- U.S.Yahoo News
New Yahoo News/YouGov July 4 poll: A staggering 62 percent of Americans no longer see America as Ronald Reagan's 'shining city on a hill'
This Fourth of July, a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll shows that no matter how polarized they might be politically, Americans finally seem to agree on something: that everything about America is getting worse. In his 1989 farewell address, President Ronald Reagan famously described the United States as a “shining city on a hill” — a beacon of hope and a model for the rest of the world. According to the Yahoo News/YouGov survey, which was conducted between June 29 and July 1, a majority of Americans (52 percent) believe that Reagan's remark was accurate at the time he said it; only 21 percent disagree.
- U.S.Yahoo News
As coronavirus surges, Fox News shifts its message on masks
When Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said this week on Fox News that Americans needed to wear face masks to protect themselves from the coronavirus, anchor Sandra Smith did not challenge him on the science. “For the most part, we do see a lot of people that are willing to engage in that good behavior,” Smith said instead during the notably vitriol-free Thursday afternoon interview. The interview followed an op-ed that the Obama-era public health expert published on the Fox News website.
- U.S.NBC News
Watch Florida police laugh after shooting protesters with rubber bullets
Fort Lauderdale police released footage showing officers laughing and celebrating after shooting protesters with rubber bullets during a May protest against police brutality. The police department in South Florida released the nearly 9 minutes of body-camera footage on Wednesday in response to a Miami Herald story that was accompanied by a 2-minute clip of the footage the Herald obtained through a public records request. The Miami Herald reported that the recording was from a Fort Lauderdale officer's body camera during a protest on May 31, after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
- CelebrityThe Independent
US lawyer says Prince Andrew subjecting Epstein victims to ‘torture test’
The Duke of York's silence on Jeffrey Epstein was akin to a “torture test” for his victims, said a US lawyer. Attorney Gloria Allred said that Prince Andrew was “avoiding and evading” US authorities as Epstein's ex-girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, appeared in court accused of facilitating his sexual exploitation of underage girls. Maxwell was alleged to have helped the disgraced financier “identify, befriend and groom” girls, including one as young as 14.
- U.S.Associated Press
Court record shows St. Louis couple pulled gun before
O'FALLON, Mo. (AP) — The white St. Louis couple who became internationally famous for standing guard with guns outside their mansion during a protest have pulled a gun before in defense of their property, according to an affidavit in an ongoing case. As demonstrators marched near the Renaissance palazzo-style home of Mark and Patricia McCloskey on Sunday, video posted online showed him wielding a long-barreled gun and her with a small handgun. The protesters, estimated at around 500 racially mixed people, were passing the house on the way to the nearby home of Mayor Lyda Krewson.
PoliticsFOX News VideosGov. Huckabee on Trump’s re-election strategy: President will face some challenges
Former Arkansas governor and Fox News contributor Mike Huckabee says Trump has 'enough time to remind people the worst thing they can do is vote for Biden' on 'America's Newsroom.
- BusinessThe National Interest
Why U.S. F-35s, Stealth Bombers and Attack Drones Could Fail in a War
Fighter jets, stealth bombers, attack drones and air-traveling missiles all need to “operate at speed” in a fast-changing great power conflict era. When faced with fast, multi-frequency, long-range precision fire from enemy air defenses, air attackers simply must “operate at speed,” according to U.S. Air Forces, Europe Commander General Jeffrey Harrigian, who used the phrase in a discussion with The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. Harrigian, who is also now the Commander of U.S. Air Forces Africa, ran much of the air campaign during Operation Inherent Resolve against ISIS; he offered a first-hand war perspective in a conversation with retired Lieutenant General David Deptula, Dean of the Mitchell Institute.
- U.S.Reuters
Copenhagen's Little Mermaid labelled 'racist fish'
Denmark woke up on Friday to the words "racist fish" scrawled across the base of the "Little Mermaid", the bronze statue honouring Hans Christian Andersen's famous fairy tale that perches on a rock in the sea off a pier in Copenhagen. "We consider it vandalism and have started an investigation," a spokesman for the Copenhagen police said. Protesters of the Black Lives Matter movement around the world have in recent months rallied against statues of historical figures who played a role in racist oppression, such as slave traders and colonialists.
- LifestylePopular Mechanics
The Best Bike Lights to Illuminate Your Ride
See what's coming and stay visible with these 11 bicycle lights. From Popular Mechanics
- WorldINSIDER
Chicago announced a mandatory 14-day quarantine for anyone traveling from 15 states with COVID-19 outbreaks
Jonathan Daniel / Staff / Getty Images On Thursday, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced an emergency travel order that requires anyone traveling to the city from states experiencing COVID-19 outbreaks to quarantine for 14 days upon their arrival. States like Texas, Arizona, Florida, and California are on Chicago's designated list, as well as 11 other states that are seeing a surge in coronavirus cases. Only people who have spent more than 24 hours in one of the states on Chicago's list have to quarantine, and the mandate will go into effect on Monday.
- U.S.The Daily Beast
Fox’s Neil Cavuto Grills GOP Rep Who Wants to Disband Coronavirus Task Force
Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto had an intense confrontation with Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) on Thursday over his demand that the White House coronavirus task force disband, calling the Trumpian congressman out over his home state's exploding COVID-19 cases and his own lack of health expertise. Biggs recently called for the Trump administration to scrap its pandemic task force over his belief that its public health experts, namely Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx, were undermining President Donald Trump as the president pushes for the economy to continue to reopen.
- WorldBBC
India Kanpur: Eight policemen killed in clash with gang members
Eight Indian policemen have been killed, and seven more injured, in an encounter with gang members, reports say. The officers were fired upon during a raid in search of a notorious local gangster in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. The gangster, Vikas Dubey, is accused in 60 criminal cases for various offences, including attempted murder.
- U.S.The Independent
Judge blocks Portland police from using physical force against journalists
The order comes after the police arrested journalists who were covering a protest on Tuesday. One of them, Lesley McLam, was taken into custody. The restraining order declares that the police “are enjoined from arresting, threatening to arrest, or using physical force directed against any person whom they know or reasonably should know is a journalist or legal observer … unless the police have probable cause to believe that such individual has committed a crime”.
- U.S.Associated Press
Epstein cohort's arrest becomes new test for plea deal
Could that same deal now help Ghislaine Maxwell, the Epstein confidante arrested Thursday, evade charges she helped lure at least three girls into sexual liaisons with him? The British socialite was arrested Thursday in New Hampshire on charges that she acted as a recruiter of underage girls for Epstein, usually under the guise of hiring them to perform massages, and sometimes participated in his sexual abuse of the teens. The allegations against the couple date back many years, but Epstein, for a while, appeared to have resolved them under a deal with federal and state prosecutors in South Florida in which he pleaded guilty to lesser state charges and served 13 months in jail and a work-release program.
- WorldBusiness Insider
Hillary Clinton says she 'would have done a better job' at handling the coronavirus pandemic
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said her administration could have saved more lives and modeled "more responsible behavior" during the coronavirus pandemic. "I know I would have done a better job," Clinton told a Hollywood Reporter podcast on Friday. The nation reported its highest number of daily coronavirus cases on Friday: more than 56,000.
- WorldThe National Interest
It Would Cost Trillions: The Day North Korea Collapses
The prospect of a peaceful Korean Unification, however remote it seems, would be a historical event worth planning for. Hoping for the best means there is a scenario where North Korea's collapse and regime change occur miraculously, opening doors to South Korea and the West to take over North Korea in what one hopes would be a peaceful absorption. In November 1989, West and East Berliners flocked to what was one of the most heavily guarded borders in the world and tore down parts of the Berlin Wall that had divided Germany for twenty-eight years.
- WorldReuters
Ugandan dies after setting fire to himself over motorcycle impounded over COVID-19 violations
A Ugandan man has died after setting fire to himself in a police station when officers allegedly demanded a bribe to release his motorcycle, which he was using as a taxi and which had been impounded over violation of coronavirus restrictions. The case has provoked anger among Ugandans who say it reflects widespread abuse by security personnel, including beatings, detentions and extortion that in the current climate are often disguised as enforcement of coronavirus regulations. The rider, Hussein Walugembe, had recently acquired his motorcycle and it was being driven by a colleague when it was impounded on Tuesday for violating a dusk-to-dawn curfew, regional police spokesman Nsubuga Mohammed said.
- WorldLA Times
The killing of 26 people at a drug rehab center in Mexico thought to be part of a gang war
Drug rehabilitation centers have been frequent targets of attack in Mexico's bloody gang wars. Authorities suspect the assault was part of a ferocious turf battle between two criminal organizations — the local Santa Rosa de Lima gang and the powerful Jalisco New Generation cartel — that has transformed once-peaceful Guanajuato into one of Mexico's deadliest states. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador vowed Thursday to not “abandon” Guanajuato and suggested that state authorities investigate possible links between local officials and organized crime.
- LifestyleThe Conversation
A leading infectious disease expert explains how to be as safe as possible on this very different Fourth
Editor's Note: Dr. William Schaffner, one of the nation's leading infectious disease experts and a professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, has been helping to keep people healthy for decades. In an interview which has been edited for clarity, he answered several questions about how you can stay safe as the nation heads into the holiday weekend with daily coronavirus cases exceeding 40,000, their highest. How can Americans celebrate in the midst of a pandemic, especially when cases are going up?
- PoliticsUSA TODAY Opinion
Tammy Duckworth is a war hero and the best vice president for Joe Biden in 2020
John Bolton detonates bombshell after bombshell in his new White House memoir about how President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened our national security. And now, amid multiple reports that U.S. service members are being killed due to Russian bounties for American blood, the commander in chief denies he was in the loop. It has become urgently evident that presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden's vice presidential pick must be someone who can repair the substantial damage Trump has done to the United States and our national security.
- WorldBBC
Locals remain anxious amid India-China border stand-off
In the weeks leading up to the clash, there were reports of scuffles between the two militaries over the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the poorly demarcated border between the two nuclear-armed powers. Deadly brawl Reports from May said that the Chinese forces put up tents, dug trenches and moved heavy equipment several kilometres inside what had been regarded by India as its territory. The move came after India built a road several hundred kilometres long connecting to a high-altitude forward air base which it reactivated in 2008.
- EntertainmentThe Independent
Huge bird of prey catches shark-like fish and flies off in viral video
Visitors to a beach last week would have seen a shark-like fish soaring above their heads thanks to one bird's actions. A video shared online showed one huge predatory bird seen with what appeared to be a shark suspended in its claws above crowds at South Carolina's Myrtle Beach. The woman who witnessed the stunt, Kelly Burbage, shared the video online on Friday where she appealed for wildlife experts to name the fish and the bird.
- WorldAssociated Press
US victims of FARC rebels win claim to Venezuelan's fortune
Three American defense contractors held for five years by leftist rebels in Colombia moved closer to collecting on a $318 million judgment against their former captors when a U.S. Supreme Court justice rebuffed an appeal by a sanctioned Venezuelan businessman whose assets they seek to claim. Justice Clarence Thomas refused to hear an emergency appeal by Samark López, letting stand an order by a federal appeals court immediately turning over $53 million from the businessman's previously seized U.S. bank accounts, though the appeals court judgment is being contested.
- U.S.NBC News
School districts pushed to reopen say there isn't enough money to do it safely
A move like bringing on a second teacher who could teach half her students in another classroom seems highly unlikely, given her school district's budget is facing a $14 million deficit. "They have already tried to cut anywhere humanly possible," said Spies, 46, who worries that because she donated a kidney to her aunt in 2011, she would be at risk for complications if she gets COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. "With the safeguards they are attempting to have in place, I just don't know where they're going to get the money, or even the manpower, to ensure it's all happening."
- WorldThe National Interest
Did Russia Give Us a Sneak Peak of Its New Nuclear Hunter-Killer Attack Submarine?
Key Point: The Laika will have features that can rival its Western rivals—and an even more versatile arsenal of features. Last December Russian state-owned TV aired a segment that may have revealed the first views of a new Russian submarine, reported H. I. Sutton for Forbes.com earlier this year. Eagled-eyed Sutton noted that the segment "showed an official model of a new submarine together with previously known types."
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