- U.S.Yahoo News
Out of work and with families to feed, some Americans are lining up at food banks for the first time in their lives
As tens of millions of Americans have lost jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic, food banks across the country say they are facing an unprecedented surge in demand, comparable to a hurricane hitting the entire country at the same time. “I've been in food banking for 24 years, and in my tenure I've never seen such a dramatic increase in need literally overnight,” said Lisa Scales of the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, referring to the initial spike in distribution in March, when the shutdowns started. Across the country, Americans who've never had to rely on food assistance before are turning to local organizations for aid.
- PoliticsUSA TODAY
GOP appeals after Judge dismisses lawsuit over House's proxy voting system established due to COVID-19
WASHINGTON – A federal judge on Thursday tossed out a Republican-led lawsuit aiming to halt an unprecedented proxy voting system established by the House of Representatives due to the coronavirus pandemic, ruling that the House was immune from such a legal challenge. The lawsuit, filed in federal district court in the District of Columbia by nearly two dozen House Republicans – led by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. in May, argued the proxy voting rules violated the U.S. Constitution because under the Constitution, a majority of lawmakers must be present to take up business and vote on legislation.
- WorldINSIDER
The US pledged over $17 million in initial disaster aid for Lebanon after an explosion devastated Beirut
The United States has pledged over $17 million in initial disaster aid for Lebanon following the massive explosion at a Beirut port on Tuesday. The explosion left more than 150 dead, thousands injured, and leveled a large portion of the city. President Donald Trump raised eyebrows hours after the explosion when he said it was an "attack," but his administration has since walked back that comment.
- U.S.Associated Press
Georgia DA who charged officers faces tough primary runoff
Against the backdrop of protests over racial injustice and police brutality and with allegations of misconduct emboldening challengers, the top prosecutor in Georgia's most populous county is fighting to keep his job. After two decades of running unopposed, Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard placed second in the June Democratic primary and faces a tough runoff election Tuesday. The extended primary contest has unfolded as Atlanta rocked with protests sparked by the killing of an African American, George Floyd, by a white police officer in Minneapolis.
- U.S.The Daily Beast
The Real Reason New York’s Attorney General Went After the NRA
It alleges that the not-for profit organization violated New York state laws governing charities by diverting tens of millions of dollars away from the organization's mission for the personal benefit of its leaders, with Wayne LaPierre, the NRA's Executive Vice President for the past 29 years, and three other officers named as defendants along with the organization itself. According to the complaint, LaPierre used NRA funds for eight private plane flights to the Bahamas, where they enjoyed life on the 107-foot yacht of an NRA vendor, as well as for safaris in Africa and elsewhere.
- WorldBusiness Insider
The Russian owner who abandoned the ship full of ammonium nitrate that caused the Beirut explosion has been questioned by police in Cyprus, reports say
Hasenpusch/picture alliance via Getty Images/Business Insider Igor Grechushkin, the Russian owner of the ship that carried a huge cargo of explosives to Beirut, which exploded years later, was questioned by Cypriot police on Thursday, reports say. Grechushkin abandoned the MV Rhosus and its cargo of 2,750 tons of explosive ammonium nitrate in 2014. Lebanese authorities impounded the cargo until Tuesday's catastrophic explosion.
- WorldNBC News
Hong Kong hits back at 'shameless' U.S. sanctions on leader Carrie Lam
The Chinese and Hong Kong governments strongly criticized Washington Saturday after the United States imposed sanctions on the territory's leader Carrie Lam, and other officials, dismissing the move as "clowning actions" that would not intimidate Chinese people. Hong Kong's government said the sanctions were "shameless and despicable" and represented a "blatant and barbaric" interference in China's internal affairs, warning that Hong Kong was being used as a "pawn" in the U.S.-China relationship. The Trump administration announced Friday it would impose sanctions on Lam and Luo Huining, the head of China's Liaison Office in Hong Kong, along with nine other current and former officials that Washington accuses of curtailing political freedoms, following the imposition of a draconian new security law in June.
- U.S.FOX News Videos
Robber snatches California man's life savings in front of bank
Francisco Cornejo walking to his car after making a hefty withdrawal from his account. He was carrying 200-thousand dollars when a robber attacked him and ripped away Conejo's bag of money. The thief escaped with the money and has yet to be arrested.
- WorldThe Independent
Canada 'knows the root cause': China hints at Huawei retaliation as it sentences two Canadians to death
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said Canada “knows the root cause” behind recent death sentences for Canadians facing drug charges, the latest escalation in conflict between both countries following the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou. Foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin reportedly said the judicial system in China “handles cases independently” while discussing the recent death sentences for two Canadian nationals charged in separate cases with transporting and manufacturing drugs in China. However, he later said at the same press briefing that “the Canadian side knows the root cause” behind the harsh sentences.
- U.S.Miami Herald
Take a look inside the ‘most sophisticated’ smuggling tunnel found on US-Mexico border
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents found a smuggling tunnel along the U.S.-Mexico border on Tuesday that was described as the “most sophisticated tunnel in U.S. history.” On July 27, Yuma Sector Border Patrol started drilling near the sinkhole. “Homeland Security Investigations and our esteemed law enforcement partners swiftly and effectively worked together to uncover and dismantle a cross-border tunnel for smuggling purposes into the United States,” Scott Brown, special agent in charge of HSI Phoenix, said in the release.
- WorldAFP
UN set for showdown over US Iran arms embargo push
The UN Security Council is set next week to roundly reject a US resolution to extend an Iranian arms embargo, diplomats say, setting up a lengthy showdown with repercussions for the Iran nuclear deal. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Wednesday that the United States would put forward its long-awaited resolution despite ardent opposition from Russia and China. But UN diplomats say opposition to the resolution's current form is so widespread that Washington is unlikely even to secure the nine votes required to force Moscow and Beijing to wield their vetoes.
- 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
- WorldReuters
Oil spill threatens ecological disaster as Mauritius declares emergency
Fuel spilling from a Japanese bulk carrier that ran aground on a reef in Mauritius two weeks ago is creating an ecological disaster, endangering corals, fish and other marine life around the Indian Ocean island, officials and environmentalists say. The MV Wakashio, owned by the Nagashiki Shipping Company, struck the reef on Mauritius' southeast coast on July 25. On Thursday, the government said fuel was leaking from a crack in the vessel's hull and Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth declared a state of environmental emergency, pleading for international help.
- WorldBBC
Kerala plane crash: 18 dead after Air India plane breaks in two at Calicut
An Air India Express plane with 190 people on board has crashed at an airport in the southern state of Kerala, killing at least 18 people, officials say. The Boeing 737, en route from Dubai, skidded off the runway in rain and broke in two after landing at Calicut airport, aviation officials said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was "pained by the plane accident".
- PoliticsThe Week
Trump would reportedly 'show off' the capabilities of different weapons systems he was briefed on to impress billionaires
Intelligence officials have had a difficult time briefing President Trump on matters throughout his presidency, The New York Times reports. In the latter scenario, one former senior administration official told The New York Times, Trump would "show off about some of the stuff he thought was cool," like the capabilities of different weapons system to billionaires. What's more, Trump also filled his President's Intelligence Advisory Board with wealthy businesspeople, who would occasionally make briefers uncomfortable, one intelligence official said, because their questions sometimes would "were related to their business dealings."
- U.S.The Guardian
Thousands of bikers heading to South Dakota rally to be blocked at tribal land checkpoints
Thousands of bikers heading to South Dakota's 10-day Sturgis Motorcycle Rally will not be allowed through Cheyenne River Sioux checkpoints, a spokesman for the Native American group said on Saturday. The decision to prevent access across tribal lands to the annual rally, which could attract as many as 250,000 bikers amid fears it could lead to a massive, regional coronavirus outbreak, comes as part of larger Covid-19 prevention policy. The policy has pitted seven tribes that make up the Great Sioux Nation against federal and state authorities, which both claim the checkpoints are illegal.
- WorldThe Telegraph
Explosives expert: It's only a matter of time before human error leads to another Beirut blast
One of the world's leading experts on ammonium nitrate told The Daily Telegraph: “It's only a matter of time before something similar happens again.” Vyto Babrauskas, a fires and explosives forensics expert based in New York, said that there were tens of thousands sites around the world where the chemical was stored unsafely. About 2,750 tonnes ignited to devastate Beirut on Tuesday. In the UK, it is legal to store up to 1,250 tonnes.
- BusinessThe Independent
Bernie Sanders introduces bill to tax 60% of millionaires' earnings during pandemic to pay medical costs
Senator Bernie Sanders has announced legislation that would impose a 60 per cent tax on the wealth gains of billionaires from 18 March through the end of 2020 for the purposes of funding Medicare and paying all Americans' out-of-pocket health-care needs for a one-year period. Mr Sanders said the tax hike was meant to help people who are struggling financially during the coronavirus pandemic. "The legislation I am introducing today will tax the obscene wealth gains billionaires have made during this extraordinary crisis to guarantee healthcare as a right to all for an entire year," Mr Sanders said in a statement.
- U.S.Time
Police Officer Fired After Allegedly Mishandling Explicit Photos of Slain University of Utah Student
A police officer in Logan, Utah, was fired after a state investigation concluded he “mishandled” explicit photographs that were used to extort University of Utah student Lauren McCluskey, the Logan Police Department announced Friday. In October 2018, 21-year-old McCluskey told the University of Utah Police Department that her ex-boyfriend Melvin Rowland was extorting her for money by threatening to release explicit photographs of her. She then sent those photographs to Officer Miguel Deras, the on-duty campus police officer, according to a report summarizing the Utah Department of Public Safety's (UDPS) investigation into Deras' conduct.
- WorldChristian Science Monitor
How ‘success’ of a tough US policy on Iran has benefited China
With relatively little effort, the Trump administration's “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran can be seen as both a resounding success and as an abject failure underscoring the United States' receding influence in global affairs. Now add to the negative side of the U.S. balance sheet a potentially substantial and long-term foothold being provided to a rising China in the Middle East. No one questions that the two-year-old policy of harsh sanctions targeting both Iran and other countries willing to cross the U.S. and do business with Tehran has brought the Iranian economy to the brink of collapse.
- U.S.FOX News Videos
Missing Georgia mom may have met man she was speaking to online before disappearance
A Georgia mother missing for nearly two weeks after her son was found in a Florida parking lot may have met a man she was speaking to online, according to her father.
- WorldThe Daily Beast
Putin’s Got Big Problems in Russia’s Provinces
MOSCOW—The city of Khabarovsk, a sprawling, industrial metropolis about 5,000 miles east of the capital—the Bolsheviks turned it into a hub for serving Siberian prison camps, in the middle of nowhere by design—is about as far from the seat of Russian power as geographically possible. Despite the Kremlin's best efforts to hide them, problems have been bubbling up in Russia's provinces, transforming local issues into the most dynamic arena for dissent, protest, and opposition in the country's political system and fueling Russia's version of post-lockdown unrest. The arrest of Khabarovsk's popular regional governor sparked the anti-Putin uprising that has drawn up to 60,000 people into the streets in this usually sleepy backwater.
- U.S.National Review
The New George Floyd Video Should Not Surprise You
The officer repeatedly instructs Floyd to show his hands, but Floyd delays and argues instead, prompting the cop to draw his pistol and point it at Floyd. If an officer asks to see your hands, he wants to make sure there isn't a gun in them, so show him your hands. Floyd then becomes even more agitated, and a long scene follows in which the police get Floyd out of the car, handcuff him, try to put him in a police vehicle while he resists, and then — after he says he wants to lie down — apparently start to put him on the ground.
- WorldBusiness Insider
France and Germany pulled out of talks to reform the WHO because the US was trying to take control, according to a report
JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP via Getty Images France and Germany are out of talks to reform the World Health Organization because the US is trying to dictate terms, Reuters reported. The G7 alliance is currently drafting a reform document that will ultimately be voted on by the G20 and UN. The US is set to leave the WHO in July 2021, after Donald Trump slammed the WHO for pandering to China during the pandemic.
- LifestyleArchitectural Digest
Christiane Lemieux and Anthropologie Team Up for the Launch of Her Newest Collection
Lemieux Et Cie's Artisanal Modernism is now available through Anthropologie Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
“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.”