- U.S.Yahoo News
As COVID cases spike in Florida, Trump now says he's 'flexible' on convention format in Jacksonville
With coronavirus cases exploding in Florida, President Trump said he is “flexible” about the need for a traditional indoor Republican National Convention in Jacksonville next month. The Republican National Committee had scrapped plans to hold the party's convention in Charlotte, N.C., after Gov. Roy Cooper said he would only allow “a scaled-down convention with fewer people, social distancing and face coverings.” In a television interview with former Fox anchor Greta Van Susteren, Trump suggested the format for the Aug. 24-27 event would depend on the severity of the outbreak in the Sunshine State.
- U.S.INSIDER
An Austin police officer appeared to grope a woman's breast after pulling her over for a traffic violation
In a video that trended on social media Tuesday, an Austin police officer appears to grope the woman's breasts while performing a search, even as she demanded a female officer. In a statement, the Austin Police Department said the officer acted appropriately since the encounter was recorded and another officer was present. The department also said the officer was conducting a search before transporting the woman to jail for "multiple hazardous traffic violations."
- U.S.The Independent
Ohio sheriff refuses to enforce governor's mask order: 'I'm not going to be the mask police'
An Ohio sheriff said he won't enforce Governor Mike DeWine's order making face masks mandatory in states with high rates of Covid-19 infections. The sheriff is a supporter of President Donald Trump and comes from a county of like minded individuals; Butler County voted for Mr Trump by a 2-to-1 margin in 2016 and nearly all of its officeholders are Republicans. Mr DeWine issued the mandatory mask order on Tuesday.
- U.S.Business Insider
Female US Army soldier makes history by becoming the first woman to become a Green Beret
U.S. Army photo by K. Kassens A female soldier became the US Army's first female Green Beret on Thursday. The National Guard soldier graduated, earned her Special Forces Tab, and earned her Green Beret Thursday at a ceremony at Fort Bragg, North Carolina celebrating her and her classmates completion of Special Forces training. US Army Special Operations Command is withholding identifying information about the woman due to mission security demands for special operations troops.
- U.S.NBC News
'I feel threatened': Unmasked Florida man's viral Costco outburst cost him his job
A man's outburst at a Costco in Florida that was caught on video has cost him his job. A video of the incident was posted to Twitter on Monday night by filmmaker Billy Corben. "Florida man at Fort Myers Costco in 'Running the World Since 1776' shirt flips out on elderly woman who asked him to wear a mask and man who defended her #BecauseFlorida," Corben tweeted.
- U.S.Reuters
New York attorney general recommends reducing mayor's power over police
New York Attorney General Letitia James recommended that New York City's mayor give up sole control over the city police commissioner's hiring, in a preliminary report released on Wednesday on her investigation into the policing of recent protests. The commission would have final say on the department's budget and officer discipline. "There should be an entirely new accountability structure for NYPD," James said in her report, which also recommended giving more power to the Civilian Complaint Review Board, a city agency that reviews police misconduct.
HealthReuters VideosProtest chaos continues over Serbian leader
The evening before, violence erupted when a crowd stormed parliament in protest of plans to reimpose a lockdown following a new spike in COVID-19 cases. Forty-three police officers and 17 protesters were injured and there were 23 arrests. Although President Aleksandar Vucic hinted Wednesday he may back down from his plan to introduce a weekend lockdown, demonstrators began gathering in front of the Serbian Parliament building around 6 p.m.
- WorldThe Telegraph
Militants kill BJP politician Wasim Bari and his family in Kashmir
A Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party politician was killed along with his brother and father in Indian administered Kashmir, officials said on Thursday. Wasim Bari, 38, and his family were attacked by militants at his residence in north Kashmir's Bandipora district on Wednesday night. All three were shot at point-blank range and died on the way to hospital.
- U.S.Associated Press
Wisconsin police officer rescues dog from burning house
A Wisconsin police officer says he did what any dog lover would do when a pet is in a burning home. Caledonia K-9 Officer Cory Radke and his canine partner, Lou, were on their way home Monday when Radke saw smoke and heard a dispatcher calling all squad cars to the fire. WITI-TV reports Radke was first to arrive at the house.
- U.S.Miami Herald
Trump flag angered man so he dumped trash on resident’s lawn for months, NJ cops say
A 58-year-old New Jersey man was allegedly dumping trash on a resident's front yard for about four months because he couldn't stand looking at a President Donald Trump flag displayed on the property, local outlets reported. Richard Keller, 58, of Franklin, was first caught in the act at about 5 a.m. on July 1 when undercover police officers witnessed Keller throw trash out of his window onto the driveway of the Sparta home, the Sparta Police Department said, TAPintoSparta reported. When one of the officers stopped Keller and asked him why he continued to dump trash on the person's property, he responded, “I think you know...because of the flag,” police said, according to the outlet.
- WorldReuters
El Salvador murder rate plummets; study says gangs may have informal pact with government
Homicides in El Salvador fell over 50% in President Nayib Bukele's first year in office, with officials citing tougher enforcement, while a study on Wednesday suggests gangs may have eased up on violence and made informal deals with authorities. Homicides were already in decline in El Salvador, which has recently had one of the world's highest murder rates, when Bukele took office in June 2019. Bukele has attributed the improvement to an increased police and military presence on the streets, and tighter security in jails controlled by the powerful Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and Barrio 18 gangs.
- StyleArchitectural Digest
15 Platform Beds to Elevate Your Bedroom Style
You'll love these contemporary styles and budget-friendly price points Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
- U.S.Business Insider
Twitter billionaire Jack Dorsey just announced he will be funding a universal basic income experiment that could affect up to 7 million people
Associated Press On Thursday, Jack Dorsey, the billionaire CEO of Twitter, announced he is working with 14 American mayors to fund universal basic income (UBI) trials in their cities. The pilot programs will be run city by city and have not yet launched. Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang helped bring the idea of universal basic income into the mainstream and is funding his own UBI pilot program.
- BusinessNBC News
Israel looked like a model for halting coronavirus. Here's how it 'lost its bearings.'
When signs of the coronavirus pandemic appeared in Israel in March, the country shut down hard and fast. Between 8 a.m. Tuesday and 8 a.m. Wednesday morning, Israel recorded a new daily high of 1,528 coronavirus cases, the Health Ministry said. In the West Bank and Gaza, cases have also steadily risen, with more than 300 reported on Tuesday.
- U.S.The Independent
NYPD forced to impose limit on officers filing for retirement amid 400% surge of personnel trying to quit
The New York Police Department (NYPD) has reportedly limited the number of retirement applications it will allow, after it saw a surge in requests in the last couple of months. The NYPD announced on Wednesday that 179 officers filed for retirement between 29 June and 6 July – a 411 per cent increase on the 35 who retired in the same time period in 2019. Additionally, 503 NYPD officers filed for retirement between 25 May - the day George Floyd was killed while in police custody in Minneapolis - and 3 July, representing a 75 per cent increase on the 287 officers who retired in the same period last year.
- WorldBBC
Jawar Mohammed: The Ethiopian media mogul taking on Abiy Ahmed
Having previously warned that Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed risked turning into an "illegitimate" ruler, Jawar Mohammed, 34, has now become the most high-profile opposition politician to be detained since the Nobel Peace laureate took office in April 2018. An ethno-nationalist with a Facebook following of nearly two million, Mr Jawar is accused of being linked to the murder of a policeman during the violence which erupted last week after music star Hachalu Handessa was gunned down in the capital Addis Ababa. Both Mr Abiy and Mr Jawar hail from Ethiopia's largest ethnic group, the Oromos, but have differed sharply over the future direction of Ethiopia since Mr Abiy took power in 2018, with a promise to democratise and unite the ethnically divided nation after decades of authoritarian rule.
- WorldThe Telegraph
Russia and China veto Security Council resolution enabling aid to Syria
Russia and China vetoed a Security Council resolution on Tuesday that would maintain cross border aid to Syria's rebel-held northwest, in a move criticised as threatening millions of civilian lives. Russia instead proposed a resolution that would allow the delivery of aid through a single crossing point from Turkey for six months. Syria's closest ally, Moscow argues that aid should be delivered via Damascus across conflict lines.
- U.S.Associated Press
Virginia eliminates huge backlog of untested rape kits
Virginia has eliminated a backlog of thousands of untested rape kits, becoming only the seventh state in the country to do so, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring said Wednesday. Herring said the project to test rape kits — some decades old — began in 2015. Since then, 2,665 rape kits have been tested, 851 new DNA profiles have been uploaded into a national DNA database and 354 “hits” have been sent to law enforcement agencies for further investigation.
- PoliticsAssociated Press
DC judge asks for full appeal review of Flynn dismissal
The U.S. District Court judge who oversaw the criminal case of President Donald Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn has requested a full appeals court review after a three-judge panel ordered him to dismiss it. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan made the highly unusual the request Thursday. A three-judge panel last month ordered Sullivan to dismiss the case against Flynn, following the Justice Department's extraordinary decision to drop the prosecution.
- WorldReuters
Explosion heard in western Tehran: Iran state media
An explosion was heard in western Tehran on Friday, the official IRIB news agency reported, citing online reports. There have been multiple explosions around military, nuclear and industrial facilities in the past week. IRIB did not provide any additional information about the cause of the blast or possible casualties.
- U.S.The Daily Beast
Feds: Top Ohio State Immunologist Lied About Chinese Funding and Ties to Research Groups
Federal prosecutors allege that a top immunologist at Ohio State University illegally concealed Chinese funding for his research and attempted to flee the country before his arrest in Alaska in May. In a criminal complaint unsealed on Thursday, the Justice Department accuses Song Guo Zheng, the Ronald L. Whisler MD Chair in Rheumatology and Immunology at Ohio State's medical school, of fraudulently obtaining federal grant funds from the National Institutes of Health and making false statements to investigators. Zheng, prosecutors say, obtained nearly $5 million in federal research grants without disclosing ties to Chinese entities and additional grant funds provided by them.
- WorldNational Review
China’s Confucius Institutes Attempt to Rebrand Following Backlash
China is attempting to rebrand Confucius Institutes following a worldwide backlash against the centers. Confucius Institutes, which are present on dozens of U.S. college campuses and at other foreign universities, carry the stated purpose of promoting Chinese language and culture. The Confucius Institute Headquarters in Beijing has changed its name to the “Ministry of Education Centre for Language Education and Cooperation.”
WorldAFPFormer India navy officer refuses to appeal spying death sentence
A former Indian naval officer on death row in Pakistan for alleged spying has refused to lodge an appeal against his conviction and will try instead for a military pardon, an official said Wednesday. Kulbhushan Sudhir Jadhav was arrested in 2016 in Pakistan's restive southwestern province of Balochistan -- a region where Islamabad has long accused New Delhi of backing separatist rebels. He was sentenced to death by a closed Pakistani military tribunal in 2017, but the International Court of Justice ordered Islamabad last year to review the sentence, and he was later offered the right to appeal.
- PoliticsThe Independent
Fox News host Tucker Carlson accused of echoing white supremacist slogan on air
Fox News host Tucker Carlson has been accused of echoing a 14-word white supremacist phrase during one of his on-air segments. During a segment on his Monday evening show, Mr Carlson showed side-by-side images of Representative Ilhan Omar and Senator Tammy Duckworth, both of whom are Democrats on Capitol Hill and were born overseas. Critics said the phrase across the screen mirrored that of the white supremacist 14-word slogan: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”
- ScienceINSIDER
The authors of a study downplaying racism in police killings called their findings 'careless,' and retracted the paper
Two study authors have retracted their research after it was used in two opinion columns to dismiss systemic racism by police as a myth. Two researchers who wrote a study on racial disparities in fatal police shootings have retracted their work after an opinion columnist at the Wall Street Journal misused the findings, they said. The study in question was published in April 2019 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and it looked at whether a police officer's race could predict the races of the civilians they fatally shot.
