- WorldBusiness Insider
The deadly explosion that devastated Beirut appears to have been far more powerful than the 'Mother of All Bombs'
A warehouse area at a port in Beirut exploded Tuesday, killing more than 100 people and causing extensive damage in the Lebanese capital. The explosion is under investigation, a focus of which is thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate improperly stored in the area. Experts told Insider they estimated the explosive yield of the deadly blast to be several hundred tons of TNT equivalent, making it many times more powerful than the so-called "Mother of All Bombs."
- PoliticsUSA TODAY
'Blatant disrespect of Black women': Women leaders criticize treatment of Black women being considered as Biden VP pick
WASHINGTON – Over 100 Black women leaders and activists slammed comments made of Black women being considered to be Joe Biden's running mate as racist and sexist in an open letter published Wednesday. Sen. Kamala Harris, Rep. Karen Bass, former US Ambassador Susan Rice, Rep. Val Demings and former Georgia Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams have all been floated as possible vice presidential contenders for Biden. The letter comes as Biden is nearing an announcement on his vice presidential pick.
- PoliticsThe Daily Beast
Fox’s Chris Wallace: Trump Only Wants More Debates Because He’s Losing
Fox News host Chris Wallace has no illusions about why the Trump campaign is suddenly demanding a fourth debate against former Vice President Joe Biden. After Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade echoed the president's stated concerns about the debates happening after early voting starts in some states, his radio show guest shot down the idea of either moving the schedule up and adding a fourth debate earlier in September. “If they were to open it up and say, no, let's set another debate, I just think that it would jeopardize a lot of things,” Wallace, who moderated the third and final debate between Trump and Hillary Clinton in 2016.
- U.S.INSIDER
Students say they were suspended and others threatened with 'consequences' for posting photos of their school's packed hallways
Students at North Paulding High School in Dallas Georgia say they've been suspended or threatened with "consequences" for posting pictures of crowded hallways with few students wearing masks. The images circulated widely on social media August 4, prompting concerns about the health and safety of students. Coronavirus cases had already been reported at the school, according to an email sent to parents.
- WorldReuters
Joshua Wong and other Hong Kong activists charged over banned June 4 vigil
Two dozen people in Hong Kong, including pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong, have been charged with participating in an illegal assembly at a vigil on June 4 commemorating the crackdown on protesters in and around Beijing's Tiananmen square in 1989. It was the first time the vigil had been banned in semiautonomous Hong Kong, with police citing coronavirus restrictions on group gatherings in refusing permission for it to take place. The anniversary struck an especially sensitive nerve in the former British colony this year, falling just as China prepared to introduce national security legislation later that month in response to last year's often violent pro-democracy demonstrations.
- WorldCBS News
Pope Francis appoints 6 women to senior roles
Pope Francis appointed new members to the Vatican's Council for the Economy on Thursday, and in addition to several cardinals, he also added seven new laypeople to the committee. The historic move means there are more senior female officials serving the Vatican than ever before. The six female appointees are: Charlotte Kreuter-Kirchhof, of Germany; Eva Castillo Sanz, of Spain; Leslie Jane Ferrar, of Great Britain; Marija Kolak, of Germany; María Concepción Osákar Garaicoechea, of Spain; and Ruth Maria Kelly, of Great Britain.
- WorldAssociated Press
China sentences fourth Canadian to death on drug charges
China has sentenced a fourth Canadian citizen to death on drug charges in less than two years following a sharp downturn in ties over the arrest of an executive of Chinese tech giant Huawei. Ye Jianhui was sentenced Friday by the Foshan Municipal Intermediate Court in the southern province of Guangdong. Ye had been found guilty of manufacturing and transporting illegal drugs, the court said in a brief statement.
- WorldThe Telegraph
Japan denies claims that prime minister Shinzo Abe is seriously ill
Officials in Tokyo have played down suggestions that Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe is seriously ill after a news magazine reported that he vomited blood at his office on July 6 and cancelled his engagements for the rest of the day. Mr Abe, 65, attended the memorial ceremony marking the 75th anniversary of the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima on Thursday and gave a brief address in which he called for the abolition of nuclear weapons, although it has been pointed out that he has not given any press conferences or attended parliamentary sessions for more than one month. The latest edition of the weekly news magazine Flash reported on the concerns about Mr Abe's health, with the Mainichi newspaper also quoting people who had met with the prime minister in recent weeks as saying that he appeared pale and tired.
- BusinessTODAY
Trolls doll pulled after complaints it promotes child abuse
A Trolls doll is being pulled off store shelves amid complaints it promotes child abuse. Toymaker Hasbro said Wednesday that it's in the process of removing the “Trolls World Tour Giggle and Sing Poppy” from the market and will be offering customers a replacement doll of the popular female character. The doll had been designed to giggle when placed in a sitting position, but some parents complain the sound activation button is inappropriately placed under the doll's skirt and between her legs.
- WorldBusiness Insider
Lebanese officials unloaded a 'floating bomb' and apparently ignored warnings for years, according to reports
Haytham El Achkar/Getty Images An expert said back in 2014 that Lebanese authorities had a "floating bomb" on their hands, The Daily Beast reported Wednesday. "There are a lot of restrictions, regulations and rules to stick to when talking about storing explosives like ammonium," Voytenko told The Daily Beast, "but they just stored it in a warehouse and forgot about it." Customs officials wrote several letters to Lebanese judges asking for a solution to the dangers cargo but apparently received no response, Al Jazeera reported.
- BusinessUSA TODAY
Norwegian CEO: Relaunch will take six months; fleet will 'return in earnest' in spring 2021
In the] last two months of 2020 [we] could see return of sailing with a very limited number of vessels, Frank Del Rio, CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd., said on the company's second quarter earnings call. And he expects those ships to begin sailing at lower capacity and ramp up as more vessels re-enter service. Del Rio said he doesn't think that Norwegian will return to full capacity for quite some time.
- PoliticsThe Independent
Trump was ‘stating a fact’ when he said children are less susceptible to coronavirus, White House insists
Donald Trump was “stating a fact” when he said that children are less susceptible to Covid-19, a White House official has said after Facebook removed a post in which the president made false claims about the virus. Courtney Parella, deputy national press secretary, accused Facebook and Twitter of “flagrant bias” after the tech giants penalised Trump and his campaign team for promoting a video in which the president claimed children are “almost immune” from the disease. The president was stating a fact that children are less susceptible to the coronavirus,” Ms Parella said in a statement.
- U.S.INSIDER
Portland's Black police chief says violent protesters have 'taken away from' the Black Lives Matter movement
Chuck Lovell, the police chief of Portland, Oregon, called for violent protesters to stop their actions at a Wednesday press conference. While protests in downtown Portland have been peaceful since the presence of federal agents was scaled back last week, there have been violent offshoot protests in other parts of the city. Wednesday marked the 70th consecutive day of demonstrations in the city, which started after George Floyd's death in late May.
- U.S.Miami Herald
‘I can’t teach when I’m dead.’ UGA staff, students hold die-in over reopening plans
Dozens of students, faculty and staff sprawled out across the University of Georgia campus Thursday afternoon, playing dead to protest the university's reopening plans as the threat of COVID-19 still looms large -- larger than it did when schools first closed during the spring semester. In-person classes are scheduled to resume Aug. 20 at the Athens, Georgia university, but many staff and students are at odds with the school, and the University System of Georgia, according to an open letter. “Leaders across the University System of Georgia are showing callous disregard for health and safety and workers' rights in their plans to reopen campuses for in-person teaching in the fall,” the group said in a July petition.
- LifestyleArchitectural Digest
A Sampling of Work From Mexico City’s Top Talents
A look at some of the design coming out of the cultural capital Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
- U.S.The Daily Beast
‘Object of Ridicule’: Ex-Atlanta Cop Who Killed Rayshard Brooks Sues Over Firing
The former Atlanta police officer who fatally shot Rayshard Brooks during a June arrest after he fell asleep in his car at a Wendy's drive-thru is suing the mayor and interim police chief over his termination, claiming the decision violated his constitutional rights. Garrett Rolfe, 27, currently faces 11 charges—including felony murder—for shooting Brooks on June 12 as he was running away through the crowded fast-food parking lot. After shooting him twice in the back, Rolfe then kicked the 27-year-old man “while he was lying on the ground,” prosecutors allege.
- WorldAssociated Press
Russia warns it will see any incoming missile as nuclear
Russia will perceive any ballistic missile launched at its territory as a nuclear attack that warrants a nuclear retaliation, the military warned in an article published Friday. The harsh warning in the official military newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star) is directed at the United States, which has worked to develop long-range non-nuclear weapons. The article follows the publication in June of Russia's nuclear deterrent policy that envisages the use of atomic weapons in response to what could be a conventional strike targeting the nation's critical government and military infrastructure.
- PoliticsABC News Videos
Sarah Palin: ‘Women face so much more scrutiny’
The 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee weighs in on Joe Biden's VP search and how female candidates are viewed in presidential politics.
- PoliticsBusiness Insider
Biden rows back from widely criticized interview where he said Latinos are 'incredibly diverse' unlike African Americans
JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, on Thursday rowed back a comment suggesting that African Americans do not have diverse political views while Latinos do. "What you all know but most people don't know, unlike the African American community with notable exceptions, the Latino community is an incredibly diverse community," Biden said earlier Thursday. Biden later tweeted that African Americans are "not a monolith."
- U.S.USA TODAY
Videos show Black inmate John Neville saying 'I can't breathe' before fatal injury; sheriff apologizes
Several news organizations, including The News & Observer and The New York Times, petitioned a judge to publicly release the videos that show officers "hog-tying" John Neville, 56, who died of a brain injury in December three days after police arrested him. One of the videos runs nearly 20 minutes and is from the body camera of one of the five detention officers involved, who were all fired last month. Over the course of 45 minutes of being held in an observation cell, Neville would "sustain injuries that would eventually cause him to lose his life," Forsyth County district attorney, Jim O'Neill said last month. Both were reviewed by USA TODAY.
- BusinessThe Independent
One American is dying every 80 seconds from coronavirus as Trump shrugs off death toll: ‘It is what it is’
At least one person in the United States has died every 80 seconds on average over the last seven days, according to new research, as President Donald Trump said the nation's soaring death toll “is what it is” in a recent interview. The grim figures were first reported by NBC News on Wednesday, which noted its own tally revealed 7,486 people died in the last seven days due to Covid-19. Whereas the rate of deaths was somewhat slower in July, with one American dying every 102 seconds on average throughout the month, the latest figures appeared to show an acceleration in pace, as NBC News reported.
- WorldThe Telegraph
Former Saudi official accuses Mohammad bin Salman of 'sending hit squad' to kill him
A former senior Saudi intelligence official has claimed that Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman sent a hit squad to Canada in an attempt to kill him. In a 107-page complaint, filed in a Washington DC court, Saad Aljabri claimed the assassins were intercepted by Canadian authorities. The incident was alleged to have happened less than two weeks after Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post columnist and Saudi dissident, was killed in the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul.
- U.S.INSIDER
Baltimore is investigating after officials removed 5 approved Black Lives Matter murals
The Baltimore Department of Recreation and Parks is investigating after officials removed murals supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. The five murals were created by a variety of artists who had been granted approval by the city, The Baltimore Sun first reported. The Baltimore Department of Recreation and Parks is investigating after park rangers removed Black Lives Matter murals that had been approved and permitted by the city, The Baltimore Sun first reported.
- WorldReuters
Children rapidly deported from the United States strain Guatemalan shelters
Hundreds of migrant children rapidly expelled from the United States under a coronavirus immigration policy are returning to shelters in Guatemala where virus testing and bed capacity are regularly stretched to their limits. Shelter operators, government officials in the Central American nation and international organizations said they are seeing rising numbers of children being sent back to Guatemala alone, with some unable to return to their homes because of domestic abuse or gang violence. "Child protection services, which were already overstretched and under-resourced have now been further compromised by COVID-19," said United Nations children's agency UNICEF spokesman Christopher Tidey.
- U.S.Miami Herald
ICE detained hundreds of Mississippi chicken plant workers. Now managers are charged
Close to 700 immigrants working in the U.S. illegally were detained last year during what federal prosecutors have called “the largest single-state worksite enforcement operation in our nation's history.” Now four higher-ups at the Mississippi chicken plants where they were employed face criminal charges. The U.S. District Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Mississippi unsealed indictments Thursday against two supervisors at A&B Foods Inc. as well as a human resources manager and plant manager at Pearl River Foods Inc.. They are accused of hiring undocumented workers and lying to law enforcement, according to a news release.
“He’s not a radical. But he is running on the most liberal policy platform of any Democratic candidate in modern history.”
“Public opinion has been shifting leftward, and Biden’s thinking has shifted with it.”
“Biden shows that he’s more moderate than some in his party.”
“Biden has always been a creature of his time, and the COVID-19 crisis could force him to veer further left.”
“Liberal activists have lauded the campaign’s outreach to progressives.”