considered “missing” today because of a preference for sons over daughters and extreme neglect of young girls leading to their death, the UN Population Fund said in its annual report released Tuesday.
The agency, known as UNFPA, also said 1 in 5 marriages that take place today is to an underage girl and an estimated 4.1 million girls are at risk this year of being subjected to female circumcision, also known as female genital mutilation, or FGM, which has been condemned by the United Nations.
Dr. Natalia Kanem, UNFPA’s executive director, said: “Harmful practices against girls cause profound and lasting trauma, robbing them of their right to reach their full potential.”
According to the State of World Population 2020 report, at least 19 harmful practices ranging from breast ironing to virginity testing affect millions of girls and are considered human rights violations. The report focuses on the three most prevalent — gender bias, child marriage and female genital mutilation.
According to the report, “the preference for sons over daughters may be so pronounced that couples will go to great lengths to avoid giving birth to a girl or will fail to care for the health and well-being of a daughter they already have in favor of their son.”
UNFPA called the preference for sons “a symptom of entrenched gender inequality” that has distorted population ratios in countries, making it unable for large numbers of men to find partners and have children. The agency said it can also exacerbate gender-based violence including rape, coerced sex, sexual exploitation, trafficking and child marriage.
As for child marriage, the report said the practice “is commonly imposed on girls by family members, community members or society at large, regardless of whether the victim provides, or is able provide, full, free and informed consent.”″
Child marriages are almost universally banned, UNFPA said, “yet they happen 33,000 times a day, every day, all around the world — cutting across countries, cultures, religions and ethnicities.”
The report said 650 million girls and women alive today were married as children and it said 200 million women and girls alive today are affected by FGM.
UNFPA chief Kanem said laws alone are not enough to end these practices.
“We must tackle the problem by tackling the root causes, especially gender-biased norms,” she said in a statement. “We must do a better job of supporting communities’ own efforts to understand the toll these practices are taking on girls and the benefits that accrue to the whole of society by stopping them.”
The report calls for restructuring economies and legal systems to guarantee women equal opportunities. As an example, it says changing rules for property inheritance can eliminate a powerful incentive for families to favor sons over daughters and help eliminate child marriage.
The report said investments totaling $3.4 billion a year through 2030 would end child marriage and female genital mutilation and end the suffering of an estimated 84 million girls. | 0 | non |
937 | Title: Robert E. Lee descendant supports removal of Confederate symbols
A descendant of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee says it’s a “no brainer” to remove Confederate symbols — even ones that honor his ancestor.
The Rev. Robert Lee IV, who is the fourth great-nephew of the general, said he grew up with the Confederate flag in his bedroom, but now believes the symbol has come to represent “white supremacy and racism,” ABC News reported.
“I celebrated the fact that I was related to the man who was the standard-bearer for that flag,” he said. “But as I’ve grown, I’ve learned that there is an importance to address what’s going on now and to see it for what it is — white supremacy and racism have been the basis for the celebration of that flag for a long time.”
He said Confederate monuments and emblems should be removed from public spaces as a matter of “justice” in the nation.
“This is a no brainer. This is an issue of justice and of peace,” he told the outlet. “[If] we want peace in our time and the ability to [have] equality … we must do that by addressing the monuments not only in stone and in bronze, but elsewhere as well.”
His comments come as Confederate symbols have become a flashpoint for groups that say they are demonstrating against racial injustice and police brutality.
Several Confederate statues have been taken down — and plans were announced to topple one of Gen. Lee in Richmond, Virginia.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves also ordered the removal of the Confederate battle emblem from the state’s flag.
Rev. Lee said he wanted to address the debate over symbols of the Confederacy “not only for my namesake’s sake but also [because of] the reality that this is about more than just me.”
He said his family history has “meant a lot” to him, but “there’s no distinction between fighting for your home state, which was ultimately for the state’s right to enslave people.”
“Even if he was fighting for his home state of Virginia, he was fighting for the continued enslavement of black people,” he said. “That to me is just not something that we can have in our city squares, that’s not something we can have in our schools, that’s not something we can celebrate.” | 0 | non |
938 | Title: Trump warns that Democrats would dismantle police departments across US
President Trump pointed to a news report about the Minneapolis City Council moving to dismantle the police department to warn that Democrats would take the same action across the country.
“‘Minneapolis City Council unanimously approves proposal to disband police.’ @TIME,” the president tweeted on Wednesday. “The Democrats would do this all over the U.S. It would be a disaster for safety & security!”
The Time article, which ran online on June 26, said the city council voted 12-0 to approve a proposal to change the city charter to allow the police department to be broken up.
The report said draft language of the amendment would replace the police department with a Department of Community Safety and Violence Prevention and prioritize a “public health-oriented approach.”
The move comes amid nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers on May 25.
The rallies have called for defunding the police as well as racial justice.
The New York City Council early Wednesday in a 32-17 vote passed the city’s $88.1 billion budget that included slashing the NYPD’s budget by $1 billion.
Axios, citing figures from Local Progress, a group that advocates for racial and economic justice and has tracked the issue, said at least 19 cities, including Philadelphia, Baltimore, Portland and Seattle, have voted to shift funds from their police departments to other social and community resources.
Other cities looking to change how their police departments operate include Washington, DC, Chicago, Milwaukee, Denver, San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Oakland, Durham and Winston-Salem. | 0 | non |
939 | Title: AOC letter on Israel's West Bank annexation has BDS support
A letter penned by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, with the backing of a dozen lawmakers, on the issue of Israel’s possible annexation of the West Bank boasts the endorsements of multiple backers of the movement to boycott Israel.
The letter, sent by Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, warns that the annexation would “lay the groundwork for Israel becoming an apartheid state,” and pledges that the lawmakers would work to block future aid to the country.
“Should the Israeli government continue down this path, we will work to ensure non-recognition of annexed territories as well as pursue legislation that conditions the $3.8 billion in U.S. military funding to Israel to ensure that U.S. taxpayers are not supporting annexation in any way.”
“We will include human rights conditions and the withholding of funds for the offshore procurement of Israeli weapons equal to or exceeding the amount the Israeli government spends annually to fund settlements, as well as the policies and practices that sustain and enable them,” the New York Democrat cautioned in her letter to the nation’s top diplomat.
Co-signers on the letter include Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), according to Politico, which obtained a copy of the letter.
Also included are a list of groups endorsing the letter, many of which are linked to the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, which calls for those actions against Israel. Boycotts, divestment and sanctions would be a form of economic warfare.
According to the Washington Free Beacon, which also obtained a copy of the letter and its proponents, almost all of the organizations are BDS-associated in some way, including the five mentioned by the outlet: the American Friends Service Committee, the American Muslims for Palestine, Churches for Middle East Peace, the Defense for Children International – Palestine and the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights.
The Defense for Children International – Palestine once also faced accusations of having ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a US- and European Union-designated terrorist organization.
The organization has denied any terror connections.
The West Bank was taken by Israel from Jordan in 1967 and Palestinians hope it will form the core of their own country one day. Israel already has annexed East Jerusalem, which also was taken from Jordan, and the Golan Heights, which Israel took from Syria during the same 1967 war.
Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden has said he does not support conditioning aid to the Middle Eastern ally under any circumstances, but opposes Israeli “occupation” of the hotly contested area.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not letting the opposition stand in his way, however, saying this year that he’s “confident” the US will approve his plan.
The scope of the possible annexation remains unclear, but it may include Israeli settlements in the West Bank and a strip of land along the Jordan River. | 0 | non |
940 | Title: Stepmom of ex-cop Garrett Rolfe decries 'war on police'
The stepmother of former Atlanta cop Garrett Rolfe says she was fired in a “political move” after the officer was charged with Rayshard Brooks’ murder — claiming they are both victims of a “horrible war on police officers.”
Melissa Rolfe told Fox News on Tuesday that her boss at Equity Prime Mortgage was initially supportive after the June 12 shooting — even offering her 8 weeks’ paid leave.
“I offered to work from home and he said ‘No, no don’t worry about it. Your job is safe,'” Rolfe said. “‘Don’t worry about anything … Just take care of your family.'”
But she was “just stunned” when she was fired as the firm’s HR director in a 56-second call on June 18 — just after she had dropped off her 27-year-old stepson to hand himself in on felony murder charges.
She was accused of creating an “uncomfortable working environment” — but insisted, “I hadn’t been back.”
Instead, she believes she was axed for publicly supporting her stepson and other cops in Facebook posts.
“They have completely defamed me,” she told Fox News, insisting it was a “political move” connected to the wave of anti-police protests.
Equity Prime Mortgage told Fox it had “no further comment.”
Rolfe’s father is still working full-time, and the fired cop has been getting donations to help with legal fees, his stepmom told the network.
She urged people to “withhold your judgment” and “let the truth come out” in her stepson’s case, decrying the “bad timing” of the deadly arrest amid an uprising over police-custody deaths.
“We have a horrible war on police officers, and it needs to end,” she told the outlet.
She urges people to stand with the police, thank them for their service and buy them a meal if they can.
“We’re trying to pass that along because this movement is so much bigger than just Garrett,” Rolfe said. “We would really like to get the word out to say thank you to a police officer.”
Father-of-four Brooks, 27, was shot twice in the back by Rolfe after he stole a Taser while trying to escape arrest after falling asleep in his car in a Wendy’s drive thru.
Rolfe was fired just hours after the shooting and faces 11 charges, including felony murder. He could face the death penalty if convicted. | 0 | non |
941 | Title: South Korean president wants third Trump, Kim Jong Un meeting
South Korean President Moon Jae-in wants President Trump and Kim Jong Un to meet soon to resume stalled nuclear negotiations, a Seoul official said Wednesday.
Moon’s suggestion for another US-North Korea summit came during a video conference with European Council President Charles Michel on Tuesday.
“I believe there’s a need for North Korea and the United States to try dialogue one more time before the US presidential election,” a presidential official quoted Moon as saying.
“The issues of nuclear programs and sanctions will ultimately have to be resolved through North Korea-US talks.”
Moon’s office reached out to Washington about a possible meeting and officials there are making efforts to resume talks, the South Korean official said.
Trump and Kim met for the first time in 2018 in Singapore — where the two leaders signed an agreement pledging that Pyongyang would give up its nuclear weapons.
Their second summit in early 2019 in Vietnam was cut short.
Trump and Kim met again in June of that year at the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas and agreed to restart negotiations. But the talks between the two sides stalled in October.
With Post wires | 0 | non |
942 | Title: Hong Kong police arrest over 300 in first protest under new law
Hong Kong police arrested more than 300 people Wednesday as thousands of defiant demonstrators gathered in Hong Kong to protest Beijing’s new national security law — while the UK offered a new path to citizenship for almost 3 million eligible residents of its former colony.
Hong Kong police fired water cannon and tear gas as protesters took to the streets to vent against the sweeping security legislation introduced by China that they say is aimed at stifling dissent.
In Causeway Bay, the retail center of the island territory, cops raised a flag warning crowds they were violating the new law, but pro-Democracy demonstrators still gathered, resulting in hundreds of arrests by nightfall.
Protesters remained undaunted.
“We are on street to [protest] against national security law. We shall never surrender. Now is not the time to give up,” tweeted Joshua Wong, a Hong Kong activist with more than 600,000 followers on Twitter.’
On the first full day the tough new law was in place, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam admitted the civil unrest that had rocked the city for months last year was sparked by past failures, but claimed that the national security law showed “Beijing’s confidence” in the city, the South China Morning Post reported.
Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the path to citizenship because, he said, Hong Kong residents’ freedoms were being erased by the new law.
“It violates Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy and threatens the freedoms and rights protected by the joint declaration,” Johnson said, the BBC reported.
“We made clear that if China continued down this path we would introduce a new route for those with British National [Overseas] status to enter the UK, granting them limited leave to remain with the ability to live and work in the UK and thereafter to apply for citizenship. And that is precisely what we will do now.”
About 350,000 UK passport holders, and 2.6 million others who are eligible, will be able to come to the UK for five years, and after a further year, they can apply for citizenship.
British National Overseas Passport holders in Hong Kong were granted special status in the 1980s but until now had restricted rights and were only entitled to visa-free access to the UK for six months.
Johnson also said Tuesday’s passing of the law was a “clear and serious breach” of the 1985 Sino-British joint declaration — which set out how certain freedoms would be protected for the 50 years after China assumed control of the colony in 1997, the news service reported.
Hong Kong’s autonomy was guaranteed under the “one country, two systems” agreement enshrined in the Sino-British Joint Declaration signed by then Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said Britain had carefully assessed China’s national security legislation since it was published late on Tuesday.
“It constitutes a clear violation of the autonomy of Hong Kong, and a direct threat to the freedoms of its people, and therefore I’m afraid to say it is a clear and serious violation of the Joint Declaration treaty between the United Kingdom and China,” Raab told Reuters and the BBC.
Authorities in Beijing and Hong Kong have repeatedly said the legislation is aimed at a few “troublemakers” and will not affect rights and freedoms, nor investor interests.
“China, through this national security legislation, is not living up to its promises to the people of Hong Kong,” Raab said. “We will live up to our promises.”
Asked about how the West should deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Raab said the international community needed to act.
“Obviously, China is a leading member of the international community. And it is precisely because of that, that we expect it to live up to its international obligations and its international responsibilities. For trust in China’s ability to do that, today has been a big step backwards.”
In response to the crackdown, the US said it would no longer deliver certain weapons to Hong Kong for fear they would fall into the hands of the mainland’s Communist government.
The US also imposed visa restrictions on Communist Party officials involved in the crackdown.
With Reuters | 0 | non |
943 | Title: Trump: Russia-Taliban bounty report is a 'Fake News Media Hoax'
President Trump on Wednesday said the reports about the Russians offering Taliban fighters a bounty to kill American troops has not been corroborated and claimed they are part of a “hoax” to make him and other Republicans look bad.
“‘No corroborating evidence to back reports.’ Department of Defense. Do people still not understand that this is all a made up Fake News Media Hoax started to slander me & the Republican Party,” the president posted on Twitter. “I was never briefed because any info that they may have had did not rise to that level.”
The New York Times and other media outlets reported that Trump was briefed about the bounties earlier this year but failed to take any action against Russia.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Tuesday that the reports are wrong about Trump being briefed. She said the president “does read” his daily briefings.
“This president, I’ll tell you, is the most informed person on planet Earth when it comes to the threats that we face,” she said.
McEnany went on to slam “rogue intelligence officers” who are putting national security at risk by leaking classified information.
“These are rogue intelligence officers who are imperiling our troops’ lives,” McEnany said. “We will not be able to get — very likely not be able to get a consensus on this intelligence because of what was leaked to the New York Times.” | 0 | non |
944 | Title: Air Force pilot killed in F-16 crash in South Carolina
An Air Force fighter jet pilot assigned to the 20th Fighter Wing in South Carolina was killed during a training mission late Tuesday, officials said.
The pilot from the Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter was the sole occupant of the F-16CM Fighting Falcon when it crashed about 11:30 p.m., according to Military.com.
The pilot’s name has not yet been released.
“We ask that you respect the family, and the squadron’s privacy as we complete this process,” 20th Fighter Wing Commander Larry Sullivan said.
The accident remains under investigation.
The 20th Fighter Wing, the largest F-16 unit in the Air Force, has fought in every major American conflict since World War II — and has often been the “tip of the spear” in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Military.com reported. | 0 | non |
945 | Title: Bride rushes to help crash victim while in her wedding dress
Here comes the bride, all dressed in white — putting her fresh nursing degree to use to help an accident victim.
Newly hitched Rachel Taylor, 22, and her hubby, Calvin, 23, were en route to their new home in Grove Heights, Minnesota, recently when they witnessed an accident, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported.
A black Chevy Tahoe barreled through an intersection and slammed into a pair of vehicles that had collided a few minutes earlier as their occupants were sorting things out, according to the outlet.
Tamara Peterson, whose son had been in one of the two crashed vehicles, had just arrived at the scene and was standing nearby when she was struck by the Tahoe.
“I saw a couple of people dragging a woman over to the side of the road,” Rachel told the Pioneer Press. ”I could see a gash in her right leg. I think I saw her bone in it.”
Her nursing instincts kicked in as she scooped up her dress and rushed to the stricken woman’s side, holding her and keeping her calm until an ambulance arrived, the outlet reported.
Meanwhile, Calvin snapped a heartwarming photograph of his wife and shared it on Facebook.
“My rockstar of a bride gets out of the car, wedding dress and all, and rushes over to help while I called 911. Rachel held this woman and talked to her so nicely and helped her as well as the paramedics that came later,” he wrote.
“She held her for at least 15 minutes until the EMTs got her on a stretcher,” Calvin said.
In nursing school, Rachel learned how to help keep women in labor calm.
“I just talked to her. I said, ‘You’re so strong. You’re so brave. I’m so proud of you,’” she told the paper, adding that she “just went into nurse mode.”
“It seemed pretty natural. I was pretty surprised. I’ve always been lacking in confidence about my nursing abilities so it was nice to see that in a situation like that, I knew what to do,” Rachel added.
Peterson expressed her appreciation for her “gifted angel,” saying, “She was awesome and helped save my life by keeping me focused, and calm.”
After the woman was taken away in the ambulance, Rachel said, she felt “frazzled” and amazed at the turn of events on her special day — but things got back on track and the couple headed to Montana the next day for their honeymoon.
“I am so blessed to have a wonderful wife who will always take care of people who need it, and we were blessed that we were able to be in the right place at the right time to make a difference,” Calvin wrote on Facebook.
“I am still blown away that she got out of the car in a scary situation to do what she does best. I can’t wait for a hospital to scoop her up so she can make a difference in people’s lives every day. I am so proud of my wife.” | 0 | non |
946 | Title: Dad of Seattle CHOP shooting victim says it must be shut down
The father of a 19-year-old man who was one of two people shot and killed in Seattle’s Capitol Hill Organized Protest zone said the no-cop “autonomous” area must be shut down.
“This doesn’t look like a protest to me no more,” said Horace Lorenzo Anderson, Kiro7 reported. “That just looks like they just took over and said, ‘We can take over whenever we want to.'”
Anderson’s son, also named Horace Lorenzo Anderson, was killed early June 20 in the shooting that also injured a 33-year-old man.
The father’s comments came Monday — hours after the shooting death of a 16-year-old boy in the lawless zone.
Both teen victims were black, according to Kiro7.
Anderson said it’s also time to call back the National Guard.
“They should deployed them here to say, ‘Man, it’s time to go,'” he said. “‘It’s time to move on. And break this up.'”
Protesters who say they are calling for racial justice have taken over several blocks surrounding Seattle’s now-abandoned East Precinct for weeks now, dubbing the so-called leaderless area the CHOP.
One demonstrator claimed the group opened fire in the latest shooting because they were being shot at.
“We need to defend ourselves,” a man named Colby told Kiro7. “We need to retaliate. We need to exercise our Second Amendment right.” | 0 | non |
947 | Title: Buffalo activist Martin Gugino released from hospital
Buffalo protester Martin Gugino has been released from the hospital nearly a month after he was pushed by two police officers, causing him to fracture his skull.
The 75-year-old activist left Erie County Medical Center on Tuesday and is able to “walk with a little help,” his lawyer Kelly Zarcone said.
He’ll continue his recovery at an undisclosed location after receiving death threats.
“I was able to see Martin today and he looks great,” Zarcone said, according to WBFO. “I brought him the cards and letters sent to my office and he said he still felt overjoyed at the continued support and well wishes, ‘like it was Christmas Day.’”
Video from the June 4 incident showed Gugino approaching a line of Buffalo police officers in Niagara Square and two of them shoving him, causing him to stumble backwards, fall and smack his head on the pavement.
Other officers strolled by as Gugino lay there, blood pouring out from the back of his head.
The two cops, Robert McCabe and Aaron Torgalski, were immediately suspended and charged with second-degree assault. They have pleaded not guilty.
Zarcone previously said Gugino suffered a brain injury.
Gugino, a lifelong activist who’s well known in the area, was marching as part of the widespread protests in the wake of George Floyd’s police-involved death in Minneapolis on May 25.
“Martin said that he is pleased at the progress made so far to protect the safety of peaceful protesters, a topic near and dear to his heart,” Zarcone said. “He respects the burden of authority placed upon law enforcement but looks forward to the continued implementation of systemic changes to eliminate police brutality.” | 0 | non |
948 | Title: Harvard grad threatens to 'stab' anyone who says 'all lives matter'
A recent Harvard University graduate claims she is getting death threats over a TikTok video she made in which she threatened to stab anyone who tells her that “all lives matter.”
Claira Janover, who graduated in May with a degree in government and psychology, went viral after posting a short clip in which she attacked anyone with “the nerve, the sheer entitled caucasity to say ‘all lives matter.'”
“I’ma stab you,” the Connecticut native said, zooming in close on her face.
“I’ma stab you, and while you’re struggling and bleeding out, I’ma show you my paper cut and say, ‘My cut matters too,'” she added.
Ann Coulter was one of those who shared the clip, calling Janover an “Asian Karen,” while many others called for the student’s arrest.
“This woman is threatening people, who knows what she is capable of,” someone called Mr. Len wrote in reply.
“Does this not count as violent speech? I guess it only counts when it fits the narrative,” another follower asked on Twitter.
By Tuesday, Janover had posted updates responding to the “insane” reaction that included numerous death threats, she said.
“Story time for why the Department of Homeland might be monitoring my name right now,” she started one of the updates.
Janover claimed the clip was “clearly” an “analogous joke,” pointing out that she even posted a message with it explicitly stating: “For legal reasons this is a joke.”
“And people are like reporting me for domestic terrorism, tagging the FBI, Harvard, Cambridge police,” she said.
“Apparently I’m threatening the lives of people — unlike cops, obviously,” she said.
“Anyway, so If I get an email from the Department of Homeland Security or I get kicked out of Harvard or I get arrested or whatever — or I get murdered, according to the many death threats that I’m receiving right now — know that I appreciate you guys standing up for me,” she said as she posted a series of supportive messages.
In an earlier post, she had laughed over many of the angry responses her TikTok got — including one suggesting she could be a Chinese spy with a Western-sounding name to help infiltrate the US.
One called her the c-word, while another wrote, “Maybe someone should stab her for being oppressive! She is the problem, and all like her!”
“They quite literally did blow up my Twitter,” she said.
Just before midnight Tuesday, Janover tweeted about the “death, rape, expulsion, and firing threats” she got.
“I will not be silenced, shamed, or threatened into silence by bigoted trump fans who don’t understand analogies,” she wrote.
Her message received a lot of support — along with numerous replies of “all lives matter,” with some telling her, “You reap what you sow.”
“I’m the bigot if I don’t like your violent hate speech. Riiiight. You’re one sick person,” one person told her.
I'm the bigot if I don't like your violent hate speech. Riiiight. You're one sick person.
— Cyanna (@CyannaSoLoud) July 1, 2020
Another noted the irony of her complaint given that it was started by threats of violence.
“‘I WILL STAB YOU IF YOU DISAGREE WITH ME!!!’ … two hours later … ‘Help! people are saying mean and hurty things to me,'” one person wrote.
Janover was the president of Harvard’s Model Congress Middle East, a nonprofit that teaches high school students about the American government and international politics. She previously worked at Planned Parenthood Action in Connecticut, her Facebook says.
Harvard has yet to comment and officials there could not be immediately reached early Wednesday. | 0 | non |
949 | Title: US buys nearly all global stock of coronavirus drug remdesivir
The US has bought almost the entire global supply of remdesivir, the anti-viral drug that can speed the recovery of patients infected with the coronavirus.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar announced earlier this week an agreement to secure large quantities of the medication from Gilead Sciences until September, allowing US hospitals to buy it.
“President Trump has struck an amazing deal to ensure Americans have access to the first authorized therapeutic for COVID-19,” Azar said in a statement.
“To the extent possible, we want to ensure that any American patient who needs remdesivir can get it. The Trump Administration is doing everything in our power to learn more about life-saving therapeutics for COVID-19 and secure access to these options for the American people.”
HHS said it secured more than 500,000 treatment courses of the drug.
“This represents 100 percent of Gilead’s projected production for July (94,200 treatment courses), 90 percent of production in August (174,900 treatment courses), and 90 percent of production in September (232,800 treatment courses), in addition to an allocation for clinical trials,” it said.
Remdesivir will cost $3,120 for the typical patient with private health insurance, the drugmaker said Monday, adding that it will cost hospitals about $520 per dose for privately insured patients.
The shorter, more common course of treatment would work out to $3,120, while the longer duration would cost $5,720, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The anti-viral drug is the only one approved by the European Medicines Agency to treat coronavirus patients, according to Euronews.
Another drug found to have an effect on coronavirus patients is the steroid dexamethasone, which reduces the number of deaths in the most severely ill patients by up to a third, the news outlet reported, citing British researchers.
“They’ve got access to most of the drug supply [of remdesivir], so there’s nothing for Europe,” Dr. Andrew Hill, senior visiting research fellow at Liverpool University, told the UK’s Guardian.
“This is the first major approved drug, and where is the mechanism for access? Once again we’re at the back of the queue,” he said.
Hill added the UK could still get its hands on remdesivir through what is known as a compulsory license, which overrides the intellectual property rights of the company.
That would allow the UK to purchase from generic companies in Bangladesh or India, where Gilead’s patent is not recognized, the Guardian reported. | 0 | non |
950 | Title: Trump threatens to veto defense bill to keep Confederate base names
President Trump threatened to veto what is considered a must-pass $740 billion defense spending bill unless it drops a requirement introduced by Sen. Elizabeth Warren to rename US military bases that honor Confederate leaders.
“I will Veto the Defense Authorization Bill if the Elizabeth ‘Pocahontas’ Warren (of all people!) Amendment, which will lead to the renaming (plus other bad things!) of Fort Bragg, Fort Robert E. Lee, and many other Military Bases from which we won Two World Wars, is in the Bill!” the president said in a tweet late Tuesday.
Meanwhile, acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf on Wednesday announced the creation of a task force for “protecting our nation’s historic monuments, memorials, statues, and federal facilities.”
“DHS is answering the President’s call to use our law enforcement personnel across the country to protect our historic landmarks,” Wolf said in announcing the Protecting American Communities Task Force.
“We won’t stand idly by while violent anarchists and rioters seek not only to vandalize and destroy the symbols of our nation, but to disrupt law and order and sow chaos in our communities,” he added.
The Republican-led Armed Services Committee last month approved a motion requiring the Pentagon to rename military bases and assets named after Confederate leaders — defying the president, who warned them not to support the measure.
The committee approved the amendment to the annual defense bill that will establish a commission to rename all Pentagon assets that bear the name of Confederate generals within the next three years.
Cities have begun removing statues honoring Confederate leaders as the nation engages in an emotional conversation about race and civil rights in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of a white Minneapolis cop.
In a previous tweet, Trump expressed his disapproval of the measure.
“Seriously failed presidential candidate, Senator Elizabeth ‘Pocahontas’ Warren, just introduced an Amendment on the renaming of many of our legendary Military Bases from which we trained to WIN two World Wars. Hopefully our great Republican Senators won’t fall for this!” he wrote June 11. | 0 | non |
951 | Title: Body of one of three missing men found on Mount Rainier
The body of one of three skiers who were reported missing last weekend was found Monday in Washington’s Mount Rainier National Park.
Matthew Bunker, 28, was found dead in a crevasse at the base of a cliff by rescue helicopters and search parties, according to CNN, citing the National Park Service.
The Seattle native was skiing at an altitude of more than 10,400 feet when he fell. The cause of his fall is still being determined.
“We extend our deepest condolences to Matthew’s loved ones and friends … It brings us a great degree of sorrow to be unable to bring him home to his family,” said Deputy Superintendent of Mount Rainier National Park, Tracy Swartout.
Bunker, who served in the military for five years, went missing in the same area that six other skiers went missing back in 2014.
The two other men, Vincent Djie, who disappeared on June 19th, and Talal Sabbagh, who went missing on June 21st, still have yet to be found.
“Each and every person that goes missing on Mount Rainier is deeply concerning. Our collective hearts ache with the families and loved ones of those who remain missing, who are seeking solace and answers during some of the most difficult days of their lives,” Swartout said. | 0 | non |
952 | Title: Florida man stuck on property with 200+ exotic birds
Now he’s the one stuck in a cage.
Majid “Magic” Esmaeili lives in and operates a bird sanctuary near Tampa Bay, Florida, but due to a property dispute with his neighbor, it’s ‘technically illegal’ for him to leave.
Esmaeili owns and operates the Zaksee Parrot Sanctuary in Tampa, Florida, where he takes care of hundreds of rescued parrots, macaws, cockatoos, and other exotic birds. However, the sanctuary is surrounded on all sides by other properties, and the only path out winds through another tract whose owners recently placed locks on the gates — effectively trapping Esmaeili inside.
“I have absolutely no way to get out,” he told a local Fox affliliate.
Esmaeili says he also ran out of food for himself recently, but has been able to subsist on bananas and bamboo shoots that grow in the sanctuary, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
He had been relying on volunteers to bring food for him and the birds, but most volunteers were either senior citizens or students at the nearby colleges — but those resources dried up as the coronavirus began to ravage the state. He says it may be months before his student volunteers come back to the university.
Esmaeili bought the property for the sanctuary from Lynda Fowler, who operates a business of her own next door: In the Breeze Farms Inc., a ranch and horseback riding center that offers programs for children. Esmaeili told the local Fox station that when he bought the property, he came to an understanding with Fowler that he could use a path on her ranch to get to and from his sanctuary.
Fowler told Fox 13 she got tired of Esmaeili for being a bad neighbor, and decided to lock her gate as retribution.
“I operate a horseback riding ranch and children’s camp, and he jumps out of the woods looking like a madman, because he lives back there, and he makes the children cry,” she told the Tampa Bay Times.
In court, Esmaeili said he spent $10,000 and four years to build the entrance that Fowler locked. She won the recent court battle, but Esmaeili and his lawyers, who are working pro bono, say they intend to appeal the case.
“Let’s say he is trying to repair something and breaks his leg. It’s technically illegal for him to leave his property,” said his lawyer Samuel Alexander. “Yet if he calls an ambulance, that ambulance will use the road he built with his bare hands and drive across the In the Breeze property and pick him up.”
Esmaeili has been raising money to buy food and continue fighting his court case with a drive on GoFundMe. He has currently raised over $3,000 from over 100 donors. | 0 | non |
953 | Title: Arizona ammo supplier to Las Vegas massacre gunman gets prison time
An Arizona man who authorities said sold illegal tracer and armor-piercing bullets to the Las Vegas massacre gunman was sentenced to prison Tuesday, according to multiple reports.
Douglas Haig, 57, of Mesa, will spend 13 months in federal prison for manufacturing ammunition without a license, according to Nicholas A. Trutanich, U.S. attorney for the District of Nevada. Haig had pleaded guilty to the federal charge last November.
“This case arose out of the investigation into the Oct. 1, 2017, mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest music festival in Las Vegas,” prosecutors said. “In the hotel room from which the shooter staged his attack, investigators located a box with a shipping label setting forth Haig’s name and address.”
Still, Haig was not accused of a direct role in the shooting that killed 58 people and injured more than 850 — described as the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. Senior U.S. District Judge James Mahan imposed the sentence but separated Haig from the actions conducted by the gunman, Stephen Paddock.
Paddock killed himself as responding law enforcement officers moved in on him, authorities have said. His precise motivation for the shooting remains a mystery.
“The person who did that, who committed that reprehensible act, we can only hope now that he’s being punished for eternity,” Mahan said, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “He’s escaped punishment on this earth.”
Defense attorney Marc Victor added that Haig had no indication of the plans by the gunman.
“Doug was absolutely devastated when he learned of the tragedy,” Victor said.
Haig illegally sold various types of ammunition between July 2016 and October 2017, court documents showed, according to Fox 5 Vegas. A fingerprint examination found his prints on two pieces of armor-piercing ammunition removed from a magazine in the shooter’s hotel room, prosecutors said.
Agents from the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) conducted a series of interviews with Haig, starting on Oct. 2, 2017, where he admitted to meeting the shooter and selling him ammunition. Haig reportedly was not authorized to sell the ammunition and didn’t have a federal firearms license, prosecutors said, according to the station.
Agents seized “hundreds of rounds of ammunition and ammunition components” on Oct. 24, 2017, after executing a search warrant at Haig’s residence. Ammunition or firearms-related equipment was found in nearly every room, including a workshop they said was converted into an ammunition manufacturing operation that Haig was in the process of automating, according to prosecutors.
He reportedly used the workshop to conduct a business named Specialized Military Ammunition where he sold the ammo on the internet and at gun shows around the country. Paddock also purchased the ammunition from Haig through the business, which he closed permanently following the FBI raid, the paper reported.
Victor had previously argued that as the only person to face a criminal charge following the shooting, Haig could not be fairly judged by a jury drawn from the trauma-scarred Las Vegas community. Mahan had ordered Haig, an aerospace engineer, to self-surrender to the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) by Oct. 2, 2020.
In September, Haig’s lawyers are expected to ask the judge to consider the possibility of the coronavirus pandemic leaving him susceptible to serious illness before he is scheduled to start serving his sentence, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Mahan said BOP officials can decide whether Haig may serve some of his prison time at home. | 0 | non |
954 | Title: California smashes daily coronavirus record with over 8,000 confirmed cases
California recorded its highest daily coronavirus count for the third time in just over a week on Monday with 8,000 infections while also surpassing 6,000 deaths, officials said.
The uptick comes as the virus continues to make a resurgence after months of unprecedented orders to combat its spread. Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday that hospitalizations have increased 43 percent over a two-week period, as well as a 37 percent increase of patients admitted to intensive care units during the same time period.
The COVID-19 positivity rate increased to nearly 6 percent, he said.
Other states and communities are also grappling with an increase in infections, prompting some to reimpose safety protocols.
Los Angeles County — the epicenter of the virus in the state — ordered all beaches closed for the July 4th weekend after an “alarming” spike in new COVID-19 cases. Texas officials ordered bars closed for a second time and Arizona has temporarily closed: bars, gyms, water parks, movie theaters and nightclubs.
Calfornia is monitoring 19 counties amid a spike in cases and hospitalizations in those locations. An additional four could be included Wednesday, Newsom said. Statewide, nearly 223,000 people have tested positive for COVID-19.
In a dire warning Monday, Los Angeles County health officials reported that 1 in 140 people are infected. The previous data suggested 1 in 400 people.
“We are seeing an increase in transmission. We’re seeing more people get sick and go into the hospital,” said Dr. Christina Ghaly, the county’s director of health services. “This is very much a change in the trajectory of the epidemic over the past several days. It’s a change for the worse and a cause for concern.”
On Tuesday, Newsom announced that new restrictions are being pondered as case numbers increase ahead of the holiday weekend. He didn’t get into specifics.
He also voiced concerns about large gatherings, particularly family gatherings.
“Tomorrow we’ll be making some additional announcements on efforts to use that dimmer switch’ that I’ve referred to and begin to toggle back on our stay at home order and tighten things up,” he said. “The framework for us is this: If you’re not gonna stay home and you’re not gonna wear masks in public, we have to enforce, and we will and we’ll be making announcements on enforcement tomorrow.” | 0 | non |
955 | Title: Boston Art Commission votes to remove statue of Lincoln with freed slave
The Boston Arts Commission voted unanimously Tuesday night to remove a public monument depicting President Abraham Lincoln standing before a freed slave.
The Emancipation Memorial in Park Square — a replica of the original standing in Washington, D.C. — will be taken down with an art conservator “to document, recommend how the bronze statue is removed, supervise its removal and placement into temporary storage,” the motion reads.
“As we continue our work to make Boston a more equitable and just city, it’s important that we look at the stories being told by the public art in all our neighborhoods,” Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, who supported the statue’s removal, said in a statement.
Opponents of the statue voiced criticisms since its installation in 1879, Walsh noted. They argue not against Lincoln but the statue’s depiction of a freed slave, which they described as the result of toxic view held by slaveholders and even abolitionists.
Originally designed and sculpted by Massachusetts native Thomas Ball, the controversial statue shows Lincoln with one hand raised above a kneeling, shirtless man with broken shackles on his wrists.
“After engaging in a public process, it’s clear that residents and visitors to Boston have been uncomfortable with this statue, and its reductive representation of the Black man’s role in the abolitionist movement,” Walsh wrote.
The vote came in response to an online petition that collected more than 12,000 signatures calling for the statue to be removed amid nationwide protests over the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd.
A date for the statue’s removal has not yet been set. | 0 | non |
956 | Title: Fauci urges Americans to stop going to bars 'right now'
As coronavirus cases are rising in a number of states, Dr. Anthony Fauci is calling out one culprit in particular for the spike: bars.
Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in a Senate hearing Tuesday that people should stop going to bars “right now” — just as states like Texas and Florida, both of which have seen a dramatic uptick in the number of cases, were recently forced to close their bars a second time to stem the spread of the virus.
“Congregation at a bar, inside, is bad news,” Fauci said. “We really got to stop that right now.”
“I think we need to emphasize the responsibility that we have both as individuals and as part of a societal effort to end the epidemic that we all have to play a part in that.”
Texas, which until recently was fully open for business, has now become one of the latest epicenters of the virus, logging almost 6,000 new cases daily.
In addition to his dire warning about social distancing, Fauci said he would not be surprised if the US reached over 100,000 new cases of the virus a day.
“We are now having 40-plus thousand new cases a day. I would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around. And so I am very concerned … it could get very bad.”
As of Tuesday, the US has more than 2.6 million confirmed cases of coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University. | 0 | non |
957 | Title: Anthony Fauci, CDC slam airline plans for full flights amid COVID-19
The nation’s top infectious disease experts on Tuesday slammed airlines planning full flights as the coronavirus continues to spread throughout the country.
Several US airlines have stated they’re limiting capacity on planes to between 60 and 67 percent.
But, United Airlines has not promised to leave seats empty, and American announced last week that it will drop such measures and begin filling its flights to the brim beginning Wednesday as companies try to increase revenue.
“Obviously that is something that is of concern. I’m not sure what went into that decision making,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told a Senate panel.
“I think in the confines of an airplane that becomes even more problematic,” he added.
Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, joined Fauci in expressing “substantial disappointment” in the company’s decision.
“I can say this is under critical review by us at CDC. We don’t think it’s the right message,” Redfield added.
The heads of United and American airlines argued that it’s impossible to maintain social distancing on a plane — even with middle seats empty — and that other safety measures are being taken, like mask-wearing, enhanced cleaning and air-filtration systems.
“It’s less about social distancing and it’s more about the air and quality of air onboard the airplane that makes people safe,” said United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby.
American Airlines spokesman Ross Feinstein said the company has “multiple layers of protection in place for those who fly with us, including required face coverings, enhanced cleaning procedures, and a pre-flight COVID-19 symptom checklist.”
American flyers have the option of changing flights if they feel their flight is too full, Feinstein added.
After multiple reports that airlines were not enforcing their own mask mandates, United, American and Delta by last week announced that they will be banning passengers who refuse to cover their nose and mouth.
The policies come as airlines look to recoup enormous financial losses due to the pandemic, which brought a 95 percent drop in passengers during April.
Passengers have slowly begun flying again, but travel is still down 75 percent from normal.
With Post wires | 0 | non |
958 | Title: Publisher unaware of Mary Trump’s NDA, already printed copies
The publisher of Mary Trump’s potentially explosive tell-all memoir reportedly revealed in a Tuesday night court filing that the company already printed 75,000 copies of the book — after publication was temporarily blocked earlier in the day.
Simon & Schuster also wrote it was only recently made aware of the nondisclosure agreement the author signed as part of a dispute over the 1999 will of President Trump’s father, Fred Trump, the Washington Post reported.
The president had said publication of the book — “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man” — would violate the nondisclosure agreement.
“We did not learn anything about Ms. Trump signing any agreement concerning her ability to speak about her litigation with her family until shortly after press broke concerning Ms. Trump’s Book about two weeks ago,” Simon & Schuster CEO Jonathan Karp said in an affidavit obtained by the newspaper.
Karp wrote that the company learned of the agreement “well after the Book had been accepted, put into production, and printing had begun.”
Of the 75,000 printed copies of the book, due to be released July 28, Karp said “thousands” of them “have already been shipped.”
The company in a statement said it intends to appeal a Tuesday ruling by a New York judge, Hal Greenwald, that blocked the book’s publication until a hearing between both sides July 10 over whether it should be permanently quashed.
A lawyer for Mary Trump, Ted Boutrous, also vowed to immediately appeal the decision, according to Politico.
Boutrous called the injunction “a prior restraint on core political speech that flatly violates the First Amendment.
“This book, which addresses matters of great concern and importance about a sitting president in an election year, should not be suppressed even for one day,” the lawyer said. | 0 | non |
959 | Title: Feds have been investigating Elijah McClain's death since 2019
Federal law enforcement officials on Tuesday revealed that they’ve been investigating the death of Elijah McClain since it happened last year.
In a joint statement, the Denver division of the FBI, the Colorado US Attorney’s Office and the Department of Justice said they’ve been reviewing the case for potential civil rights violations since 2019.
“The matter is ongoing, and we are in the process of gathering additional evidence from the Aurora Police Department and other parties,” the statement said.
The agencies acknowledged that the disclosure was unusual, since their standard practice is to not discuss the existence or progress of ongoing probes.
“However, there are specific cases in which doing so is warranted if such information is in the best interest of the public and public safety,” the statement said.
“Recent attention on the death of Elijah McClain warrants such disclosure.”
The August 2019 death of Elijah McClain has drawn new attention amid the nationwide protests against racism and police brutality sparked by the May 25 slaying of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
McClain, a 23-year-old massage therapist, was placed in a chokehold by Aurora cops on Aug. 24 of last year after someone called 911 to say that he looked suspicious.
He was also injected with the sedative ketamine by paramedics during the arrest and had a heart attack in the ambulance. McClain was declared brain dead three days later, before being taken off life support.
Gov. Jared Polis last week appointed Attorney General Phil Weiser to look into McClain’s death and possibly prosecute those involved following a flood of social media posts over the encounter and a petition, with over 4 million signatures, calling for an investigation into the matter.
The three cops involved in the stop were also put on non-enforcement duty. They had been placed on leave last August, but returned to the force when a local prosecutor said there was insufficient evidence to support charging them.
In their statement, the feds said they were “aware” of reports that some Aurora Police officers were put on leave during an internal probe into an offensive picture they allegedly appeared in.
Those officers were allegedly photographed reenacting the chokehold maneuver used on McClain near a memorial for him over the weekend.
The Aurora Police Department announced Monday that the cops were suspended with pay pending an investigation into the matter.
“We are gathering further information about that incident to determine whether a federal civil rights investigation is warranted,” the feds’ statement said.
“We will have no further comment until both of those reviews are completed.” | 0 | non |
960 | Title: Alabama students partied knowing they had virus: official
Students and teens recently partied around an Alabama county — despite knowing they were infected with the coronavirus, a local report said Tuesday.
Tuscaloosa Fire Chief Randy Smith said he discovered that “students or kids” with “known positives” had been attending parties in the county and city over the last few weeks.
The fire chief made the revelation during an agenda briefing for a Tuscaloosa City Council meeting, where lawmakers later passed an ordinance mandating that people wear masks in public places.
Smith said he believed the information to be a rumor at first — but that doctors’ offices and even the state confirmed it.
There have been 1,986 reported COVID-19 cases in the county and 38 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.
Statewide, there have been at least 37,536 recorded infections and 926 fatalities — but the average number of daily recorded cases has recently been surging.
More than 850 new cases were reported Tuesday, and 44 people were hospitalized. More than 20 people died, according to data from the Alabama Department of Public Health. | 0 | non |
961 | Title: Trump deploying federal officers to protect monuments on July 4th
The Trump administration will reportedly deploy specially trained federal officers to protect American monuments during the Fourth of July weekend.
The Department of Homeland Security will dispatch the units to Seattle, Portland and Washington D.C., after ongoing civil unrest over the police killing of George Floyd has carried on for more than a month, according to a memo obtained by Fox News.
“The upcoming July 4th holiday weekend has the potential for increased disruptive activity at specific locations across the country that could threaten our personnel and the Federal facilities and property they protect,” according to the memo, written by acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf. “DHS will be forward leaning in preparing to protect federal facilities and property.”
The DHS is tapping its Rapid Deployment Teams (RDTs) from the Protecting American Communities Task Force (PACT), which include police who are trained to handle crowd and riot control.
It is not immediately clear how many officers will be sent to each city and with what equipment they will be provided to protect statues from being vandalized.
Additional teams will be at the ready to be deployed to other locations should the officers been needed elsewhere, Fox News reported.
The effort is the latest in a multi-faceted approach President Trump has taken to aggressively clamp down on American protesters who have defaced or toppled statues with ties to slavery or racism across the country
Trump last week signed an executive order promising the pursual of the harshest federal punishments possible for those caught damaging statues.
The order also allows for the federal government to withhold funding to local law enforcement agencies if they’ve “failed to protect public monuments.”
Trump himself shared images of protesters suspected of attempting to tear down a monument to President Andrew Jackson nearby the White House earlier last week.
Protesters had targeted the slave-owning seventh president, whose Indian Removal Act forced the violent, sometimes deadly displacement of tens of thousands of Native Americans from their ancestral homes on millions of acres in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina and Florida.
Trump had followed up defending the statue, calling it “magnificent.”
To further target protesters, Attorney General Bill Barr announced Friday he was forming a new government task force focusing on “anti-government extremists.” | 0 | non |
962 | Title: Judges question warrants in Kraft massage prostitution case
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Florida appellate judges on Tuesday questioned the legality of search warrants that let police secretly video record New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and others paying for massage parlor sex, pressing a prosecutor on his contention that the warrants were legally valid.
Deputy Solicitor General Jeffrey DeSousa found himself repeatedly queried by the three-judge panel as he tried to persuade them that the warrants and searches met all constitutional protections and that they should overturn lower court rulings that barred the recordings’ use at trial.
Misdemeanor charges against Kraft, 79, and other customers would have to be dropped if those rulings stand, although felony charges against the spa owners might proceed as there is other evidence against them.
Kraft and others were charged in February 2019 in a multi-county investigation of massage parlors that included the secret installation of video cameras in the spas’ lobbies and rooms. Police say the recordings show Kraft and other men engaging in sex acts with women and paying them.
Police say they twice recorded Kraft, a widower, paying for sex at the Orchids of Asia massage parlor. Kraft has pleaded not guilty but issued a public apology.
Judge Robert Gross, who presided at the Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal hearing, seemed taken aback by DeSousa’s contention that he and his colleagues should primarily consider the plain language of the Fourth Amendment. It says judges can issue warrants if police demonstrate probable cause of a crime, that warrants must specify the place to be searched and what can be seized.
Gross told DeSousa he seemed to be ignoring numerous rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court expanding Fourth Amendment protections since the 1960s, including some that restrict electronic surveillance by police.
“You are getting us off on the wrong foot by focusing on the language of the Fourth Amendment when we should be focusing on the Supreme Court jurisprudence….that is heavily weighted against you,” Gross told DeSousa.
The 90-minute hearing included arguments on whether cameras were necessary; on whether the police violated the privacy of customers who simply received massages; and on the proper sanction if the defendants’ rights were violated.
The attorneys for Kraft and the other defendants argued that police failed to minimize the privacy violations they committed by recording innocent customers, including women, who received legal massages.
“These cameras, that were put into private massage rooms where patrons would be undressing as a matter of course, they recorded everything,” Kraft attorney Derek Shaffer said. He said Kraft “had the same reasonable expectation of privacy that any massage patron going to a licensed facility would be entitled.”
Attorneys also argued the cameras weren’t necessary as police already had enough evidence to charge the spa owners, including bank records, website advertising, outside video surveillance and napkins containing bodily fluids retrieved from garbage bins.
The only proper punishment for prosecutors and police, they argued, is to throw out all recordings.
DeSousa argued that police and prosecutors need the recording to convict the owners of felonies. The owners must be shown receiving payments from the prostitutes and the only way to get that is to install cameras, he said.
He said detectives had to fully record all massages, because the sex acts happened at their conclusion and 95% of male customers received one. While no female customers paid for sex, they were few in number and to not record them could be seen as discriminating against men, he said.
DeSousa said even if the court finds police violated innocent customers’ privacy rights, the Supreme Court has ruled that in most circumstances, only improperly seized evidence should be thrown out. Since Kraft, the other men and the masseuses were engaged in crimes, their recordings should be permitted, he said.
“Given the unique and difficult circumstances confronting these officers, the conspiracy, the logistics of the operation, what they reasonably anticipated they would see and the difficulty of knowing at the start of any given massage will this end with a happy ending or will it not, we think what law enforcement did here was entirely reasonable,” DeSousa said.
The court usually takes weeks to issue rulings. The losing side will likely appeal to the state Supreme Court, which could accept the case or let the decision stand.
If convicted, Kraft would likely receive a fine, community service and other sanctions, but he could also be suspended or otherwise punished by the National Football League. | 0 | non |
963 | Title: Iowa police chief suspended for urging drivers to target protesters
An Iowa police chief was suspended for two weeks without pay on Monday for a Facebook comment he made targeting local Black Lives Matters protesters.
Sioux Rapids City Council delivered the suspension to Sioux Rapids Police Chief Tim Porter in a unanimous vote after the top cop admitted to writing the post, KTIV reported.
Porter commented in all caps “hit the gas and hang on over the road bumps,” in a June 21 video posted to Facebook showing a truck driving through a crowd of protesters in Des Moines.
In a statement to the news station, Porter apologized and said the comments were meant for separate post.
In addition to the two-week suspension, Porter must also take a sensitivity training class, according to the report.
Despite the remarks, some community members at Monday night’s hearing stood by Porter.
“Our chief is a very good man,” said Joel McCoy, according to KTIV. “For the sake of the argument, he made a huge mistake.
“But, I think pencils have erasers, I think we all deserve a second chance. I think that man will do all he can to make sure he’s a better person each day.”
With Post wires | 0 | non |
964 | Title: Lori Vallow dabs eyes with tissue as she appears on new charges
Doomsday-obsessed mom Lori Vallow dabbed her eye with a tissue during her first court hearing Tuesday on charges she conspired with her new husband to hide or destroy her children’s bodies.
Wearing a blue face mask and matching sweater, Vallow, 46, appeared before Fremont County Magistrate Judge Faren Eddins, as he read the charges in a virtual hearing conducted over Zoom.
“Yes,” she answered meekly, when the judge asked whether she understood the charges.
During the brief proceedings, Vallow, whose wavy, blonde hair was partially tied back, clenched her hands as she sat at a table next to her attorney Mark Means.
Her older son, Colby Ryan, was also present virtually, and looked emotional, though he did not speak.
Before the hearing began, Means asked the court to refer to his client as “Ms. Daybell” — the name of her hubby, doomsday-author Chad Daybell, who is also charged in the case.
The mangled remains of two of Vallow’s children — 17-year-old Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow — were found buried in Daybell’s Idaho backyard earlier this month.
Vallow has been held in Madison County Jail on $1 million bond since March on charges she abandoned or deserted the kids.
She was hit with two felony counts of conspiracy to commit destruction, alteration or concealment of evidence on Monday night.
The judge ruled that her bail would remain at $1 million.
A preliminary hearing was set for August 10. | 0 | non |
965 | Title: Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds' car hits Black Lives Matter protester: report
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’ car struck a Black Lives Matter demonstrator who blocked the vehicle’s path Tuesday, according to a report.
Jaylen Cavil, an organizer with Des Moines Black Lives Matter, said he stood in front of the governor’s vehicle outside of an event in Ackley, hoping Reynolds would roll down her window to speak to demonstrators, the Des Moines Register reported.
The demonstrators were barred from the event.
“The SUV that Gov. the was driving in drove right up to me,” Cavil told the outlet. “I was standing right in front of the car and I just stood there. I was like, ‘I’m going to stand here. Surely the driver of the governor is not going to hit me with her car.”
“This is the governor, my governor, who’s supposed to be representing me,” he said. “I’m sure that her car is not going to intentionally hit me. I was wrong.”
Cavil later took to Twitter over the bumpy encounter.
“I’m physically okay,” he wrote. “Just still shocked & trying to process the fact that the governor’s car intentionally hit me today.”
A spokesperson for Reynolds declined to comment on the incident, but state police later confirmed it in a statement.
“Preliminary reports from law enforcement at the scene suggest the demonstrator intentionally stepped in front of the moving vehicle,” Sgt. Alex Dinkla told the outlet. “The demonstrator appeared to suffer no injuries, did not request medical treatment and continued with his activities.”
Cavil said an Iowa State Patrol trooper walked up to him after the incident and started yelling at him, calling him “an idiot,” the Register said.
The activist was among about a dozen demonstrators who showed up at the event to urge the governor to sign an executive order restoring voting rights for ex-cons who had served their time.
Members of the city’s BLM has twice met with Reynolds to urge her to sign the order, but she has not committed to signing it, at least not for now. | 0 | non |
966 | Title: Surgeon general calls face masks 'instrument of freedom'
Surgeon General Jerome Adams said Tuesday that masks are an “instrument of freedom” that can contain the coronavirus and bring back football and school dances.
“If you want the return of college football this year, wear a face covering. If you want a chance at prom next spring, wear a face covering,” Adams said at a press conference with Vice President Mike Pence.
Adams sought to reframe perceptions of masks as infections rise in the South, Arizona and California — threatening the reopening of local economies. Many senior Republicans are now asking people to wear masks.
“Please, please, please, wear a face covering when you go out in public. It is not an inconvenience. It is not a suppression of your freedom,” Adams said. “This mask, this face covering actually is an instrument of freedom for Americans, if we all use it.”
It’s the latest evolution in messaging from Adams and other US health officials, who discouraged mask-wearing early this year when the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Adams implored people not to buy masks in late February, writing they were “NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus.” East Asian countries, by contrast, credit early universal mask-wearing with limiting outbreaks. Taiwan, which has a larger population than New York, has had fewer than 450 cases.
US officials later recommended wearing masks, citing evidence of significant asymptomatic transmission of the coronavirus — but still insisted there was no evidence masks protected people from contracting the virus.
White House coronavirus task force member Dr. Anthony Fauci updated that stance last week, testifying to Congress that masks are effective at both limiting the spread of the virus and protecting people from catching it.
“Although we don’t know the exact percentage, we can say very clearly that wearing a mask is definitely helpful in preventing acquisition as well as transmission,” Fauci said.
COVID-19 has infected almost 2.7 million Americans and killed about 130,000 since March. The US hit its highest daily count of new cases last week, but officials note daily deaths dropped dramatically. | 0 | non |
967 | Title: Wild brawl erupts in Arkansas restaurant over social distancing
WATCH: Saturday night dinner at Saltgrass Steakhouse in Little Rock turned violent after one customer was upset about the lack of social distancing. Hear from someone who saw it all go down tonight on @KARK4News and @FOX16News Warning: profanity is used. pic.twitter.com/wsez397453
— Hunter Hoagland (@HunterHoagland) June 29, 2020
A wild brawl broke out inside an Arkansas restaurant this past weekend over social distancing amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report.
The caught-on-camera fracas erupted Saturday inside the Saltgrass Steak House in Little Rock after a woman wearing a face mask confronted patrons who stood too close to her, according to bystanders.
Seth Crews, who recorded the violent incident on his cellphone, told KARK 4 News that he and his brother were having dinner at the eatery when they heard screaming coming from the bar area.
“All the restaurant employees were trying to help, they were just in shock like the rest of us,” Crews said.
A police report obtained by the news outlet says a restaurant employee saw a woman wearing a face mask telling two others that they were sitting too close. That worker also claimed that the same woman purposely coughed on other customers.
Cellphone footage shows a woman seated at the bar area tell two men “you’re supposed to be six feet away from me,” before the melee exploded.
According to witnesses and the police report, a man seen in the video wearing a USA shirt then deliberately got even closer, escalating the situation.
The boyfriend of the woman wearing the mask then apparently hit the man with a bottle before dozens of people wound up involved in the brawl, witnesses said.
“The guy came up and was touching on his back and giving him a little shove and he just wasn’t taking it and that’s when it all started,” Crews told the news outlet.
Nobody involved in the fight has filed any charges, according to KARK 4 News. | 0 | non |
968 | Title: 'Strong evidence' Madeleine McCann is dead, authorities say
German prosecutors said they have “strong evidence” that missing UK toddler Madeleine McCann is dead, as investigators also uncovered a trove of pictures and videos in an abandoned factory owned by prime suspect Christian Bruckner, according to a report.
“We don’t have the body and no parts of the body, but we have enough evidence to say our suspect killed Madeleine McCann,” German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters revealed to Australian TV show 60 Minutes.
What the evidence is remains unclear, however, Wolters also told the program detectives dug up 8,000 items, including files on hard drives and USB sticks, buried next to Bruckner’s dead dog at the property in Neuwegersleben, Germany.
Asked if any of the uncovered images were of the toddler, Wolters said, “At the moment, I am not allowed to comment on that, so I am not able to say if there are pictures or there are no pictures of Madeleine.”
Madeleine, 3, was sleeping in a Portuguese vacation resort in 2007 while her parents were out at dinner when she disappeared.
Bruckner, who prosecutors describe as a “twisted loner,” was identified as the prime suspect in the girl’s disappearance last month — a significant development in the 13-year-old mystery.
Buckner, 43, is known to have been in the area of the Praia da Luz resort when Madeleine disappeared, and later fled to Germany, officials said.
He is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence for raping a 72-year-old woman in the same Portuguese resort in 2005.
Buckner, whose other convictions include abusing a 6-year-old girl, has denied involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance. He has not yet been charged with any crime relating to her disappearance or death. | 0 | non |
969 | Title: Mississippi drops Confederate-themed flag with new bill
JACKSON, Miss. — With a stroke of the governor’s pen, Mississippi is retiring the last state flag in the US with the Confederate battle emblem — a symbol that’s widely condemned as racist.
Republican Gov. Tate Reeves on Tuesday signed the historic bill that takes the 126-year-old state flag out of law, immediately removing official status for the banner that has been a source of division for generations.
“This is not a political moment to me but a solemn occasion to lead our Mississippi family to come together, to be reconciled, and to move on,” Reeves said in a statement.
“We are a resilient people defined by our hospitality. We are a people of great faith. Now, more than ever, we must lean on that faith, put our divisions behind us, and unite for a greater good.”
Mississippi has faced increasing pressure to change its flag since protests against racial injustice have focused attention on Confederate symbols.
A broad coalition of legislators on Sunday passed the landmark legislation to change the flag, capping a weekend of emotional debate and decades of effort by Black lawmakers and others who see the rebel emblem as a symbol of hatred.
The Confederate battle emblem has a red field topped by a blue X with 13 white stars. White supremacist legislators put it on the upper-left corner of the Mississippi flag in 1894, as white people were squelching political power that African Americans had gained after the Civil War.
Critics have said for generations that it’s wrong for a state where 38% of the people are Black to have a flag marked by the Confederacy, particularly since the Ku Klux Klan and other hate groups have used the symbol to promote racist agendas.
Mississippi voters chose to keep the flag in a 2001 statewide election, with supporters saying they saw it as a symbol of Southern heritage. But since then, a growing number of cities and all the state’s public universities have abandoned it.
Several Black legislators, and a few white ones, kept pushing for years to change it. After a white gunman who had posed with the Confederate flag killed Black worshipers at a South Carolina church in 2015, Mississippi’s Republican speaker of the House, Philip Gunn, said his religious faith compelled him to say that Mississippi must purge the symbol from its flag.
The issue was still broadly considered too volatile for legislators to touch, until the police custody death of an African American man in Minneapolis, George Floyd, set off weeks of sustained protests against racial injustice, followed by calls to take down Confederate symbols.
A groundswell of young activists, college athletes and leaders from business, religion, education and sports called on Mississippi to make this change, finally providing the momentum for legislators to vote.
Before the governor signed the bill Tuesday, state employees raised and lowered several of the flags on a pole outside the Capitol. The secretary of state’s office sells flags for $20 each. A spokeswoman for that office, Kendra James, said Tuesday there has been a recent increase in requests from people wanting to buy one.
During news conferences in recent weeks, Reeves had repeatedly refused to say whether he thought the Confederate-themed flag properly represents present-day Mississippi, sticking to a position he ran on last year, when he promised people that if the flag design was going to be reconsidered, it would be done in another statewide election.
Now, a commission will design a new flag, one that cannot include the Confederate symbol and must have the words “In God We Trust.” Voters will be asked to approve the new design in the Nov. 3 election. If they reject it, the commission will draft a different design using the same guidelines, to be sent to voters later.
Said Reeves in signing over the flag’s demise, “We are all Mississippians and we must all come together. What better way to do that than include “In God We Trust” on our new state banner.”
He added: “The people of Mississippi, black and white, and young and old, can be proud of a banner that puts our faith front and center. We can unite under it. We can move forward —together.” | 0 | non |
970 | Title: White House to brief Pelosi, McConnell on Russia-Taliban bounty plot
WASHINGTON — Senate majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will be among a handful of powerful lawmakers briefed by the White House on Wednesday over the Russia-Taliban bounty plot, a new report says, as the fallout over the explosive report continues.
White House officials are preparing to brief the so-called “Gang of Eight,” a term referring to the leaders of Congress from both parties as well as the intelligence committees, who are regularly given briefings on classified information, according to a tweet by Politico’s senior reporter Jake Sherman.
Besides Pelosi (D-Calif.) and McConnell (R-Ky.) members of the bipartisan group include Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Mark Warner (D-Virg.), the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Intelligence committee, and Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif. ) and Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the chair and ranking member of the House Intel committee
A New York Times report published Friday claimed the Kremlin offered Taliban militants bounties to kill US soldiers in Afghanistan. The White House has vehemently denied reports that President Trump knew about the information for months and have insisted the intelligence was deemed not credible by multiple government agencies.
A select number of Democratic lawmakers were briefed by the White House on the report on Tuesday but in a press conference afterward said they saw no information that indicated the plot was “a hoax.”
Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers who gathered at the White House for a similar briefing on Monday said they were satisfied with the information given to them and re-emphasized what they said was Trump’s tough stance on Russia. | 0 | non |
971 | Title: AOC says $1.5B NYPD budget slash didn’t go far enough
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Tuesday the proposed $1.5 billion NYPD budget slash didn’t go far enough.
“Defunding police means defunding police. It does not mean budget tricks or funny math. It does not mean moving school police officers from the NYPD budget to the Department of Education’s budget so the exact same police remain in schools,” the self-described Democratic Socialist said in a press release about the budget deal between the City Council and Mayor de Blasio.
“It does not mean counting cuts in overtime as cuts, even as NYPD ignores every attempt by City Council to curb overtime spending and overspends on overtime anyways. The fight to defund policing continues,” she said.
“If these reports are accurate, then these proposed ‘cuts’ to the NYPD budget are a disingenuous illusion. This is not a victory. The fight to defund policing continues,” she said.
Mainstream Democrats and progressives have argued over the meaning of the effort to “defund the police” following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis cops.
The deal Ocasio-Cortez was referring to would cut the number of officers in the city by canceling its July class of 1,163 cadets.
It also includes $350 million in cuts to overtime pay and other expenses such as travel enforcement and vehicle purchases.
That $1 billion would go instead to education, social services in communities hit hard by the virus, and summer youth programming for over 100,000 young people. | 0 | non |
972 | Title: 'Da Vinci Code' author Dan Brown's ex says he had 'sordid' affairs
Author Dan Brown’s ex-wife has accused him in a new lawsuit of secretly siphoning off vast sums of money to conduct “sordid, extra-marital affairs” — including a dalliance with a horse trainer, according to media reports.
Blythe Brown made the salacious allegations against her ex-husband Dan Brown — whose 2003 novel “The Da Vinci Code” sold 80 million copies — in a bombshell lawsuit filed Monday in New Hampshire, The Boston Globe reported.
The pair divorced last December after more than 21 years of marriage, according to the newspaper.
Blythe alleges in the suit that her 56-year-old ex engaged in “unlawful and egregious conduct” that amounted to a “proverbial life of lies” during the final years of their union — including lavishing extravagant gifts on a Dutch horse trainer, the Globe reported.
She brought the trainer, identified by the initials JP, from Holland to the U.S. in 2013 to work with a Friesian horse the couple owned, according to the suit filed in Rockingham Superior Court.
After the pair’s divorce was finalized, Blythe alleges she learned that her then-husband had begun an affair with JP in 2014, the newspaper reported.
The trainer was recuperating from a shoulder injury in the couple’s New Hampshire at the home.
Blythe alleges that the bestselling author had diverted large sums of money from their accounts to buy the trainer a $345,000 prize-winning Friesian named “LimiTed Edition,” the report says.
He also allegedly bought his mistress a new car, a truck and paid for renovations to her Holland home, substantially reducing the marital estate, Blythe Brown argued in the suit.
After she learned of the alleged affair, she confronted her ex-husband in January 2020, according to the Globe.
“I’ve done bad things with a lot of people,” he allegedly told her, admitting he’d also had a tryst with a local hairdresser, the suit alleges.
She claims she later discovered that these weren’t his only conquests.
He’d allegedly bedded his personal trainer and a “political official” at the couple’s vacation home in Anguilla, the paper reported.
In the suit, Blythe says she played a critical part in her husband’s success as his lead researcher. She said she “developed the premise of the critical concepts, historical emphases and complex plot twists” for all his novels — including “The Da Vinci Code” which was adapted into a movie of the same name starring Tom Hanks.
The film was a box-office hit, grossing more than $760 million worldwide.
Dan Brown has frequently touted his ex-wife’s substantial role in crafting his books, the paper reported.
After he told her he was unhappy and wanted to separate, Blythe moved out of their New Hampshire home in 2018 and agreed to a quiet divorce.
In a statement to the Globe, she said it was only after they split that she learned he had allegedly been “leading a double life for years.”
She’s suing Dan for allegedly misrepresenting the couple’s assets in the divorce and for inflicting emotional distress.
Dan insisted to the paper that he accurately reported the couple’s assets in the divorce and was “stunned” by his ex-wife’s “false claims.”
“I am saddened that there is not enough goodwill from 21 years of marriage to temper her unfortunate actions,” he said in a statement. | 0 | non |
973 | Title: 'Doomsday' mom Lori Vallow helped keep kids' bodies hidden: lawyers
Doomsday-obsessed mom Lori Vallow allegedly conspired with her new husband Chad Daybell to hide or destroy her kids’ bodies, according to new court documents.
A probable cause affidavit tied to new felony charges against Vallow reiterates claims that she lied to cops about the whereabouts of her children — 17-year-old Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow — and details her beliefs in zombies and the apocalypse.
Authorities haven’t yet said how exactly the children died or who caused their deaths. The document suggests JJ was buried in a pet cemetery on Daybell’s property. It also states that Tylee’s remains were dismembered and burned.
Vallow — who is being held on $1 million bond in Idaho on child abandonment charges — was hit with two counts of conspiracy to commit destruction, alteration or concealment of evidence on Monday evening.
The 46-year-old mom is set to appear in Freemont County court later Tuesday on the new charges.
The affidavit filed Monday hints that Vallow and Daybell’s doomsday beliefs may have affected their actions. On different occasions in 2019, Vallow allegedly told her friend Melanie Gibb that both JJ and Tylee had become zombies.
Daybell, an author of doomsday-related books, had taught Vallow that a zombie was a person inhabited by a “dark spirit” — and that the only way to return a person’s true spirit to their body was by killing them, according to the docs.
But “Despite the teaching that a physical body needed to die, Gibb reports she was never told by Vallow or Daybell that they planned to carry out a physical killing themselves,” Rexburg police Lt. Ron Ball wrote in the affidavit.
The document states that Vallow asked her friend to lie to police about JJ’s whereabouts and fibbed to cops herself during the investigation when she told them JJ was in Arizona and Tylee was attending college.
The kids’ mangled remains were found buried in Daybell’s backyard on June 9. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of concealing evidence by destroying or hiding the bodies.
Investigators found the remains by tracking the movements of Vallow’s brother, Alex Cox, using cellphone data.
The affidavit states that Cox was also involved in the conspiracy to hide the kids’ remains. He died of an apparent bloodclot in his lungs at his home in Arizona last December.
Police began searching for Tylee and JJ in November after relatives raised concerns.
Daybell and Vallow have been accused of lying to and not cooperating with cops in Idaho, before jetting off quietly to Hawaii, where they were found earlier this year.
Additional reporting by Gabrielle Fonrouge, with Wires | 0 | non |
974 | Title: Coronavirus surge not enough to halt lap dances in Miami
Florida has seen a rise in new coronavirus infections — but lap dances in Miami strip clubs are allowed to jiggle on, reports said Tuesday.
On Monday, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez posted changes to a June 4 emergency order that allowed strip clubs and other entertainment spots to reopen as long as the county approved their coronavirus operating plans, the Miami Herald reported.
The apparent changes included language that required dancers and customers to maintain 10 feet of distance during performances, leading many to think lap dances were now banned in the Sunshine State’s hardest hit county, the outlet reported.
It turns out the ten-foot rule was part of the original order and lap dances have been allowed ever since because Miami, known to be a haven for strip clubs, does not consider the intimate, topless sessions to be a performance.
“The plans all say that performances will take place 10 feet from the tables or seats. The lap dances are not considered a performance,” Deputy Mayor Jennifer Moon told the outlet in an email.
The changes to the order do, however, include regulations on drinking at restaurants. The new rule orders restaurants to cut off the taps at midnight, regardless if they’re staying open for food service or not. Alcohol service can then resume at 6 a.m. | 0 | non |
975 | Title: Video shows woman coughing on a cancer patient at a Florida store
A woman was caught-on-camera in a now-viral video purposefully coughing in the face of a cancer patient at a Pier 1 store in Florida amid the coronavirus crisis.
“How about that,” the aggressor, identified by police as Debra Hunter, according to First Coast News, says in the clip as she flips the bird to Heather Sprague in the Jacksonville home goods store.
“I think I’ll get real close to you and cough on you,” Hunter, 52, says to Sprague before she coughs directly on her and mutters, ‘A—–e.”
Shocked shoppers inside the store can be heard saying “no” and “no way” after the disturbing encounter unfolded.
As Hunter moved to exit the store, she barked, “You’re lucky I don’t kick you,” according to the footage.
The video was posted to Facebook last week by Sprague who has since filed a police report against the woman, First Coast News reported.
Hunter has not been arrested or charged, according to the news outlet, which reported that “battery — touch or strike, no injury” was cited as the offense on the police report.
Sprague, who says she’s a mother of 10 and a brain tumor patient at the Mayo Clinic, said that she noticed a pair of unattended children wandering around the store before the incident occurred.
“It became apparent that they belonged to a woman at the register who was becoming increasingly belligerent,” she wrote in a lengthy Facebook post.
“She was screaming at, swearing, insulting, and threatening the staff as she demanded to return an item she didn’t have with her, just a photo of the item on her phone,” Sprague said of the woman who coughed on her.
Sprague noted that store staffers could not process the return, so “she continued to rage, all the while her poor little boy was squirming and asking for a bathroom, which she would have needed to leave the store to find.”
“When she positioned herself so the clerks couldn’t exit the checkout area and screamed that she would stay right there, yelling as loud as she wanted, until all their customers left…I stood at a distance, pulled out my phone and wordlessly began filming,” said Sprague, who captured the rest of the interaction on video.
“I did not speak, react, or engage. Simply stood to document the behavior. When bullies are faced with accountability they must acknowledge the unacceptability of their actions,” Sprague said in the post.
She added that she was headed to get a COVID-19 test and ended the post writing, “thanks Karen*cough, cough.*” | 0 | non |
976 | Title: Video shows chaotic aftermath of deadly CHOP shooting
Warning: Video contains graphic content
New video shows the chaotic aftermath of Monday’s deadly shooting in Seattle’s Capitol Hill Organized Protest area — which one volunteer medic described as a “war zone.”
Footage posted on Facebook by Converge Media shows the frenzy inside the cop-free CHOP zone after gunfire erupted there around 3 a.m. on Monday, leaving a 16-year-old boy dead and a younger teen critically wounded.
The nearly 40-minute clip also shows the bullet-ridden white Jeep Cherokee SUV that the teens were believed to have been riding in.
Witnesses said they had spotted the vehicle near one of the makeshift barriers around the protest zone just before the shooting, Seattle Police said.
Callers to 911 reported several people firing into the vehicle.
Marty Jackson, a volunteer medic in the CHOP zone, told local station KUOW that folks should stop coming to the area, “Because now it’s like pretty much an active war zone.”
“If we continue to stay here, we continue making ourselves a target and it makes medical and security harder, the more people come out here, you know, the more we have to watch after…,” he said. “We’ve been having fights, you know, we’ve been having, you know, weapons, strong gunshots.”
Jackson alleged that the protest zone’s own security guards were the ones who fired on the SUV after it crashed into a concrete barrier on the outskirts of the area.
He said he heard gunshots early Monday and saw the SUV zooming through Cal Anderson Park, which is part of the occupied area.
He then heard more shots near Seattle Police’s abandoned East Precinct at 12th Street and Pine — and calls for medics.
When he arrived, medics were tending to two injured people. One of them seemed like he would survive but the other had been struck in the head, Jackson said.
“The guy that I’m working on got shot in the face twice — once in temple, once in the jaw. Probably four or five times in the arm and then once on the side,” Jackson told the outlet.
He said it took about 15 minutes to flag down paramedics to help the wounded. By the time they reached emergency personnel, the person who had been shot in the head was dead, Jackson said.
Jackson also said he believed CHOP’s medical personnel hadn’t acted quickly enough to help the victims, whom he recognized as having hung out in the area over previous nights.
Police on Tuesday didn’t immediately provide updates on the violence, which took place just over a week after another shooting in the zone left a 19-year-old man dead and a 33-year-old man wounded.
Chief Carmen Best said Monday that it appeared the crime scene in the most recent shooting had been tampered with, making it tougher on investigators.
“Our homicide detectives searched the Jeep for evidence but there wasn’t much we could find,” Best said.
“It’s abundantly clear to our detectives that people had been in and out of the car after the shooting.”
Detectives are relying on witnesses to figure out what happened, but Best said that, as with the other shootings in the area, “people are not being cooperative with our requests for help.” | 0 | non |
977 | Title: Mitch McConnell says Russia should not rejoin G-7
Mitch McConnell split with President Trump Tuesday on whether Russia should be allowed back into the G-7 — roundly rejecting the move, which has been repeatedly pitched by the commander in chief.
“Absolutely not,” the Senate majority leader told reporters at the Capitol.
Trump said last month that he wanted to expand the number of countries that take part in the next meeting, including Russia, which had been bounced by the Group of Eight after invading and annexing Crimea in 2014 and backing rebels in eastern Ukraine.
The president spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin this month, and according to a White House readout, they “discussed progress toward convening the G-7.
McConnell (R-Ky.) had already said in 2018 that Russia should not be allowed back in after Trump floated allowing it back in, and many Democrats agreed.
Trump called it “common sense” to invite Russia given that the country is generally among the topics discussed by member nations.
“It’s not a question of what he’s done, it’s a question of common sense,” Trump said about Putin.
“We have a G-7, he’s not there. Half of the meeting is devoted to Russia and he’s not there.”
Trump had also said he would postpone a G-7 summit he had hoped to hold this summer until September or later and expand the list of invitees to include Australia, Russia, South Korea and India.
“I’m postponing it because I don’t feel that as a G-7 it properly represents what’s going on in the world,” Trump said, adding that the current members — including most major US allies — were a “very outdated group of countries.
McConnell’s comment came after reports that a Russian military intelligence unit secretly offered bounties to militants in Afghanistan for killing coalition and Americans forces.
The Kentucky Republican downplayed those reports.
“It appears as if this is not a conclusion that’s been reached to such a level that might have even made it to the top,” McConnell told reporters about the US intelligence findings and whether Trump was aware of them.
With Reuters | 0 | non |
978 | Title: Black WaPo editor claims white women 'lucky' to be called 'Karen'
A Washington Post editor is under fire for tweeting white women are “lucky” that blacks such as herself just call them “Karens” — and don’t take “revenge.”
“The lies and tears of white women hath wrought: -the 1921 Tulsa massacre -murder of Emmett Till -exclusion of black women from feminist movements -53% of white women voting for Trump,” the paper’s global-opinions editor, Karen Attiah, wrote Sunday in a since-deleted tweet.
“White women are lucky that we are just calling them Karens. And not calling for revenge,” Attiah added in the tweet, which was captured and reposted by several people before she erased it from her account.
Attiah later responded to a supporter in another now-deleted tweet, “I’m just saying. Be happy we are calling for equality. And not actual revenge.”
Condemnation against Attiah — who was the editor of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the time he was killed — was swift.
“You are the racist… Shame on you for calling for violence against all white women.. You single handedly endangered millions of women,” one person tweeted.
Another wrote, “This racist threatening violence to white people is still employed?!? Terminate her immediately.”
But Attiah refused to back down — while her employer remained silent.
She retweeted this posting: “When I tweet something and then delete it, it’s not because I regret it. It’s almost never that. I just want to say some s**t real quick and then leave” — and wrote above it, “Same. Lol.”
Attiah also wrote, “But here’s the real thing about “Karen” memes.
“The dark side to handwringing about how Karen” hurts white women’s feelings is that it is a distraction from how everyday white women uphold white supremacy through violence, aggression, and the weaponzing of their gender.”
The Washington Post did not respond to a request for comment.
Its Web site said Attiah, 34, has a master’s degree in international affairs and joined the paper in 2014.
“Karen” is a disparaging term frequently used for a privileged white woman who throws an unwarranted fit, usually involving a person of color.
In one recent example, a white female dog-walker called the cops on a black bird-watcher in Central Park in Manhattan last month — claiming “an African American man was threatening” her because he told her to leash her pooch as required. She was immediately dubbed “Central Park Karen” on social media. | 0 | non |
979 | Title: Seattle protesters put up makeshift roadblock near CHOP
Advertisement
The city of Seattle began tearing down barricades around the Capitol Hill Organized Protest zone, or CHOP, Tuesday — but protesters quickly jumped in to preserve the cop-free area, according to local reports.
Crews with the city’s Department of Transportation started removing concrete barriers around 9:20 a.m. at the intersection of 10th and East Pine, on the outskirts of the blocks-long area occupied by demonstrators for about three weeks, TV station KIRO7 News reported.
Shortly after, people moved to create makeshift roadblocks out of anything they could find — including garbage cans, furniture and plywood signs, the station reported.
City officials previously said barricades around the protest zone would come down on Sunday, but they stayed intact through Monday.
Currently, there are no immediate plans to remove the barriers directly surrounding the Seattle police’s East Precinct, Assistant Chief Adrian Diaz told the station.
The precinct was abandoned earlier in June following standoffs and clashes with demonstrators calling for racial justice and an end to police brutality.
Police have mostly stayed out of the zone since, saying they would only respond during life-threatening emergencies.
Protestors moving everything they can from the area to re-block off 10th and E. Pine. #CHOP @KIRO7Seattle pic.twitter.com/IrTw3dfumr
— Deedee Sun (@DeedeeKIRO7) June 30, 2020
Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan said last week that cops would soon begin returning to the precinct, but didn’t provide a timeline.
On Tuesday, Seattle Public Utilities also removed a handwashing station next to Cal Anderson Park in the area, in an attempt to incentivize people camped out there to clear out.
Outreach workers will be on hand in the area Tuesday to help people find other places to stay, KIRO7 reported.
The moves to begin dismantling the protest zone came after a shooting there early Monday left a 16-year-old boy dead and a 14-year-old boy wounded.
The violence occurred just over a week after a 19-year-old man was killed and a 33-year-old man injured in another shooting in the zone.
“Enough is enough,” Police Chief Carmen Best said Monday. “We need to be able to get back into the area.” | 0 | non |
980 | Title: Bond set at $500K for ex-cop charged in Rayshard Brooks shooting
A Georgia judge on Tuesday set bond at $500,000 for the ex-Atlanta cop charged in the shooting death of Rayshard Brooks.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Jane Barwick said she felt that former officer Garrett Rolfe, who was being held without bail, had sufficient ties to the community and was not a flight risk if released on bond.
“The court finds that those ties to the community have been demonstrated to the court’s satisfaction with regard to being not a flight risk,” Barwick said during a lengthy bail hearing.
“I do not think that he is a danger of posing any significant risk of committing an additional felony pending trial,” the judge added. “I do not believe that he poses a significant risk of intimidating witnesses.”
Senior Assistant District Attorney Clinton Rucker had asked Barwick that Rolfe continue to be held without bail or, at minimum, a $1 million bond with strict conditions.
“We are here asking the court to deny bond in this matter,” Rucker said. “We know now from the impact statements that the Brooks family will suffer more emotional harm should the defendant be granted a bond and allowed to not be in custody.”
The hearing, conducted via video conferencing, included an emotional appeal from Brooks’ widow, Tamika Miller, that the ex-cop not be released.
“He had so much to live for,” she said of her husband. “Now I’m forced to be a single mother and I will forever have to explain to my kids their daddy will never, ever come home. He won’t be a phone call away.”
Rolfe, 27, is charged with felony murder in Brooks’ June 12 shooting death.
Brooks was questioned by Rolfe and another cop, Devin Brosnan, outside an Atlanta’s Wendy’s restaurant after he fell asleep in his car in the fast-food eateries drive-thru lane.
The 41-minute exchange, captured on police bodycam video, was amicable until the officers attempted to handcuff Brooks, 27, who scuffled with the cops and fled with one of their Tasers. Rolfe then fired three shots, hitting Brooks twice in the back, mortally wounding him.
Brosnan, 26, was charged with aggravated assault in the case.
The shooting sparked a new round of anti-police protests in the city, and prompted demonstrators to burn down an Atlanta police precinct, forcing cops to abandon the stationhouse the night after the shooting. | 0 | non |
981 | Title: Meghan McCain defends St Louis couple, slams their gun handling
Meghan McCain defended the St. Louis couple who pulled guns on Black Lives Matter protesters outside their mansion — but skewered the homeowners’ reckless handling of their weapons.
McCain said Tuesday on “The View” that she understood why lawyers Mark McCloskey and his wife, Patricia, responded with firearms to what the couple claimed were threats from protesters Sunday near their property in the tony Central West End neighborhood.
“The question I always had is what happens when you start going into the suburbs when people a lot of times are armed and do feel intimidated,” McCain said, adding that “if a mob of people comes into your neighborhood and breaks a gate — that’s one of the things they’re claiming is that their gate was broken by these protesters — people are going to feel intimidated.”
But the talk show co-host said that as a licensed gun owner herself, she took issue with how both the husband and wife held their guns.
“This woman had her finger on the trigger the entire time,” McCain said. “Trigger control is a big thing, especially with pistols.”
She added that at “one point where [Patricia is] moving her pistol around, she could have easily have shot her husband in the head.”
Meanwhile, she said “the man has no muzzle control whatsoever. That means the front part of AR-15 — he’s pointing it in all directions, all places.”
“It’s highly, highly dangerous and irresponsible,” McCain said, adding that “you never point your weapon that you don’t intend to shoot and hit, so right off the bat I have a problem with this.”
Gun safety experts also told The Post that the couple’s shoddy firearm handling could have ended in “a very disastrous result.”
The McCloskeys’ faceoff came Sunday as protesters headed toward Mayor Lyda Krewson’s home to demand her resignation.
Krewson has been under fire for reading on Facebook Live the names and addresses of several residents who wrote letters to call for defunding the police department.
St. Louis Prosecutor Kimberly Gardner said Monday the couple is being investigated for potential criminal charges.
“I am alarmed at the events that occurred over the weekend, where peaceful protesters were met by guns,” Gardner said.
“We must protect the right to peacefully protest, and any attempt to chill it through intimidation or threat of deadly force will not be tolerated.” | 0 | non |
982 | Title: Trump calls Queen Elizabeth to wish belated happy birthday
President Trump spoke with Queen Elizabeth II on Tuesday and wished her a belated happy 94th birthday, the White House said.
The rare royal phone call occurred more than two months after the queen’s birthday in April, and the queen’s office said it was part of a series of calls to world leaders.
“The president wished the Queen a happy birthday, marking 94 extraordinary years,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said in an initial statement revealing the call.
Trump also expressed his condolences for the more than 43,000 British coronavirus pandemic victims, Deere said.
The pair “discussed close cooperation on defeating the virus and reopening global economies,” Deere said, and “reaffirmed that the United States and United Kingdom stand together in our special relationship and will emerge from this trying time stronger than ever before.”
In a statement hours later, the royal family’s press office placed a different emphasis on the conversation.
“Today, The Queen spoke to President Trump by telephone from Windsor Castle ahead of Independence Day in the United States on the 4th July,” the UK office said.
“The telephone call is the latest in a series Her Majesty has held with world leaders in recent months, including President [Emmanuel] Macron [of France], Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern [of New Zealand], Prime Minister Justin Trudeau [of Canada] and Prime Minister Scott Morrison [of Australia].”
Trump has met with the queen three times as president, including a July 2018 visit to Windsor Castle.
Trump often remarks approvingly of the long-reigning monarch, and this year took to Twitter to declare that her grandson Prince Harry would not be getting taxpayer-funded security in the US after ditching his royal duties.
“I am a great friend and admirer of the Queen & the United Kingdom,” Trump tweeted in March. “It was reported that Harry and Meghan, who left the Kingdom, would reside permanently in Canada. Now they have left Canada for the U.S. however, the U.S. will not pay for their security protection. They must pay!” | 0 | non |
983 | Title: 4-year-old boy fatally shot as he slept in Kansas City apartment
A 4-year-old boy was shot dead as he slept inside a Kansas City, Missouri, apartment this week, officials said.
Little LeGend M. Taliferro was asleep in an apartment on Bushman Road shortly after 2:30 a.m. Monday when he was struck by gunfire from outside, local police said in a statement.
A family member drove him to the hospital, but he could not be saved.
A preliminary investigation indicates the shooting was not random and the apartment was targeted, according to authorities.
“Last night, a family put their 4-year-old to bed for the last time,” Kansas City Police Chief Rick Smith said in a statement Tuesday. “Something like that should never happen in our city, and this horrific taking of an innocent life should shock every corner of our community to action.”
“I can’t imagine what his family is going through right now,” Smith added. “Our hearts break for them. We will do everything we can to pursue justice for LeGend and his family, and we have some good leads.”
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas decried the violence on Twitter.
“This is a nightmare for any parent and I can’t imagine the pain with which they’re dealing this morning,” he wrote Monday. “The boy was asleep. Malicious shooting with no regard for others claims another innocent life in our city.”
LeGend had a cardiac condition that required multiple open-heart surgeries, KSHB reported.
“He had Tetralogy of Fallot, which is four different heart defects in one, so he had a heart murmur and another hole in his heart, which causes the blood to not flow correctly through his body,” his mother, Charron Powell, told the outlet last year. | 0 | non |
984 | Title: Recovered coronavirus patients report mystery pains months later
Advertisement
Coronavirus patients are increasingly being stricken by mystery pains even months after they are deemed recovered, according to a report.
“What we are seeing is very frightening,” Prof. Gabriel Izbicki of Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center told the Times of Israel.
“More than half the patients, weeks after testing negative, are still symptomatic.”
Rather than typical symptoms of COVID-19, however, many patients are reporting pain in completely unexpected places, Eran Schenker, director of a clinic in the city of Bnei Brak, told the paper.
“It can appear in the arms, legs, or other places where the virus doesn’t have a direct impact,” Schenker said.
“If you ask about the pain level on a 1 to 10 scale, can be 10, with people saying they can’t get to sleep,” he told the paper.
“Some of them had coronavirus in March, so they may have been recovered for months,” he stressed, saying the long-term pains do not correlate with how seriously ill they were while infected.
“We do scans and can’t see anything, but they have this pain — we’re told about it again and again,” he said.
One 55-year-old man who had coronavirus in March now “feels like he’s broken,” his wife told the paper — even though he tested negative for COVID-19 last month.
“He’s actually worse than he was when he was hospitalized,” she told the paper, saying he is so fatigued, he can hardly walk.
As with almost everything connected to the coronavirus, the complete novelty of the symptoms make them almost impossible to treat.
“Painkillers block the pain but don’t relieve the source, but we don’t know how to address the source and you can’t be on painkillers the rest of your life,” Schenker said. | 0 | non |
985 | Title: Romney working to stop Trump from pulling troops out of Germany
Sen. Mitt Romney is leading a bipartisan group of senators in an effort to curb President Trump’s ability to remove troops from Germany after the commander-in-chief opted to withdraw tens of thousands of US soldiers from the region.
Romney (R-Utah) introduced a measure Monday alongside Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) prohibiting the White House from reducing the number of active-duty troops in the country below 34,500 without Congress confirming that such a move would not negatively impact European alliances or NATO.
On Wednesday, Trump announced that he planned to withdraw tens of thousands of US troops from Germany — accusing the European nation of taking advantage of his administration by not paying its fair share to NATO.
“We’re going to be reducing Germany very substantially down to about 25,000 troops. We actually had 52,000 but we’ll be moving it down to about 25,000,” Trump told reporters at the time.
The US troops will be sent to Poland or will return to the US, he said.
Should the bipartisan measure become law, the Pentagon would be required to certify to Congress that a troop reduction would be in the national security interest of the United States.
Romney has a powerful group of senators behind him on the bill thus far, and could find congressional GOP support for his measure.
Back in May, GOP members of the House Armed Services Committee put up a united front in an effort to convince the president to not go through with any troop withdrawals in Germany.
Twenty-two Republicans led by Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) urged Trump to reconsider the move in a letter.
“We are very concerned about reports that the Administration is considering a significant reduction of U.S. troops currently based in Europe as well as a cap on the total number of U.S. troops which can be present there at any one time,” the letter read.
Kaine, now a co-sponsor, also led the effort to pass the war powers resolution in the Senate back in January.
That bill — had Trump not vetoed it — would have curbed the White House’s ability to declare war with Iran without congressional approval.
Trump defended vetoing the measure at the time, calling the resolution “very insulting.”
“We live in a hostile world of evolving threats and the Constitution recognizes that the president must be able to anticipate our adversaries’ next moves and take swift and decisive action in response,” he said.
In a statement on the measure, Romney called the withdrawal of US troops from Germany “a gift to Russia” and “the last thing we should be doing.”
“In addition to undermining our NATO alliance, a withdrawal would present serious logistical challenges and prevent our military from performing routine military readiness exercises. I urge my colleagues to take up our measure to prevent such a reduction in troops deployed to Germany.
“We cannot abandon our commitment to our allies, and instead must strengthen our alliances in order to rein in the world’s bad actors and promote the values of freedom and democracy around the world,” Romney said.
During a July 2018 NATO meeting with Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, Trump questioned why the US protects Germany, ostensibly from Russia, while the country is involved in an energy deal with Russia.
“I think it’s very sad when Germany makes a massive oil and gas deal with Russia, where you’re supposed to be guarding against Russia, and Germany goes out and pays billions and billions of dollars a year to Russia,” Trump told Stoltenberg at the time.
“So we’re protecting Germany, we’re protecting France, we’re protecting all of these countries. And then numerous of the countries go out and make a pipeline deal with Russia where they’re paying billions of dollars into the coffers of Russia. And I think that’s very inappropriate.”
”But Germany is totally controlled by Russia, because they will be getting from 60 to 70 percent of their energy from Russia and a new pipeline,” he continued.
In their letter to the president, House Republicans conceded that Germany was deserving of some scrutiny.
“We strongly believe that NATO allies, such as Germany, should do more to contribute to our joint defense efforts. At the same time, we also know that the forward stationing of American troops since the end of World War II has helped to prevent another world war and, most importantly, has helped make America safer,” they wrote. | 0 | non |
986 | Title: Joe Biden rips Trump, calls reporter a 'lying dog face'
Joe Biden upbraided President Trump for his response to the coronavirus pandemic during a stump speech on Tuesday where he took questions from reporters for the first time since March — and called one of them a “lying dog face.”
Appearing before a giant American flag at a school in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, the former veep accused Trump of squandering the three months since the virus first arrived on US shores and said the country was no better prepared than in March.
“It’s almost July and it seems our wartime president has surrendered, waved the white flag and abandoned the battlefield,” said Biden, 77.
“We don’t need a cheerleader, Mr. President. We need a president, Mr. President,” he added.
The presumptive Democratic nominee outlined his plans for dealing with the pandemic as the nation experiences a troubling surge of new infections, including doubling the number of testing sites and fixing ongoing shortages in protective gear.
Biden, who has been stuck at his Wilmington home during the pandemic, also took questions from reporters for the first time in months after the Trump campaign accused him of hiding.
But the gaffe-prone former lawmaker lashed out when one reporter mentioned his own mental deterioration at age 65 and asked Biden if he had been tested for cognitive decline.
“You’re a lying dog face,” Biden said, apparently irritated that the reporter kept asking questions as he tried to leave the event, before adding that he was “constantly tested.”
“All you gotta do is watch me and I can hardly wait to compare my cognitive capability to the cognitive capability of the man I’m running against,” he said.
The former veep infamously called a college student a “lying dog-faced pony soldier” at a campaign event in New Hampshire in February, an experience she described as “humiliating.”
Biden also attacked Trump’s own cognitive abilities — a line of attack usually deployed by the Trump campaign against him — when quizzed on reports the president was briefed but failed to act on intelligence that Russia had paid Taliban militants to kill US troops, a claim the White House has denied.
“He talks about cognitive capability. He doesn’t seem to be cognitively aware of what’s going on. He either reads and/or gets briefed on important issues and he forgets it or he doesn’t think it’s necessary that he needs to know it,” Biden said.
The former veep also flip-flopped on the movement to tear down Confederate statues across the US and described slave owners as people who did things that were “now and then distasteful.” | 0 | non |
987 | Title: Kim Jong Un reportedly blew up office over ‘dirty depictions’ of his wife
North Korean President Kim Jong Un was so furious about the “dirty, insulting” depictions of his wife in an anti-Pyongyang leaflet campaign initiated by defectors in South Korea that he blew up a liaison office with Seoul and threatened to take military action, according to a report Monday.
The leaflets, carried over the highly militarized border by balloons, are a propaganda tactic that the two countries have used since the Korean War.
But pamphlets that made it over the border on May 31 that included provocative imagery of first lady Ri Sol Ju sparked “serious outrage” in Pyongyang, Agence France-Presse reported, citing comments made by Russian Ambassador to North Korea Alexander Matsegora.
“The leaflets bore a special kind of dirty, insulting propaganda, aimed at the leader’s spouse,” Matsegora told Russian media outlet TASS.
He said they were Photoshopped “in such a low-grade way” that they became the “last straw” for the Hermit Kingdom.
The liaison office in Kaesong, just north of the border, exploded on June 16 days after Kim’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, warned “of a tragic scene of the useless North-South joint liaison office completely collapsed.”
The following day, Pyongyang announced it would resume military exercises, boost readiness in border towns and re-establish guard posts — its most provocative actions on the peninsula since it entered an agreement with the South to lower tensions in 2018. | 0 | non |
988 | Title: Joe Biden to pick woman of color as running mate by August
Joe Biden said Tuesday he had prepared a list of “women of color” for consideration to be his running mate in November — but that he wouldn’t announce a decision until August.
“There are a number of women of color. There are Latino women. There are Asian. There are — across the board. And we’re just under way now in the hard vet of going into the deep background checks that take anywhere from six to eight weeks to be done,” Biden said during a campaign speech in Wilmington, Delaware.
Asked if he were still shooting to name a pick by the beginning of August, the former veep said it might take longer than that.
“Early August. I can’t guarantee you August 1, but it will be in early August, before — several weeks before the convention,” he said.
The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee said again that his main criteria would be to choose someone who would be ready to assume the presidency immediately should that become necessary.
Biden said the decision would also be made based on what skills and experience the candidates brought to the ticket.
President Barack Obama chose him, he said, because of his years of experience in Congress as a representative and then as a senator as well as his foreign policy chops.
“He had clear views of what, in fact, he wanted to do and what his strategy was in terms of America’s role in the world. He was looking for someone who had day-to-day experience and knew a lot of those world leaders,” he continued.
“And so it is almost all of the women I’m considering have had some exposure to foreign policy and national defense issues, security issues, but that is not a minimum requirement. A requirement is that they have the intellectual capacity as well as the temperament, as well as their leadership qualities that lend everyone to believe that they would be ready on day one to be president of the United States of America.”
Biden reportedly is considering a number of women of color, including California Sen. Kamala Harris, who is of South Asian descent, as well as former national security adviser Susan Rice and Reps. Karen Bass of California and Val Demings of Florida, all of whom are African Americans, among others. | 0 | non |
989 | Title: Muddy mustangs look like Greek statues in stunning photos
Advertisement
This is some serious horsing around.
A pair of mud-drenched wild mustangs were captured in a glorious set of photos engaged in a wrestling match in the western desert of Utah.
The captivating images were taken by 46-year-old nature photographer Jami Bollschweiler, who waited for the animal fight to break out back in May as the two horses tore away from their herd.
“People seemed to really love this image,” Bollschweiler told the Caters News Agency of one of the photos, which shows the horses coming to blows.
“This one tends to stand out from the rest of my wild mustang fighting images because of the mud they rolled in and the uncanny effect of it making them look like Greek statues,” she said.
The shutterbug said that he’s “always carefully looking for signs of a good shot.”
“This includes waiting for hours and making sure you are always aware of the light, the animal’s behavior, and background composition,” said Bollschweiler.
Bollschweiler noted that the “hardest part” of shooting wild horses is that fact that there’s typically a band of other horses around or in the photograph.
“The wild mustangs fight for dominance and they start testing their skills from a young age,” the photographer said during the interview.
“There are typically telltale signs that a dominance interaction will take place but sometimes things happen unexpectedly,” she added. | 0 | non |
990 | Title: Nearly 100 residents of California farmworker dorm contract coronavirus
At least 95 residents of a California farmworker housing facility have been infected with the coronavirus, according to a new report.
The farmworkers, employed at the Villa Las Brisas complex in Oxnard, are in their 20s and 30s and have minor symptoms, the Ventura County Star reported, citing county health department officials.
The residents are staying at the facility under quarantine.
Test results are pending for another 100 people.
“Our team responded immediately once we learned of this outbreak,” county public health director Rigoberto Vargas said in a statement obtained by the outlet. “We will continue to assist those who have tested positive and those who have been exposed.”
The dorm-style facility was developed by Reiter Affiliated Cos. — the largest fresh berry producer in the world — to house temporary migrant farmworkers in the H-2A visa program, according to the report.
The residents living there are employed by third-party farm labor contractors, not directly by Reiter, Vargas told the outlet.
The first two cases were detected on June 17, and officials moved to test all guest workers and employees living there by June 25, housing program manager Alejandro Castilla said in a statement obtained by the outlet.
Castilla also said the facility “proactively reduced our total capacity to 46%, housing 205 guest workers out of a potential 441, helping to increase social distancing.”
A total of 2,740 coronavirus cases and 45 deaths have been reported in Ventura County, according to the latest statistics, updated Monday.
California overall has reported 216,550 cases and 5,936 deaths. | 0 | non |
991 | Title: Gun-toting St. Louis couple says they support Black Lives Matter
The white St. Louis couple who went viral for brandishing guns on Black Lives Matter marchers in their tony neigborhood are supporters of the movement and are longtime civil rights activists, their attorney said.
Mark McCloskey, 63, and his wife, Patricia, 61, insisted that they back the movement despite video of them wielding firearms outside their mansion Sunday night at protesters heading toward the mayor’s home to demand her resignation.
“The most important thing for them is that their images (holding the guns) don’t become the basis for a rallying cry for people who oppose the Black Lives Matter message,” their attorney Albert Watkins said.
“They want to make it really clear that they believe the Black Lives Matter message is important.”
Watkins said the couple grabbed a semi-automatic rifle and a silver pistol when two or three protesters — who were white — violently threatened them and their property.
He insisted the husband and wife, who are both personal injury lawyers, “acted lawfully” out of “fear and apprehension, the genesis of which was not race-related,” the St. Louis Today reported.
Mark previously described the incident in the city’s well-to-do Central West End neighborhood as akin to the “storming of the Bastille.”
“We were threatened with our lives, threatened with a house being burned down, my office building being burned down, even our dog’s life being threatened,” he told local NBC affiliate KDSK.
“It was, it was about as bad as it can get. I mean, those you know, I really thought it was storming the Bastille, that we would be dead and the house would be burned and there was nothing we could do about it,” he added.
St. Louis Prosecutor Kimberly Gardner said Monday the couple is being investigated for possible criminal charges.
“I am alarmed at the events that occurred over the weekend, where peaceful protesters were met by guns,” Gardner said.
“We must protect the right to peacefully protest, and any attempt to chill it through intimidation or threat of deadly force will not be tolerated.”
The marchers on Sunday were protesting against Mayor Lyda Krewson for reading on Facebook Live the names and addresses of several residents who wrote letters to call for defunding the police department.
With Post wires | 0 | non |
992 | Title: AOC leads opposition of Israel's annexation of West Bank
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is leading legislative opposition to Israel’s possible annexation of West Bank areas, saying it could result in the country becoming an “apartheid state.”
The 30-year-old New York Democrat rounded up a dozen signatures on a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that threatens to add anti-annexation strings to $3.8 billion in annual US aid to Israel’s military.
The annexation “would actively harm prospects for a future in which all Israelis and Palestinians can live with full equality, human rights and dignity, and would lay the groundwork for Israel becoming an apartheid state, as your predecessor John Kerry warned in 2014,” AOC’s letter says, according to Politico.
Co-signers of the letter to Pompeo include socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who is Jewish, along with the three other members of the left-wing “Squad”: Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.
“Should the Israeli government continue down this path, we will work to ensure non-recognition of annexed territories as well as pursue legislation that conditions the $3.8 billion in U.S. military funding to Israel to ensure that U.S. taxpayers are not supporting annexation in any way,” the letter says.
“We will include human rights conditions and the withholding of funds for the offshore procurement of Israeli weapons equal to or exceeding the amount the Israeli government spends annually to fund settlements, as well as the policies and practices that sustain and enable them.”
Describing Israel’s treatment of Palestinians as similar to apartheid in South Africa is controversial. Israel’s defenders note Arabs with Israeli citizenship can vote in elections — though Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank cannot. South Africa’s government gave limited sovereignty to disjointed and impoverished black-majority areas.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this year he’s “confident” that the US will approve his plan to annex parts of the West Bank. The scope of the possible annexation remains unclear, but it may include Israeli settlements in the West Bank and a strip of land along the Jordan River.
The West Bank was taken by Israel from Jordan in 1967 and Palestinians hope it will form the core of their own country one day. Israel already has annexed occupied East Jerusalem, which also was taken from Jordan, and the Golan Heights, which Israel took from Syria during the same 1967 war.
President Trump has been consistently supportive of Netanyahu. In 2017, Trump ordered that the US Embassy be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. In 2019, Trump authorized US government recognition of the annexation of the Golan Heights.
Netanyahu, however, on Tuesday indicated the timeline may be delayed, saying his talks with US officials on the topic would continue “in the coming days.” The prime minister faces calls for delay from center-left members of his governing coalition. He originally planned to begin the West Bank annexation process on July 1. | 0 | non |
993 | Title: 'Doomsday' mom Lori Vallow set to appear in court on new charges
Lori Vallow will appear in court Tuesday on new felony charges for concealing, altering or destroying evidence after her kids’ “tortured” bodies were found buried in her husband Chad Daybell’s back yard, officials said.
Vallow, whose convoluted tale was recently profiled by true-crime broadcaster Nancy Grace, was hit with the new charges late Monday and will appear at the Fremont County Courthouse in Idaho at 4:30 p.m. local time, a spokesperson for the courthouse announced in an email.
The doomsday-obsessed alleged cult member is already behind bars on child abandonment charges and is being held on a $1 million bond.
Tuesday’s hearing will be Vallow’s initial appearance on the new felony charges.
The update comes as Daybell, an author of doomsday-related books, faces the same charges after the mangled remains of 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow and 17-year-old Tylee Ryan were discovered in his back yard on June 9.
Court papers related to Daybell’s arrest later revealed that JJ’s tiny body was found wrapped tightly in black plastic and bound with gray duct tape with a white bag over his head.
Ryan’s burned and dismembered body was found scattered near a fire pit in an apparent pet cemetery where dog and cat remains were also found. | 0 | non |
994 | Title: Hotel employee fired for calling cops on black woman using pool
A North Carolina Hampton Inn employee has been fired for calling the cops on a black woman using the pool with her children — a scene captured in a now-viral video.
The woman, identified on her social media as Anita Williams-Wright, livestreamed the ordeal on Facebook Friday evening. A white hotel employee and two Williamston police officers are shown asking Williams-Wright for proof that she is staying there.
“Why do I have to tell you what room I’m in? What did I do wrong?” Williams-Wright asks, before accusing the employee of discrimination.
“I have a key to get in and I can show you that it works,” she tells cops. “I have a room here. I don’t have to give my name. I didn’t break the law.”
Williams-Wright, who says she is on a business trip, claims that the unidentified employee did not question anyone else at the pool — and targeted her family, the only black people there.
“It was two white people sitting over there and she said nothing to them,” Williams-Wright says in the video. “She said to me, ‘Oh, because it’s always people like you using the pool unauthorized.’ Who is people like me?”
The officers are shown running the woman’s license plate from her car parked outside the pool area.
“Once I prove that I have a room, that was for you to walk away,” Williams-Wright tells one of the cops. “I didn’t commit a crime. You are degrading me like this in front of my kids. They are trying to enjoy themselves in the pool.”
The nearly 10-minute clip, which had more than 900,000 views by Tuesday afternoon, ends as the woman and her kids head back to their room.
“I can’t believe this happened to me and my kids,” she captioned a repost of the video on Instagram.
In a statement, Shruti Gandhi Buckley, the global head of Hampton by Hilton, told USA Today that “the team member is no longer employed at the hotel.”
“Hampton by Hilton has zero-tolerance for racism or discrimination of any kind,” Buckley said in a statement. “On Saturday, we were alerted to an online video of a guest incident at one of our franchise properties.”
Buckley said the company has “apologized directly to the guest and her family for their experience, and will work with them and the hotel to make this right.”
“We remain in contact with the hotel’s ownership about follow up actions, and to ensure that in the future, their employees reflect the best values of our brand and are welcoming of all,” she added. | 0 | non |
995 | Title: Arizona mayor says he won’t require masks for town’s summer events
An Arizona town will push forward with its summer festivities but leave the coronavirus mask requirement behind.
Mayor Bryce Hamblin of Eagar, an east Arizona city with a population around 5,000, said in a recent statement that he has no plans to cancel a roster of events for the summer season, including an upcoming Fourth of July parade and will not require attendees to wear face coverings. Instead, per AZ Central, he’ll ask people who are feeling ill to stay home.
“Over the past several weeks, I have been asked repeatedly what the Town of Eagar plans to do about COVID-19, masks, visitors, riots, etc.,” he said. “It is somewhat alarming how many expect and almost invite a more drastic infringement on their freedoms. My response from the onset of COVID-19 pandemic has been that we will err on the side of freedom.”
“Those precautions do not harm me and I will not judge you adversely for doing what you feel is best for you. But don’t ask that the government require it of healthy, law-abiding,” he added.
The announcement comes are COVID-19 cases are spiking the state and in other hotspots across the countries, prompting renewed shutdowns and reopening reversals.
At a Monday news conference in Phoenix, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has ordered the closure of bars, gyms, movie theaters, nightclubs and water parks across the state for 30 days in an effort to combat a spike in coronavirus cases.
The country Eagar sits in reported around 2,300 COVID-19 cases and 85 deaths, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services. Up to 10 cases were in Eagar while the neighboring city of Show Low reported nearly 150 confirmed cases.
Statewide, Arizona has tacked on 3,857 new cases to its 73,961 total, with 1,594 deaths. | 0 | non |
996 | Title: North Korea registers trademark for ski resort in tourism push
The powder is killer.
North Korea registered a trademark with the United Nations for a hotel that sits within a $35 million ski resort — a pet project of Kim Jong Un that’s now part of a push to lure tourists to the hermit kingdom.
The country listed a 10-year trademark for the “Masikryong Hotel” in the coastal town of Wonsan with the World Intellectual Property Organization, the UN’s body on intellectual property rights, online records show.
It was able to register the trademark on April 2 because tourism is one of the few sectors excluded from the UN-led sanctions imposed over its nuclear weapons program, the Korea Herald noted.
Despite its international reputation to the contrary, the notoriously closed-off nation relies on tourists for its main source of foreign currency, the paper said.
That has taken a hard hit after the coronavirus pandemic forced the North to close borders with China, the North’s main ally and primary source of tourists, the Herald said.
Officials now hope to push the attraction of the Masikryong Ski Resort, which was built as a pet project for the kingdom’s 36-year-old dictator who is reportedly an avid skier.
It has 10 slopes of varying difficulties as well as an Austrian-made cable car system, snowmobiles and an ice skating rink, the Herald said.
The hotel, meanwhile, has 120 hotel rooms, a swimming pool, bars, cafe — and even western shops, the paper says.
However, Americans will still have to wait to check out the powder and any off-piste action with the Kims.
“Do not travel to North Korea due to the serious risk of arrest and long-term detention of US nationals,” the Department of State warns, giving its strongest warning against travel there.
Anyone still wanting to try needs “special validation” which is granted “in very limited circumstances,” the department warns — stressing that you will not be able to get help from US officials once there. | 0 | non |
997 | Title: NY judge blocks publication of book written by Trump's niece
A New York judge Tuesday temporarily blocked the publication of a controversial new book written by President Trump’s niece.
The president has said publication of the potentially explosive tell-all — “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man” — would violate a nondisclosure agreement that his niece Mary Trump previously signed.
In Tuesday’s court ruling, state Judge Hal Greenwald in Poughkeepsie ordered a temporary injunction against Mary Trump and publisher Simon & Schuster Inc. involving the book until a hearing between both sides July 10 over whether it should be permanently quashed.
The decision came less than a week after a Queens Surrogate’s Court judge tossed out a local lawsuit that sought to block the book’s publication, saying he didn’t have jurisdiction over the matter.
President Trump ‘s brother Robert had sued to block the book’s publication, which is slated for July 28, agreeing with his commander-in-chief brother that the tome violated the agreement Mary had once signed as part of a dispute over the 1999 will of the men’s father, Fred Trump.
Robert’s lawyer, Charles Harder, had said he filed the lawsuit in the Queens court because that’s where the family had agreed to bring any future disputes over the will.
After the Queens judge’s ruling, Harder said he would pursue the case in New York State Supreme Court.
A description of the book on Amazon says Mary Trump, “a trained clinical psychologist and Donald’s only niece, shines a bright light on the dark history of their family in order to explain how her uncle became the man who now threatens the world’s health, economic security, and social fabric.
“Mary Trump spent much of her childhood in her grandparents’ large, imposing house in the heart of Queens, New York, where Donald and his four siblings grew up,” the blurb says.
“She describes a nightmare of traumas, destructive relationships, and a tragic combination of neglect and abuse.
“She explains how specific events and general family patterns created the damaged man who currently occupies the Oval Office, including the strange and harmful relationship between Fred Trump and his two oldest sons, Fred Jr. and Donald.”
Harder hailed the upstate judge’s injunction in a statement, saying Robert Trump “is very pleased” with the ruling.
“The actions of Mary Trump and Simon & Schuster are truly reprehensible,” the lawyer wrote. “We look forward to vigorously litigating this case, and will seek the maximum remedies available by law for the enormous damages caused by Mary Trump’s breach of contract and Simon & Schuster’s intentional interference with that contract.”
A lawyer for Mary Trump, Ted Boutrous, vowed to immediately appeal the decision, according to Politico.
Boutrous called the injunction “a prior restraint on core political speech that flatly violates the First Amendment.
“This book, which addresses matters of great concern and importance about a sitting president in election year, should not be suppressed even for one day,” the lawyer said. | 0 | non |
998 | Title: Trump campaign cancels Alabama rally as coronavirus cases surge
WASHINGTON — President Trump’s campaign has been forced to cancel a planned rally in Alabama for next weekend as new coronavirus cases continue to surge across the US, a source familiar with the plans told The Post.
A campaign spokeswoman refused to confirm reports, first published by CNN, that Trump had been forced to scrap a yet-to-be-announced appearance in Alabama, where his former attorney general Jeff Sessions faces an uphill Senate battle.
Alabama officials reportedly asked the campaign not to hold the event in the state, which is experiencing a worrying spike in new COVID-19 infections, like many other regions across the US.
On Tuesday, Alabama’s Republican Gov. Kay Ivey announced she was extending an order encouraging people to stay home and wear face coverings when in public.
The Trump campaign never announced the Alabama rally, but the decision to scrap the event is sure to come as a blow to his re-election bid, which has been affected by the pandemic.
It’s unclear if there are any other public events or rallies on the horizon, meaning Trump’s next large-scale celebration could be delayed until his nomination at the Republican National Convention in Jacksonville in August.
The campaign is still reeling from a relatively poorly attended rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, earlier this month that was supposed to serve as a huge comeback event for Trump after he had to cancel three months of campaign events amid the pandemic.
Sessions will likely be relieved that his old boss is staying in Washington, DC, after he ripped Trump in May for becoming involved in the Alabama GOP Senate primary, where he faces a tough fight for his old seat. | 0 | non |
999 | Title: Amy McGrath narrowly beats Charles Booker in Kentucky primary
Former Marine combat pilot Amy McGrath has edged out a victory in the surprisingly close Democratic Senate primary fight in Kentucky.
McGrath narrowly beat state Rep. Charles Booker to the finish line thanks to a flood of absentee ballots caused by the coronavirus pandemic, which led to thousands of votes being mailed in prior to Booker surging in the polls.
Booker, a progressive who openly supports “Medicare-for-all” and the Green New Deal, rose to national prominence in the wake of the killing of 26-year-old Breonna Taylor, a black woman, in Louisville, Kentucky.
Taylor was killed on March 13 during a botched police raid at her home, when officers used a no-knock warrant to enter the premises. Protesters have taken to the streets in Louisville demanding justice for her killing.
Booker, a black man, became actively involved in the protests, which mirrored those taking place nationwide against police injustice.
His involvement gained him the attention of some prominent progressives, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), as well as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), all of whom endorsed Booker. Warren had previously celebrated McGrath launching her Senate bid, but stopped short of an endorsement.
McGrath, meanwhile, had been the longstanding favorite to clinch the party’s nomination prior to the protests, raising an astonishing $41.1 million over the course of her Senate campaign thanks to the support of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).
Following a fundraising haul brought in by his progressive endorsements, Booker hit McGrath for her absence at the protests.
McGrath struggled to explain during their final primary debate why she had not yet been to any of the protests in her area, stammering for a bit before saying that she had not done so because she was at home with her family. She went on to cite the coronavirus pandemic as a reason to avoid crowds.
With the Senate primary scheduled for June 23, results poured in throughout the week as absentee ballots were counted, causing the results to fluctuate and move Booker to the lead on multiple occasions.
Booker led McGrath in the state’s more urban areas, specifically Louisville and Lexington, significantly. McGrath, however, bested Booker in rural counties.
With Booker out of her way, McGrath will take on the GOP powerhouse himself, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who is seeking his seventh term.
The Cook Political Report predicts the race will go “Likely Republican.”
In a statement Tuesday, McGrath called for party unity amid the rise in Democratic turnout.
“But there can be no removal of Mitch McConnell without unity. We must unify our Democratic family to make that happen, including those who didn’t vote for me in the primary, and I intend, immediately, to start the dialogue necessary to bring us all together in our common cause for the general election,” the former fighter pilot said.
She also praised her primary opponent, touting how Booker had “tapped into and amplified the energy and anger of so many who are fed up with the status quo.”
A McConnell campaign spokesperson said in a statement that McGrath was “lucky to have gotten out of the primary with a victory, but her reputation sustained significant damage all across Kentucky.” | 0 | non |
Subsets and Splits