ScienceThe Independent'Melting faster and faster': Greenland lost 1 million tonnes of ice for each minute of 2019
High temperatures saw Greenland lose enough ice to cover the US state of California in more than four feet of water in 2019 alone, a study which suggests the island lost a million tonnes of ice for every minute of the year has said. After two years in which the land masses' summer ice melt had been negligible, satellite measurements have suggested an excessively hot 2019 saw the loss of 586 billion tons of ice melt from the island. The loss represents more than 532 trillion litres of water according to a study published in Communications Earth & Environment - equivalent to 212.8 million olympic-sized swimming pools over the course of 2019, or seven for every second of the year.
WorldAssociated PressBannon's Chinese host an irritant to Communist Party
The self-exiled Chinese tycoon on whose 150-foot (45-meter) yacht President Donald Trump's former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, was arrested is a high-profile irritant to the ruling Communist Party. Guo Wengui left China in 2014 during an anti-corruption crackdown led by President Xi Jinping that ensnared people close to Guo, including a top intelligence official. Chinese authorities have accused Guo of rape, kidnapping, bribery and other offenses.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderAll the top Republicans who say they won't vote for Trump in 2020
Several Republican leaders have publicly voiced their opposition to Trump and signaled they will not support his 2020 reelection. The list includes ex-officials and those currently in office, such as former President George W. Bush and Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, the GOP presidential nominee in 2012. Throughout his presidency, Donald Trump has stoked tensions within the Republican Party he leads, bashing party loyalists and even previous presidential nominees who dared to defy him with names like "loser" and "RINO," for Republican in name only.
WorldBBCWhy a Somali-born fighter is being honoured in Rome
In our series of letters from African journalists, Ismail Einashe looks at how some Italians are revaluating their colonial past in Africa. Rome's city council voted earlier this month to name a future metro station in the Italian capital in honour of Giorgio Marincola, an Italian-Somali who was a member of the Italian resistance. The station, which is currently under construction, was going to be called Amba Aradam-Ipponio - a reference to an Italian campaign in Ethiopia in 1936 when fascist forces brutally unleashed chemical weapons and committed war crimes at the infamous Battle of Amba Aradam.
PoliticsThe WeekIt turns out Mitch McConnell will appear at the RNC after all
After some back and forth, it's been confirmed that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) will make an appearance at next week's Republican National Convention. McConnell is up for re-election in November, and his campaign spokeswoman, Katharine Cooksey, said in a statement on Thursday that he would not be part of the convention. A few hours later, Cooksey changed course, saying there was a "miscommunication" and McConnell will be recording a message for the convention, The Hill reports.
U.S.The IndependentDouble hurricane threat as Tropical Storms Laura and Marco advance towards US Gulf Coast
Two tropical storms are advancing across the Caribbean posing potentially historic threats to the US Gulf Coast, with both projected to reach the coast at or close to hurricane force. The current projected track for Tropical Storms Laura and Marco by the US National Hurricane Center puts both storms together in the Gulf on Tuesday, with Marco set to hit near the Texas-Louisiana border and Laura set to make landfall a little less than a day later. Phil Klotzbach, a hurricane researcher at Colorado State University, said two hurricanes had never appeared in the Gulf of Mexico at the same time, according to records going back to at least 1900, and the last time two tropical storms were in the Gulf together was in 1959.
PoliticsBusiness Insider'Is this a joke?' North Carolina voters are being mailed absentee ballot request forms with Trump's face on them
The mailout by the North Carolina Republican Party asks for "immediate action" to "ensure your right to securely vote Absentee." Trump has previously also said that using mail-in voting is less secure than absentee voting, even though the two terms refer to the same method of using the mail to deliver ballots. Voters in North Carolina are receiving absentee ballot request forms that feature President Trump's face on them even though the president has continuously criticized mail-in voting in the run-up to the November election.
WorldINSIDERThe $15 billion hit from the devastating Beirut explosion will be a gut-punch to Lebanon's hobbled economy
Officials in Lebanon estimated it would cost $15 billion to fix the damage from the Beirut explosion on August 4, The Washington Post reported. The explosion killed more than 180 people and wounded over 6,000 people. The damage from the explosion comes as Lebanon is reeling from a terrible economic crisis that has significantly devalued its currency.
WorldReutersAfter Hagia Sophia, Turkey's historic Chora church also switched to mosque
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan reconverted the historic Chora church, one of Istanbul's most celebrated Byzantine buildings, into a mosque on Friday, a month after opening the famed Hagia Sophia to Muslim worship. The mediaeval Church of the Holy Saviour in Chora, built near the ancient city walls of Constantinople, contains 14th century Byzantine mosaics and frescoes showing scenes from biblical stories. They were plastered over after the city was conquered by the Muslim Ottomans in 1453, but brought to light again when - like Hagia Sophia - the building was converted to a museum by Turkey's secular republic more than 70 years ago.
PoliticsThe IndependentQAnon: Senior Republican says there is 'no place' for right-wing conspiracy theory in GOP
House minority leader Kevin McCarthy has condemned the QAnon, saying there is “no room” for the conspiracy theory in the Republican party. In an interview with Fox News on Thursday, Mr McCarthy, Republican representative for California's 23rd district, was asked whether he was worried about candidates who have won primaries who were affiliated with groups like QAnon. “Let me be very clear,” Mr McCarthy said.
U.S.Business InsiderHealth officials in 3 states have traced new COVID-19 cases to the Sturgis motorcycle rally where hundreds of thousands of bikers gathered
Health officials in South Dakota, Nebraska, and Minnesota have now traced multiple new COVID-19 cases back to a motorcycle rally held in Sturgis, South Dakota between August 7 and 16. The rally, which drew hundreds of thousands of bikers to the 6,900-person city, has been tied to 15 new coronavirus cases in Nebraska, seven in Minnesota, and multiple incidences in South Dakota, according to CNN. The event was one of the largest public gatherings in the US since the coronavirus pandemic began.
PoliticsUSA TODAYHere are the prominent Republicans not supporting Trump, and those who are supporting Biden
WASHINGTON – Several prominent Republicans have publicly endorsed or shown support for former vice president and Democratic nominee Joe Biden instead of their party's incumbent, President Donald Trump. They include elected officials, former Trump administration officials and other prominent Republicans who have slammed Trump for everything from a "bungled" response to the coronavirus pandemic, "terrifying" national security approaches and general divisiveness in the country. Democrats have worked to use this as an advantage, trying to show Biden as the unifying candidate who can appeal to not just Democrats.
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Trump impersonator Sarah Cooper slams president's attacks on mail-in voting at DNC
Comedian Sarah Cooper delivers a message on voting to the Democratic National Convention.
WorldAssociated PressPolitical parties vow to fight removal of Kashmir's autonomy
Half a dozen political parties vowed Saturday to fight for restoration of the special status that was stripped last year from Indian-administered Kashmir, setting off widespread anger and economic ruin amid a harsh security clampdown. Four pro-India Kashmiri political parties and two Indian political parties, including the main opposition Congress Party, said in a joint statement that India's move “unrecognizably changed the relationship” between the region and New Delhi. “We want to assure the people that all our political activities will be subservient to the sacred goal of reverting to the status of J&K as it existed on 4th August 2019,” the statement said.
BusinessBusiness InsiderTesla employees heading to Austin for the upcoming Cybertruck factory are in for a red-hot real estate market
In July, Tesla in July picked Austin, Texas, as the site for its eventual Cybertruck factory. The company's broken ground on the project, and one real-estate agent said employees are already looking for homes in the city. Unlike San Francisco or New York, home prices haven't dipped much in Texas.
PoliticsThe WeekBiden's polling remains steady after DNC, but favorability gets a boost
Former Vice President Joe Biden, the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee, didn't see his general election polling numbers rise in the immediate aftermath of this week's Democratic National Convention, a new Morning Consult poll shows. The poll, which was conducted Friday (one day after Biden gave his acceptance speech completing the four-day DNC) and released Saturday, has Biden up nine points on President Trump, compared to the eight point advantage he enjoyed Monday. The lack of convention bump so far doesn't appear to be too concerning for the Biden campaign, however.
WorldReutersSouth Africa's COVID-19 infections breach 600,000 mark
South Africa's confirmed COVID-19 cases have surpassed 600,000, the health ministry said on Friday, although the number of new cases has been declining since a peak in July. Despite imposing one of the world's toughest lockdowns at the end of March when the country had only a few hundred cases, South Africa saw a surge in coronavirus infections that has left it the hardest hit on the continent. The ministry said in a statement South Africa now had a total of 603,338 cases and 12,843 deaths - accounting for more than half of the continent's cases and around 47% of its deaths, according to a Reuters tally of government and World Health Organization data.
WorldAssociated PressPakistan sanctions Taliban to avoid global finance blacklist
Pakistan has issued sweeping financial sanctions against Afghanistan's Taliban, just as the militant group is in the midst of a U.S.-led peace process in the neighboring country. The penalties, made public late Friday, target dozens of individuals including Taliban chief peace negotiator Abdul Ghani Baradar and several members of the Haqqani family, including Sirajuddin, the current head of the Haqqani network and deputy head of the Taliban. Many Taliban leaders, including those heading the much-feared Haqqani network, have lived in Pakistan since the 1980s.
U.S.Business InsiderAs many as 215,000 people in the US have died as a result of COVID-19 pandemic, new CDC figures suggest
As many as 215,000 more people than usual died in the United States between January and July 2020, the Associated Press reported Friday. The death toll, from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suggest COVID-19 is killing more people than officially registered. People of color make up 40% of the US population but 52% of "excess deaths," according to an analysis by the AP and The Marshall Project.
WorldThe TelegraphUS lawmakers introduce bill seeking to change how government refers to Chinese leader Xi Jinping
US lawmakers have introduced a bill that seeks to change how the government refers to Xi Jinping, the leader of China, and would prohibit calling him “president”, instead refering to him by his official titles. The bill would specifically block the use of federal funds to create or disseminate official government documents or communications that refer to Mr Xi as “president”, as that would confer unwarranted legitimacy to a leader who is not democratically elected. While the bill is unlikely to progress very far, it does reflect a shift already occurring in the US government in how officials refer to Mr Xi.
PoliticsUSA TODAYFormer Navy SEAL from Bin Laden raid banned by Delta for not complying with mask rule
Airlines have tightened mask policies, again: Here's what you need to know O'Neill confirmed he's no longer welcome on Delta flights in a Twitter post Thursday, though he says it was because he posted a now-deleted tweet of him posing maskless in his seat and insinuating that people who wear them are wimps (though his word choice was coarser). Mask ban: American Airlines temporarily bans passenger who refused to wear a face mask on flight O'Neill also claimed the post was made in jest: I had my mask in my lap. Everyone has gone crazy," he wrote in a later tweet linking to a Washington Times story about the Delta incident."
HealthThe Daily BeastMost Russians Say ‘Hell, No!’ They're Not Taking Putin’s COVID-19 Vaccine
MOSCOW— Vladimir Putin has registered the world's first state-approved vaccine against the coronavirus and probably expected congratulations—at least at home—for winning the global race for a vaccine, but even Russians aren't so sure this is a good idea. Epidemiologists, pharmacologists, and doctors in Russia have responded to the alleged breakthrough with skepticism, and they certainly aren't lining up to be injected first. Russian scientists plan to start the final stage of the trials on Monday, planning to begin the mass vaccination in October.
WorldAssociated PressGaza militants fire 12 rockets, Israel strikes Hamas targets
Palestinian militants fired 12 rockets at Israel from the Gaza Strip overnight, nine of which were intercepted, and Israel responded with three airstrikes on targets linked to the territory's militant Hamas rulers, the Israeli military said early Friday. It was the most serious exchange of fire along the Gaza frontier in months, but there were no reports of casualties. Police said buildings and vehicles in Israel were damaged, and that bomb-disposal units had been dispatched to pick up shrapnel and rocket parts.
HealthBusiness InsiderDoctors are finding striking similarities between chronic fatigue syndrome and long-term coronavirus symptoms
Researchers are just beginning the understand the link between the coronavirus and chronic fatigue. "I basically relapsed upon arrival," Oliver, a 36-year-old manager for an arts organization in New York City, told Business Insider. It reminds them of another condition that's also still somewhat mysterious: chronic fatigue syndrome.
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Navalny evacuated to Germany for medical treatment
Gravely ill Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was evacuated to Germany for medical treatment on Saturday (August 22). He was flown out of the Siberian city of Omsk in an air ambulance - before being taken to a hospital in Berlin. The long-time opponent of Russia's President Vladimir Putin - and a campaigner against corruption - collapsed on a plane on Thursday (August 20), after drinking tea his allies believe was laced with poison.
“Harris brings an unusual blend of social justice progressiveness and law-and-order conservatism.”
“It's hard to imagine Trump-skeptical independents now aching to pull the trigger for Biden with Kamala on the ticket.”
“If Biden wishes, he can delegate the daily barrage of rebukes against his opponent to her. Biden now can rise above the fray.”
“Voters viewed her as among the most qualified to be president on Day 1 — a key positive.”
“Here’s a reality check: Running mates have very little direct effect on voters.”