| Trump in ‘fragile’ mood and may drop out of 2020 race if poll numbers don’t improve, GOP insiders tell Fox News Posted: 29 Jun 2020 08:27 AM PDT  Donald Trump may drop out of the 2020 presidential race if he believes he has no chance of winning, a Republican Party operative reportedly told Fox News.The claim comes in a report in the president's favourite news outlet that cites a number of GOP insiders who are concerned about Mr Trump's re-election prospects amid abysmal polling numbers.
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| China cuts Uighur births with IUDs, abortion, sterilization Posted: 28 Jun 2020 09:04 PM PDT  The Chinese government is taking draconian measures to slash birth rates among Uighurs and other minorities as part of a sweeping campaign to curb its Muslim population, even as it encourages some of the country's Han majority to have more children. While individual women have spoken out before about forced birth control, the practice is far more widespread and systematic than previously known, according to an AP investigation based on government statistics, state documents and interviews with 30 ex-detainees, family members and a former detention camp instructor. The campaign over the past four years in the far west region of Xinjiang is leading to what some experts are calling a form of "demographic genocide."
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| New Yorkers who travel to Florida, Texas, and other states with high COVID-19 infection rates will lose paid sick leave benefits Posted: 28 Jun 2020 01:00 PM PDT  Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah, and Texas all currently have positive test rates higher than 10%.
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| Russia denies nuclear incident after international body detects isotopes Posted: 29 Jun 2020 03:15 AM PDT  Russia said on Monday it had detected no sign of a radiation emergency, after an international body reported last week that sensors in Stockholm had picked up unusually high levels of radioactive isotopes produced by nuclear fission. The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), which monitors the world for evidence of nuclear weapons tests, said last week one of its stations scanning the air for radioactive particles had found unusual, although harmless, levels of caesium-134, caesium-137 and ruthenium-103. The isotopes were "certainly nuclear fission products, most likely from a civil source", it said.
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| Pence cancels campaign events in Florida and Arizona as coronavirus cases spike Posted: 28 Jun 2020 09:08 AM PDT  A campaign spokesperson said the cancellations were "out of an abundance of caution" as cases climb in Florida and Arizona.
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| Coming Soon: Russian Bombers (Now Armed with Hypersonic Missiles?) Posted: 29 Jun 2020 02:30 PM PDT  Hypersonic missiles have been seen as a potential game changer, with some in the U.S. military warning that there is really no defense against the missiles due to their speed.
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| Syed Ali Geelani: Kashmir leader quits Hurriyat Conference Posted: 29 Jun 2020 04:47 AM PDT  Syed Ali Geelani has been heading political opposition to Indian rule in Kashmir for decades.
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| Exclusive: NRA has shed 200 staffers this year as group faces financial crisis Posted: 29 Jun 2020 02:00 AM PDT  Gun rights organization may struggle to support Trump in 2020 election amid layoffs and furloughsAfter spending over $30m to help elect Donald Trump in 2016, the National Rifle Association faces a deepening financial crisis with over 200 staff layoffs and furloughs in 2020, according to three NRA sources, gun analysts and documents.The situation is likely to hinder efforts by the gun rights group to help Trump and other Republicans win in November's election.The 200-plus layoffs and furloughs, which have not previously been reported and were mainly at NRA headquarters in Virginia, were spurred by declines in revenues and fundraising, heavy legal spending, political infighting, and charges of insider self-dealing under scrutiny by attorneys general in New York and Washington DC, the sources say."The widespread Covid layoffs and furloughs have further harmed both the NRA's legal capacity and political influence beyond what was already a troubling deterioration," said one NRA official who requested anonymity to discuss internal matters. The official added the outlook this year for NRA political spending was "deeply concerning."NRA staff learned about the furloughs, plus 20% staff pay cuts, four-day work weeks and other belt tightening, in an April email from Wayne LaPierre, the longtime top executive of the NRA, which claims it has 5 million members.LaPierre's email to the "NRA family" said "we have lost significant revenue" and linked the austerity moves to the pandemic's stay-at-home orders. The email said the NRA hoped to bring back those furloughed when its finances improved.The NRA declined to comment on the extent of the layoffs and furloughs, which sources said were continuing.The NRA's financial problems were palpable long before the pandemic but have increased due to a few factors, including the cancellation of a number of NRA fundraising dinners following the onset of Covid-19.The NRA typically pulls in tens of millions of dollars yearly from Friends of NRA dinners in many states, but most were canceled after January and February, said the sources.The NRA's woes, say gun analysts, are expected to sharply reduce spending this year compared with the $30m the group spent on ads to help Trump win in 2016. They are also likely to mean cuts to its once formidable get out the vote operations in key states that historically provide big boosts to GOP candidates. Overall in 2016, the NRA spent close to $70m on ads and voter mobilization drives, say NRA sources.In 2018, the NRA's financial problems caused it to spend a relatively lackluster $9.4m on the midterm elections, and gun control groups outspent the NRA for the first time, which analysts say helped the Democrats win the House majority."The NRA is entering the summer and fall campaign with a series of crippling financial, legal, and political problems," said Robert Spitzer, a political science professor at Cortland State University in New York.Spitzer added: "As its anemic political spending in the 2018 midterm election showed, they will not be able to match anything like the roughly $70m they spent in 2016, as they continue to be plagued by a major revenue shortfall, a fact exacerbated by the impact of the coronavirus shutdown."The drop in revenues accelerated in 2019 when several large NRA donors began a drive to oust LaPierre over allegations of mismanagement and self-dealing, and to promote reforms. The website helpsavethenra.com, which is headlined "Retire LaPierre", boasted in December that $165m in donations and planned gifts had been withheld.The donor revolt has been spurred in part by several reports of lavish personal spending by LaPierre. The Wall Street Journal revealed last year that according to the NRA's former ad firm Ackerman McQueen, which has been in legal battles with the NRA and LaPierre, he took about $240,000 worth of trips to Italy, Hungary, the Bahamas and other locales that were charged to the ad firm. The Journal reported that the ad firm had paid for about $200,000 in expensive suits for LaPierre, including some from a Beverly Hills boutique.LaPierre's yearly salary in 2018 was close to $2m.Two Democratic attorneys general in New York and DC have reportedly been investigating whether the NRA abused its non-profit tax-exempt status in different ways such as improperly transferring funds from an NRA Foundation to the NRA.Further, the AGs are said to be examining the allegations of self-dealing by NRA leaders, including financial transactions involving LaPierre, the NRA and the former ad firm.If the AGs bring charges, the NRA could lose its coveted non-profit status in New York, where it has long been chartered.The NRA's top outside lawyer has said it is complying with the investigations but has attacked the NY AG's "zeal" and "the investigation's partisan purposes".During the pandemic, the NRA and pro-gun allies have waged successful legal battles in a number of states to make gun shops and shooting ranges "essential" businesses and circumvent stay-at-home measures.But in mid-June, second-amendment advocates and the NRA suffered a stinging legal setback when the supreme court declined 10 petitions to review lower court rulings involving gun laws in several states, including Illinois and Massachusetts, which have banned assault weapons.The NRA attacked the high court's "inaction" in a statement, blasting it for allowing "so-called gun safety politicians to trample on the freedom and security of law-abiding citizens".Due to the pandemic, the NRA earlier this year canceled its annual meeting in Nashville, which Trump has faithfully attended since taking office to solidify his NRA ties. It is now slated to be held on 5 September in Springfield, Missouri.At last year's meeting was concluding, Trump in a tweet urged his NRA allies to "stop the internal infighting" amid the charges of self-dealing by its leaders and to "get back to GREATNESS. FAST." For now, Trump's aspirations for a speedy NRA recovery seem largely unfulfilled.
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| A Closer Look at William Wegman’s Picture-Perfect Postcard Art Posted: 29 Jun 2020 08:35 AM PDT |
| Huntsman at risk of shocking defeat in Utah Posted: 29 Jun 2020 04:19 PM PDT  After a decade away from Utah politics and a weeks-long fight with the coronavirus, the former governor is locked in a tight race for his old job.
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| Israel orders US-based Christian TV channel off air Posted: 28 Jun 2020 05:45 AM PDT |
| Trump was 'near-sadistic' in phone calls with female world leaders, according to CNN report on classified calls Posted: 29 Jun 2020 03:24 PM PDT  Trump's conduct over the phone with world leaders posed a "danger to the national security of the United States," according to intel officials.
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| New York City mayor plans to cut $1bn from police budget Posted: 29 Jun 2020 01:47 PM PDT  New York City mayor Bill de Blasio has proposed cutting $1bn (£814m) from the police force's $6bn (£4.48bn) yearly budget, amid calls for reform.Mr de Blasio announced the plan during his daily City Hall press briefing on Monday, and said the proposed budget would help reform the New York City Police Department (NYPD).
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| What we know about Steven Lopez, the suspect in the fatal Louisville protest shooting Posted: 29 Jun 2020 06:54 AM PDT  Steven Lopez is accused of firing a gun into the crowd at a protest at Louisville's Jefferson Square Park, killing a 27-year-old photographer.
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| President Trump on 'Fox Nation Presents: What Made America Great,' Part 2 Posted: 28 Jun 2020 07:52 PM PDT  Host Brian Kilmeade gets an exclusive tour of the Oval Office featuring President Trump.
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| Saharan dust cloud hits Southern states in U.S. already struggling with coronavirus surge Posted: 28 Jun 2020 10:14 AM PDT  Florida in particular faces a greater risk from the dust as the state experiences record-breaking coronavirus numbers, its ICU capacity under 25 percent.
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| See This Odd Plane? Russia Tried to Build a Stealth 'F-35'. They Failed Posted: 28 Jun 2020 05:30 AM PDT  The story of the ill-fated MiG 1.44.
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| Dozens arrested as Hong Kongers protest planned national security laws Posted: 28 Jun 2020 01:03 AM PDT  Hong Kong police arrested at least 53 people on Sunday after scuffles erupted during a relatively peaceful protest against planned national security legislation to be implemented by the mainland Chinese government. Armed riot police were present as a crowd of several hundred moved from Jordan to Mong Kok in the Kowloon district, staging what was intended as a "silent protest" against the planned law. Hong Kong Police said on Facebook that 53 people had been arrested and charged with unlawful assembly, adding that earlier some protesters tried to blockade roads in the area.
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| Minneapolis police chief, mayor launching policy changes Posted: 28 Jun 2020 02:16 PM PDT  The Minneapolis police chief and mayor on Sunday began their push for sweeping policy changes with a new rule that prevents officers involved in using deadly force from reviewing body camera footage before completing an initial police report. The new standards come after a proposal by the Minneapolis City Council to dismantle the police force following the death of George Floyd, a handcuffed Black man who died after a white police officer pressed his knee on Floyd's neck for nearly eight minutes.
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| Trump struggles as furor grows over reported Russian bounty offer to kill U.S. troops Posted: 28 Jun 2020 12:34 PM PDT  White House says Trump wasn't briefed on intelligence about Russian offer of bounty payments. If so, that shows negligence, some Republicans say.
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| The first Boeing 737 Max recertification flight just landed, marking a new milestone for the troubled jet Posted: 29 Jun 2020 01:31 PM PDT  Boeing and FAA officials were aboard the 737 Max as it made its first recertification flight, a major milestone for the troubled jet.
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| Russia's mining giant admits to dumping contaminated water into Arctic tundra Posted: 29 Jun 2020 03:38 AM PDT  Russia's mining giant Norilsk Nickel has admitted to spilling wastewater into the wild less than a month after it caused a disastrous oil spill in the same region. Environmentalists and journalists in the Arctic city of Norilsk on Sunday caught an enrichment plant owned by Norilsk Nickel dumping water full of heavy metals into the Arctic tundra. The Novaya Gazeta newspaper published footage from outside the city of Norilsk, showing metal pipes leading from a reservoir and releasing foaming liquid into the nearby woods. The journalists called the police to the scene, prompting the workers to begin to dismantle the pipes. Environmental activists who took samples at the site of the spill were stopped at the local airport over the weekend and barred from shipping them to Moscow for tests. An official quoted by the Tass news agency on Monday said that up to 6,000 cubic metres of "unknown liquid with a chemical odour" is believed to have been pumped into tundra. London-traded Norilsk Nickel later on Sunday admitted to the incident, saying that it has suspended the workers who decided to pump the water into the tundra. Unnamed workers at the Talnakh plant reportedly suspected that the reservoir for the liquid used to process minerals would soon get overflow and decided to dump the wastewater into the nearby tundra. Investigators are looking into the incident. Norilsk Nickel, with the market capitalisation of £36 billion, is a major taxpayer in the region, employing more than 73,000 people. The metal company's environmental record came into question last month when some 20,000 metric tonnes of diesel fuel spilled into the river system from a tank at a power plant it owns. The fuel spill, which has been blamed on thawing permafrost, has been described as the Arctic's worst since the 1989 accident off the coast of Alaska. Vladimir Chuprov, project director at Greenpeace Russia, says that the Arctic spill has shed the light on the magnitude of day-to-day pollution in Norilsk by one of the country's biggest industrial companies. "Norilsk Nickel has been dumping waste water, which is proved by satellite images," he said, adding that it is high time that the company "stops hiding the violations and gets down to rectifying them." Norilsk Nickel insists that it responds to all reports about potential environmental damage.
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| Shipbuilding suppliers need more than market forces to stay afloat Posted: 29 Jun 2020 01:41 PM PDT  Without deliberate action, the U.S. shipbuilding industry will become increasingly fragile.
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| Supreme Court makes it easier for president to fire CFPB head Posted: 29 Jun 2020 11:56 AM PDT  In her scathing dissent, Justice Elena Kagan called the ruling the "civics class version of separation of powers."
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| These 5 Weapons Made Nazi Germany a Military Superpower Posted: 29 Jun 2020 06:15 AM PDT  Hitler's most fearsome weapons.
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| Mississippi Becomes Last State to Remove Confederate Emblem from Flag Posted: 29 Jun 2020 05:13 AM PDT  The Mississippi state legislature voted on Sunday to remove the emblem of the Confederacy from the state flag.State residents had previously been resistant to changing the flag, however polling from the state's Chamber of Commerce indicated that 55 percent of residents now supported removing the Confederate symbol."In the nearly 20 years we have held the position of changing the state flag, we have never seen voters so much in favor of change," Scott Waller, president of the Mississippi Economic Council, said on Thursday. "These recent polling numbers show what people believe, and that the time has come for us to have a new flag that serves as a unifying symbol for our entire state."Governor Tate Reeves, a Republican, said he would sign legislation to change the flag after previously expressing ambivalence."The argument over the 1894 flag has become as divisive as the flag itself and it's time to end it. If they send me a bill this weekend, I will sign it," Reeves wrote on Facebook on Saturday."I would guess a lot of you don't even see that flag in the corner right there," Mississippi state Representative Ed Blackmon, a Democrat and African American who has served in the legislature continuously since 1983, said on Saturday. "There are some of us who notice it every time we walk in here, and it's not a good feeling."The push to remove the Confederate emblem comes amid massive nationwide demonstrations over the death of George Floyd, an African American man killed during arrest by Minneapolis police officers. Activists have called to remove the symbol of the secessionist states, which broke away from the union to preserve the system of slavery, as well as monuments to Confederate leaders from prominent public spaces. NASCAR has announced that it will ban spectators from waving the Confederate flag at races.
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| Orange County Democrats Want John Wayne Airport Renamed, Citing His 'I Believe In White Supremacy' Interview Posted: 28 Jun 2020 10:59 PM PDT  Orange County Democrats are calling on the OC Board of Supervisors to change the name of John Wayne Airport, citing the late Hollywood star's "white supremacist, anti-LGBT, and anti-Indigenous views." Brittney Hopper reports.
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| Despite Police Confrontation, the Queer Liberation March Was a Powerful and Peaceful Call for Justice Posted: 28 Jun 2020 07:03 PM PDT  Thousands of protesters flooded the streets of lower Manhattan on Sunday for the Queer Liberation March for Black Lives and Against Police Brutality, a rallying cry against police violence that combined the spirit of Pride with the ongoing calls of the Black Lives Matter movement. Late afternoon reports on social media showed disturbing moments of confrontation after a largely peaceful march, with the police pushing through crowds of protesters and appearing to detain multiple people.New York City's First Ever Queer Liberation March Showed a New-Old Way to Feel PrideAn NYPD spokesperson confirmed to The Daily Beast that two people were arrested in the act of graffiting a police vehicle, and that pepper spray was deployed against those who tried to intervene. (The use of pepper spray was "totally allowed," the spokesperson said, as intervening in an arrest is illegal.) Despite videos and social media posts that continue to surface showing police coming after the crowd, a department spokesperson otherwise noted the day's events were peaceful without "widespread reports of violence or anything of that nature." Participants first gathered under the hot midday sun in front of City Hall and made their way north, up past the historic Stonewall Inn and eventually into Washington Square Park. Approaching the West Village, the crowd spanned nearly a dozen city blocks in length.Similar to the many protests that have continued since the death of George Floyd last month, the march was not city-sanctioned but rather fueled by explicit calls to abolish and defund the police.Volunteers directed protesters, held traffic, and passed out supplies, while police presence (on foot, in vehicles and at least one helicopter) occasionally rose up on the route's periphery. Altercations were only reported near the march's endpoint in Washington Square. The event marked the 50th anniversary of the city's first organized march for LGBTQ+ rights (known as Christopher Street Liberation Day) on what was to be New York City's annual day of Pride celebrations. With the official parade canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Queer Liberation March restored the political rigor and intent that characterized Pride from its earliest days, with a robust sense of solidarity and defiance in the face of injustice.New York City Gets Ready for the Battle of the LGBT Pride MarchesThe Queer Liberation March was initially canceled as well, but the grassroots group behind the event, the Reclaim Pride Coalition, decided to remount it in the wake of the ongoing uprising over anti-Black racism."When we saw the eruption of protests, we were reminded of AIDS-era activism," Jon Carter, a member of the coalition, told The Daily Beast. "There are times when physical presence in the streets speaks volumes." Opposing police violence is one of the founding principles of Reclaim Pride, which organized the first Queer Liberation March last year as counter-programming to the city-approved Stonewall 50 Pride parade and accompanying glut of sponsored events and parties. Reclaim Pride's resistance to corporate influence, and most especially to police involvement, this year assumed obvious renewed resonance.New York's 50th LGBTQ Pride March Should Be as Political as Possible"We're tapping into a decades-long intersection" of the broader movements for queer and Black rights, Carter said. Trans women of color Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, who spearheaded the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement and have rightfully assumed a central place in its history, were among the trailblazers rendered in effigy, towering 20 feet off the ground on the backs of tireless puppeteers. Carter also pointed out that the founders of Black Lives Matter have personal ties to the queer community. "It's an ongoing relationship that goes back to the Queer Liberation Front collaborating with the Black Panthers in the '60s," Carter told The Daily Beast. "It's always been intersectional." Signs demanding justice for Layleen Polanco, Nina Pop, Islan Nettles, and other trans women of color rose above the crowd, along with powerful statements that pointed to anti-racism as fundamental to queer liberation ("There is no Pride without Black trans lives"). While some participants dressed in the colorful, provocative tradition of Pride, the air was decidedly one of resistance and calls for justice."I'm here to join everyone in fighting for trans lives, especially Black trans lives," said Jordana, 26, cooling off in the shade of an awning near Stonewall. "I'm a trans woman, and this year alone, 16 of us have been killed by hate crimes." If cis white gay men were subject to that kind of violence, "there would be so much more attention," said Jordana, a New York native. "It's so important for us to get out here, even despite the virus, to spread our voice and make the media pay attention to our struggles." The crowd in the street chanted: "They can't deny it, Stonewall was a riot!""I've been going to a lot of Black Lives Matter protests, and I'm a gay person, and I feel we need to be in the streets and fighting for the rights of Black trans people," said Todd, 53, an East Village resident who's been attending Pride events for more than 20 years. "This is what queer Pride should be."In Washington Square Park, where exhausted and exuberant protesters gathered and reconnected, a speaker with a microphone told the growing crowd: "If you're here for a photo opp, you're here for the wrong reason. If you're here to put resources toward saving Black trans bodies, I'm here for that!" Benches filled up and small groups sat together on the grass, recharging in the shade. "This march is not only celebratory, but focused on issues we are still trying to overcome," said Dylan, 20, draped in a trans flag and waiting to meet up with friends. "We're living in a nation where queer life is directly under attack by our government," Carter from Reclaim Pride told The Daily Beast. "The fact that we're able to rally together and play a role in protecting the progress we've made, and insist on further progress—that's cause for celebration," he said. "We have it in our hearts; even in the deepest tragedy, we find ways to bring hope and joy to our lives."Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| 2020 Watch: Trump's new focus on baseless voter fraud claims Posted: 29 Jun 2020 02:29 AM PDT  President Donald Trump is aggressively working to undercut public confidence in the November general election by stoking baseless concerns about voter fraud as he continues to struggle through one of the lowest points of his presidency. The familiar yet startling attacks on a pillar of democracy come amid a resurgence of the coronavirus under Trump's watch that forced Vice President Mike Pence to cancel upcoming campaign stops in Florida and Arizona and pushed several Trump-allied Republican governors to scale back reopening efforts. The Republican president is hoping that a high-profile appearance at Mount Rushmore this Friday can help boost his standing.
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| CanSino's COVID-19 vaccine candidate approved for military use in China Posted: 28 Jun 2020 09:38 PM PDT  China's military has received the greenlight to use a COVID-19 vaccine candidate developed by its research unit and CanSino Biologics <6185.HK> after clinical trials proved it was safe and showed some efficacy, the company said on Monday. The Ad5-nCoV is one of China's eight vaccine candidates approved for human trials at home and abroad for the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus.
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| Robert Jenrick under fresh pressure after whistleblower claims he ignored pleas to block Westferry project Posted: 28 Jun 2020 10:43 AM PDT  Robert Jenrick has found himself under fresh pressure, after a whistleblower claimed he ignored pleas from senior officials to block the controversial Westferry printworks project. The Housing Secretary reportedly overruled objections from civil servants and lawyers to greenlight Tory donor Richard Desmond's £1 billion development in January, with one source saying he showed "total disregard" for the law. Mr Jenrick had weeks earlier watched a promotional video for the luxury East London project on the businessman's mobile phone during a dinner at the Savoy hotel in London. Home Secretary Priti Patel insisted she would not "be watching videos" at Conservative fundraisers when quizzed on the matter on Sunday. Ms Patel also argued that going to Tory events would "absolutely not" help a person's chances in securing planning permission as she described the matter as "closed". She told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show: "I haven't followed the details of every single decision on this but what I do know and what I can tell you is that the correspondence, the documentation is out in the public domain on this particular application - and rightly so. "The papers have been published, the Secretary of State has followed all issues around transparency. "It has been discussed in Parliament a number of times, questions have been answered on this and the matter is deemed to be closed."
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| Bob Woodward story on Kavanaugh's veracity 'pulled' during Senate hearings Posted: 29 Jun 2020 11:43 AM PDT  Washington Post reportedly quashed a story undermining denial by supreme court justice that he was source for Watergate reporterBrett Kavanaugh lied about not being a source for the Watergate reporter Bob Woodward, but the Washington Post quashed the story while the supreme court justice's confirmation hearings were ongoing, according to the New York Times.Media writer Ben Smith reported the story in a wide-ranging piece on the Post under the leadership of the executive editor, Marty Baron, published late on Sunday.Kavanaugh hit the headlines again on Monday as he and three other conservatives voted in favor of a hardline Louisiana abortion law which the court nonetheless struck down by a narrow 5-4 majority as Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the four liberal judges.Kavanaugh was Donald Trump's second nomination to the court, tipping it firmly to the right.According to Smith, during Kavanaugh's tempestuous confirmation hearings in late 2018, the Post was set to run a story in which Woodward outed Kavanaugh as a source for material in one of his books about Ken Starr and his investigation of Bill Clinton.Kavanaugh worked for Starr, the independent counsel who investigated Clinton's affair with a staffer, Monica Lewinsky. In a letter to the Post in 1999, Kavanaugh had publicly denied being the source in question.According to Smith, "two Post journalists who read" Woodward's piece about the affair said it "would have been explosive", given questions about Kavanaugh's integrity that dominated confirmation hearings.Kavanaugh was confirmed by a 50-48 Senate vote, amid huge controversy over allegations from multiple women of sexual assault when he was a student. He strenuously denied all such claims."The article was nearly ready," Smith wrote, citing three unnamed Post employees, "when the executive editor stepped in. Baron urged Woodward not to breach his arrangement with Kavanaugh and to protect his old source's anonymity."Smith added: "Baron and other editors persuaded Woodward that it would be bad for the Post and 'bad for Bob' to disclose a source [and] the piece never ran."Baron did not comment but Smith, citing "people who work with him", also reported that the editor's opposition to the story "wasn't about favoring Kavanaugh, or being afraid of a fight"."Publishing the article," Smith wrote, "would simply violate the traditional principle that sources should be protected [and] would veer into an uncomfortable and potentially embarrassing new form of journalism and, in Baron's view, imperil the reputation" of the Post.With Carl Bernstein, Woodward broke the story of the Watergate scandal, leading to the resignation of Richard Nixon in August 1974. The two reporters famously protected the identity of their main source, known as "Deep Throat", and only revealed it to have been Mark Felt after the senior FBI official died in 2008.Woodward is set to publish a second book on Donald Trump. The sequel to Fear, a 2018 bestseller, will include interviews with the president.
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| Three men arrested for murder in case of missing California couple who vanished in 2017 Posted: 29 Jun 2020 11:23 AM PDT  Three men have been arrested for murder in the case of Audrey Moran and Jonathan Reynoso, who have been missing since 2017. Manuel Rios, of Coachella, Abraham Fregoso, of Indio, and Jesus Ruiz Jr., of Stockton, were taken into custody on Saturday, June 27, 2020, and booked in Riverside County Jail. The Riverside County Sheriff's Office is investigating.
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| The A-12 Avenger Shows Why The Navy Needs A Long-Range Strike Aircraft Posted: 28 Jun 2020 11:00 PM PDT  The Navy's carrier air wings would have greatly benefited from an A-12-like capability had the program survived.
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| Russia's opposition flounders as Putin changes constitution Posted: 28 Jun 2020 09:04 PM PDT  Russia's opposition is denouncing this week's vote on President Vladimir Putin's constitutional reforms as a joke, pointing out that copies of the amended basic law are already on sale in Moscow bookshops. From liberal reformers to Communists, Kremlin critics say the vote -- which started last week and ends on Wednesday -- is a thinly veiled attempt to keep Putin, 67, in power for life. Russia's top opposition figure Alexei Navalny, who last summer rallied thousands against suspected voter fraud in Moscow, has also shown little interest in combating the reforms.
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| Flags at family home honors all Massachusetts COVID-19 deaths Posted: 28 Jun 2020 05:22 AM PDT  The Labbe family honors each Massachusetts person who has died from the coronavirus with a flag.
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| 'Enough': 1 killed in shooting in Seattle's protest zone Posted: 29 Jun 2020 07:21 AM PDT  A 16-year-old boy was killed and and a younger teenager was wounded early Monday in Seattle's "occupied" protest zone — the second deadly shooting in the area that local officials have vowed to change after business complaints and criticism from President Donald Trump. The violence that came just over a week after another shooting in the zone left one person dead and another wounded was "dangerous and unacceptable" police Chief Carmen Best said. Demonstrators have occupied several blocks around the Seattle Police Department's East Precinct and a park for about two weeks after police abandoned the precinct following standoffs and clashes with protesters calling for racial justice and an end to police brutality.
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| The coronavirus is devastating communities of color. The Trump administration's top doctor blames 'structural racism' and shares his plans to take action. Posted: 29 Jun 2020 05:19 AM PDT  Dr. Jerome Adams is preparing two calls to action — one on high blood pressure, the other on maternal mortality — to address racial health inequality.
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| More Chinese regions brace for floods as storms shift east Posted: 29 Jun 2020 01:31 AM PDT  Torrential rain is set to hit China's eastern coastal regions this week after overwhelming large parts of the southwest, inundating villages and tourist spots and displacing more than 700,000 people, state weather forecasters said on Monday. Nearly 14 million people in 26 different provinces had been affected by storms and floods by Friday, with 744,000 evacuated, the China Daily reported, citing the Ministry for Emergency Management. Much of the damage has hit southwestern regions like Guangxi and Sichuan, and the municipality of Chongqing on the upper reaches of the Yangtze river last week experienced its worst floods since 1940.
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| Aunt Jemima’s Relatives Want Reparations Posted: 29 Jun 2020 12:19 AM PDT  Earlier this month, when Quaker Oats announced that Aunt Jemima would get a new name and logo, a 47-year-old truck driver named Larnell Evans, Jr. received the news with some ambivalence. Evans is the great-great-grandson of Anna Short Harrington, one of several actresses who played Aunt Jemima at fairs and in advertisements throughout the early 20th century. The company's rebrand and future $5 million donation rang hollow to him. "That's the easy way for them to go," Evans tells The Daily Beast. "I guess you would say, that's saving money."He had a different reckoning in mind. Six years ago, Evans and his nephew, Dannez Hunter, tried to confront Quaker Oats about their shared history in federal court. In September of 2014, they filed a federal lawsuit against PepsiCo, the corporate owner of Quaker Oats, alleging that Harrington had helped develop Aunt Jemima's signature self-rising pancake mix, and that the company had used her likeness as its logo without providing proper compensation. They asked for $2 billion in relief and a share of sales revenue. "In Aunt Jemima, [Quaker Oats] still possesses one of the most recognizable and thus valuable trademarks in history," the complaint read. "Defendants actions epitomise what is the worst in corporate America, exemplifying the worst business practices anywhere on the planet." (Following publication, Quaker Oats stated, "Aunt Jemima was not a real person or based on one individual. During the first few decades of the 20th Century, in support of the already-existing brand, there were women hired to represent Aunt Jemima at public events and in marketing materials.") The legal saga spanned five years of filings, but collapsed after a Chicago judge dismissed the case, and later barred Hunter from further filings without court approval. The loss hinged less on the content of their case, however, than its presentation. Throughout the dispute, Hunter and Evans represented themselves without an attorney. Hunter drafted the motions; Evans proofread. "Law was always a very interesting topic for both of us," Evans said. "But we wish we'd hired a lawyer, because they didn't take the case seriously." While the documents often reflected a firm grasp of legal convention, Hunter at times slipped into first person or implied larger conspiracies (none too different from actual malicious actions the American government carried out against Black people). Still, the documents' idiosyncrasies elicited snark from judicial authorities. "At over 50,000 words, Hunter's complaint is longer than both The Great Gatsby and the King James Bible's version of the Book of Genesis," the dismissal of a subsequent filing in Minnesota reads. "The overlong complaint meanders across a vast landscape pocked by conspiracy. Portions of the complaint are written in what appears to be Chinese." A good deal of the original complaint, however, bears out in contemporaneous reports about Harrington's life and work. Born in 1897, Anna Short Harrington grew up in Marlboro County, South Carolina, and worked as a sharecropper on a cotton and tobacco plantation for several years. In the 1920s, according to a Nov. 12, 1995 newswire article syndicated across the country, Harrington moved to Syracuse, New York, where she worked for several college fraternities. A skilled cook, Harrington earned a reputation at the frats for her pancakes, which soon spread around campus and into the city. The Most Hideous Confederate Statue by the Man Who Defended MLK's KillerHow Trump's Cruelty Is Fueling Padma Lakshmi's Fight for ImmigrantsHarrington became a kind of local celebrity who appeared in regional news and at state fairs, preparing her sought-after recipes for large crowds. It was at one such fair in 1935, according to The Story of Aunt Jemima, a children's book from South Carolina author John Troy McQueen, that the Quaker Oats Company recruited Harrington to play Aunt Jemima. The position took Harrington around the country, to perform at store openings and other public events, according to her entry in the South Carolina Encyclopedia, a joint archival project from several universities. "By the time of her death," the entry reads, "the former sharecropper owned two homes and lived in an area occupied by the black elite of Syracuse.""She had her own recipes, which was very unique," Evans said. "You didn't hear of people having their own recipes—especially working for Quaker Oats. You would think, working for Quaker Oats, whatever they hired them to do, that's what they would do. And she was promoting Quaker Oats products. But she was also promoting her own products." The lawsuit Evans and Hunter filed hinged on the Aunt Jemima logo that Quaker Oats copyrighted in 1936, the year after she began working for them. They claimed the image was based on a rendering of Harrington's face, as laid out in a contract signed by both parties.But Quaker Oats rejected the claim—arguing the character was fictitious and had never been based on a living person. This is a line Quaker Oats has stuck to since at least 1948, when they renewed the alleged Harrington trademark, and added a note stating the image did not depict a living person. And as recently as 2015, when historian Sherry Williams found the long-missing grave of Nancy Green, the most famous Aunt Jemima, Quaker Oats refused to fund her gravestone. "Their corporate response was that Nancy Green and Aunt Jemima aren't the same—that Aunt Jemima is a fictitious character," Williams told WBEZ Chicago.The precise terms of Harrington's employment remain unclear. Before the lawsuit, Evans and Hunter requested Quaker Oats provide Harrington's contract for review. In an email submitted as evidence, Quaker claimed they were "actively searching for contracts that would pertain to Ms. Anna Harrington," but could not locate any document negotiating her terms. In the end, PepsiCo filed to dismiss the case on three grounds: that the statute of limitations had lapsed; that their 15 claims either weren't recognized by law, weren't established with evidence, or were implausible; and that the uncle and nephew lacked documentation proving their relation to Harrington or her estate. Evans found it galling."We had a family tree. We have all the death certificates. We have the obituaries. There's no way that they can say, 'Oh they're not related,'" the 47-year-old father said. "I always knew she played Aunt Jemima. That's just a given fact." Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Black Americans experiencing deadly secondary trauma during pandemic and protesting, experts say Posted: 29 Jun 2020 09:55 AM PDT  "...The disproportionate death rate of black and brown people from Covid-19 is no coincidence. It is directly related to the history of racial oppression in our nation."
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| Retired Military Endorsements Erode Public Trust in the Military Posted: 28 Jun 2020 05:07 PM PDT  This is the little-known danger to America's national security.
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| Tough choices for Hamas over Israeli annexation plans Posted: 28 Jun 2020 07:25 AM PDT  Hamas has warned that Israeli annexation in the occupied West Bank would be a "declaration of war", but the Islamist group must weigh the cost of a new fight, analysts say. Recent weeks have seen almost daily protests in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip against US President Donald Trump's Middle East peace plan. The proposals envisage Israel annexing its West Bank settlements and the Jordan Valley, Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 and located around 50 kilometres (31 miles) from the enclave of Gaza.
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| US carriers drill after Southeast Asian nations rebuke China Posted: 29 Jun 2020 12:47 AM PDT  A look at recent developments in the South China Sea, where China is pitted against smaller neighbors in multiple territorial disputes over islands, coral reefs and lagoons. Two U.S. Navy aircraft carrier strike groups are conducting dual operations in the Philippine Sea in a show of the service's ability to rapidly deploy overwhelming force in support of allies locked in disputes with China. "The U.S. Navy regularly conducts integrated strike group operations to support a free and open Indo-Pacific, and promote an international rules-based order wherein each country can reach its potential without sacrificing national sovereignty," the release said.
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| After Asking Americans to Sacrifice in Shutdown, Leaders Failed to Control Virus Posted: 28 Jun 2020 08:15 AM PDT  WASHINGTON -- More than four months into fighting the coronavirus in the United States, the shared sacrifice of millions of Americans suspending their lives -- with jobs lost, businesses shuttered, daily routines upended -- has not been enough to beat back a virus whose staying power around the world is only still being grasped.The number of new U.S. cases this last week surged dangerously high, to levels not ever seen in the course of the pandemic, especially in states that had rushed to reopen their economies. The result has been a realization for many Americans that however much they have yearned for a return to normalcy, their leaders have failed to control the coronavirus pandemic. And there is little clarity on what comes next."There has to be a clear coherent sustained communication, and that has absolutely not happened," said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious diseases specialist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. "We've had just the opposite and now it's hard to unring a whole series of bells."There was "real hubris" on the part of public health officials at the very start, Schaffner said, that the United States could lock down and contain the virus as China had. That futile hope helped create an unrealistic expectation that the shutdown, while intense, would not be for long, and that when it was lifted life would return to normal.That expectation was reinforced by President Donald Trump, who has downplayed the severity of the crisis, refused to wear a mask and began calling for states to open even as the virus was surging. A lack of federal leadership also meant that states lacked a unified approach.With no clear message from the top, states went their own ways. A number of them failed to use the shutdown to fully prepare to reopen in a careful manner. As Americans bought precious time trying to keep the virus at bay, experts advised that states urgently needed to establish a robust system for tracking and containing any new cases -- through testing, monitoring and contact tracing. Without this, the pandemic would simply come roaring back.Testing and contact tracing efforts were ramped up, but not enough in some places. Even states that did embark on ambitious plans to do contact tracing struggled. Health officials in Massachusetts, which has one of the country's most established tracing programs, said in May that only about 60% of infected patients were picking up the phone.Just as the country needed to stay shut down longer, many states -- mostly with Republican governors -- took their foot off the brake, and Trump cheered them on.In early May, when more than half of U.S. states had begun reopening parts of their economies, most failed to meet the nonbinding criteria recommended by the Trump administration itself to resume business and social activities.The White House's nonbinding guidelines suggested that states should have a "downward trajectory" of either documented coronavirus cases or of the percentage of positive tests.Yet most states that were reopening failed to adhere to even these ill-defined recommendations. They had case counts that were trending upward, positive test results that were rising, or both, raising concerns among public health experts.The virus has proved formidable around the world, resisting global efforts to find a treatment, refusing to fade in summer weather and unrelenting in exploiting weaknesses in government responses, even in countries whose responses to the virus have been considered a success -- and where the threat seemed tamed.Germany, whose handling of the virus was considered a success, had to reimpose lockdowns on two counties where there was a spike of cases in slaughterhouses and low-income housing blocks. Singapore experienced a second wave of infections in April.And in China, which adopted some of the world's strictest measures to contain the virus, Beijing suffered this month a new surge of cases, causing flights to be canceled and schools to be closed.Much of the challenge stems from major gaps in knowledge about how the virus works. In addition to chasing a vaccine, scientists around the world are still trying to unravel important mysteries, including how long immunity lasts after infection and why some people get so much sicker than others.For Americans, a troubling new reality set in this week: Even as some parts of the country, like New York, were finally getting the virus under control, it was surging anew in others, like a terrifying sequel, threatening lives and livelihoods.New virus cases were on the rise in 29 states Friday as the outlook worsened across much of the nation's South and West.On Saturday, Florida reported more than 9,500 new coronavirus cases, beating its record for the second consecutive day. At least 980 new cases were added in Nevada, more than double the state's previous daily high. And in South Carolina, officials announced more than 1,600 new cases, nearly 300 more than the previous record, set a day before.In Florida and Texas, governors closed bars Friday, as they scrambled to control what appeared to be a brewing public health catastrophe. All this is leaving people with a strange sense of deja vu and a bitterness at public officials for what felt like a fumbling of people's sacrifices."Are we doing a full circle? Yes," said Judy Ray, 57, a cosmetologist and hairdresser in Florida who was laid off from her job at a barbershop at Walt Disney World Resort in March."Everyone is passing the buck," she said of political leaders in Florida. "You don't see the chain of command actually working."Ray, a Disney employee for 13 years, said she had not received any unemployment benefits -- federal or state, in the 10 weeks she has been off. She has called the unemployment office hundreds of times since March, including this week, when she said she broke down into tears of frustration after being told her case was still pending. She has sliced $200 out of her monthly budget and has been paying her mortgage from her savings."I don't think they care about what we've had to go through," Ray said of state authorities. "It means that we are the ones that hurt. You know?"Many Americans started in the pandemic with a strong feeling of solidarity, not unlike the days after 9/11. They closed their businesses, stayed inside, made masks and wiped down their groceries. In a country often riven by politics, polls showed broad agreement that shutting down was the right thing to do.But months of mixed messages have left many exhausted and wondering how much of what they did was worth it.Tony Jacobs, owner and proprietor of Sideshow Books, a used book store in Los Angeles, said in the early weeks of the lockdown he had taken to delivering books by bike around the neighborhood in a mask and gloves."I thought it would be an effective way to stop the virus -- if we just locked down for two or three weeks, we could knock it out of LA," he said. "I felt that was the civic duty, and that everybody was going to be compensated for doing the civic duty."The plight of California has served as a warning that even states that were more aggressive in their strategies have not been entirely successful.California, which had the first stay-at-home order in the United States this spring, allowed businesses to reopen weeks ago as the state felt it had the virus under control. That seems to be changing: California reported its highest single-day total this week and announced more than 5,600 new cases Friday.The rise comes despite the fact that the state has hired and trained thousands of contact tracers. It has also dramatically ramped up testing. And the millions of face masks that were promised early on have begun to finally materialize.Jacobs felt the lockdown had been squandered and his business hung out to dry. As for whether Jacobs' sacrifices were worth it, he said, "Oh God, no."In recent weeks, some conservatives said they had an additional concern: After weeks of being told that going to church, attending funerals, and participating in protests was a willful, careless spurning of science, political leaders and some public health officials condoned -- and even joined -- the crowds protesting the killing of George Floyd."It's just a real social whiplash," said Philip Campbell, vice president of a pest control company in Central Michigan, who took part in the first protests against the lockdown in Lansing in April from the cab of his truck. "Two weeks ago you can't go out because you are going to kill grandma. Now it's 'you have an obligation to go out.' It leaves me feeling that the science and the public health authorities have been politicized."Americans' trust in the federal government has been falling for decades, but the recent months of muddied messaging have left many even more skeptical of public officials."I'm not angry, I'm disappointed, disappointed in the government, very much so," said Gail Creary, who owns Humble Care, an assisted living facility in south Miami-Dade County, Florida. She and her sister take care of six older adults in a three-bedroom house in the suburbs. "I think they should really have taken better control of this."She laments that there isn't more widespread testing and contact tracing. She wonders why other countries have done a better job than the United States has. Her home country of Jamaica did better, she said."We have a governor who can't even say, 'Hey we're making wearing a mask mandatory,' " she said."What did America do with that time?"Schaffner offered a bleak prognosis for the country's next chapter with the virus. He said he did not expect the country to return to a full lockdown, so in order to contain the infection people would have to begin to change behaviors in ways that were uncomfortable, unfamiliar -- wearing masks, not gathering in large groups indoors, staying 6 feet apart."The only alternative until we have a vaccine is all of these behavioral interventions that we know work," he said. But, he added, "The governors are all on different pages. It is no wonder that the average person is confused."Silvana Salcido Esparza, 59, chef and owner of Barrio Cafe in Phoenix, said a group of restaurant owners asked the governor to keep the state closed for longer, but it opened anyway -- as did most restaurants. Now when she drives by, she sees "they are packed, there's no social distancing inside."She said she spent her retirement money trying to keep her business afloat, but in April, had to close her newest restaurant, Barrio Cafe Gran Reserva."I had to sacrifice it," she said, noting ruefully that it had been nominated for a James Beard Foundation Award. "I'm almost 60. I was going to retire in two years. That's not going to happen now."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Canada over worst of coronavirus outbreak, U.S. spike a cause for concern: Trudeau Posted: 29 Jun 2020 08:48 AM PDT  Canada is over the worst of the coronavirus outbreak but a spike in cases in the United States and elsewhere shows Canadians must remain vigilant as the economy reopens, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday. "After a very challenging spring things are continuing to move in the right direction," Trudeau told a daily briefing. By contrast, some southern U.S. states are reporting huge jumps in daily cases.
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