- WorldThe Daily Beast
Ship Called ‘Trump D’ Moored in Ukraine Brought Triple the Explosives of ‘Floating Bomb’ That Blew Up Beirut
An American-owned cargo ship named after the president of the United States docked in a Ukrainian port has just offloaded 10,000 metric tons of the same chemical substance that nearly leveled the city of Beirut this week, according to the Liveuamap news source. The hangar in Lebanon only had 2,750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate, which caused catastrophic damage to the Lebanese capital. The ship docked in Ukraine, which was previously named Seabreeze before a Florida company registered as Pilin Fleet Management LLC purchased it in 2018, and renamed it Trump D, was registered by Marine Traffic tracking website in the Yuzhi port near Odessa on Friday.
- PoliticsUSA TODAY
Donald Trump tops Joe Biden in July fundraising by $25M, but cash-on-hand advantage erased
President Donald Trump hauled in $25 million more than Democratic challenger Joe Biden in July, ending a stretch of back-to-back months where the former vice president topped the incumbent president in campaign fundraising. But for the first time, the two candidates have about the same amount of money left to spend with now less than 90 days until the Nov. 3 election. The Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee and their joint fundraising committees collectively raised $165 million in July, according to the campaign, bringing the president's overall fundraising mark to $1.1 billion in the 2020 election cycle.
- 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.
- 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
Man fights with bear after it enters home with 10 kids inside, Alaska officials say
An Alaska man went toe-to-toe with a home-intruding black bear, outlets report, putting himself between 10 children and the 300-pound predator that wandered into the living room. The fight was scary for Brandon McVey, but he survived, walking away with some nasty puncture wounds to his chest and scratches across his shoulders, the Anchorage Daily News reported. McVey was visiting his friend Norman Lott at his home around 11 p.m. July 31 in Juneau, Alaska, when the bear came in through an open door, the Daily News said.
- 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.
- 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.
- WorldAssociated Press
House arrest of Colombia's Uribe exposes post-peace tensions
Colombian media reported he was in good health. The court ruling to detain 68-year-old Uribe, still a political force even though he left the presidency a decade ago, exposed the strain in a Latin American democracy divided over who should be held to account for alleged crimes tied to Colombia's brutal history. It comes at a difficult moment for Colombia as it tries to contain the coronavirus while enduring the harsh economic fallout of its monthslong lockdown.
- U.S.USA TODAY
California hotel brawl near Disneyland involves about 100 people, police say
A brawl at a hotel near Disneyland on Wednesday involved as many as 100 people and two people were hospitalized, police said. The fight involved hotel guests and grew to include between 60 and 100 people, Sgt. Shane Carringer of the Anaheim Police Department confirmed to USA TODAY. Broomsticks and bottles were used as weapons during the fight at the Cambria Hotel & Suites, witnesses and police said.
- BusinessBusiness Insider
Dr. Fauci predicts drugmakers will likely produce 1 billion COVID-19 vaccines by the end of 2021
Al Drago/Pool via REUTERS Dr. Anthony Fauci said in an interview with Reuters that drugmakers will likely have "tens of million of doses" of a COVID-19 vaccine by early 2021. By the end of next year, he said there will be "hundreds of millions and likely a billion doses." Fauci, the top infectious disease official, warned that nothing is certain.
- PoliticsPolitico
Biden: Latino community is diverse, ‘unlike the African American community’
Joe Biden said in remarks on Wednesday that the Latino community is "incredibly diverse," "unlike" the Black community. "Unlike the African American community, with notable exceptions, the Latino community is an incredibly diverse community with incredibly diverse attitudes about different things," Biden said. Biden made the comment during an interview hosted by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the National Association of Black Journalists that was released in full on Thursday.
- 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.
- WorldBBC
Hiroshima bomb: Japan marks 75 years since nuclear attack
Bells have tolled in Hiroshima, Japan, to mark the 75th anniversary of the dropping of the world's first atomic bomb. On 6 August 1945, a US bomber dropped the uranium bomb above the city, killing around 140,000 people. Three days later a second nuclear weapon was dropped on Nagasaki.
- U.S.FOX News Videos
Virginia business owner reacts to employee's house arrest for defending shop from robber
Worker arrested after defending himself from armed robbery; Arlington Smoke Shop owner Jowan Zuber speaks out.
- 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.
- 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.
- WorldReuters
'They killed us twice': finding loved ones at last among Syria's tortured dead
Hundreds of victims of Syria's torture chambers are only now being discovered, thanks to a new effort to identify bodies from tens of thousands of photos smuggled out of Damascus seven years ago. "They died starved and naked," said Um Munzer Yaseen, 58, who, after sifting through countless photos of emaciated corpses, finally found her son, Jamil, last month. A computer engineer, Jamil had been missing since one night in June, 2011, when he was taken by secret police from the family flat in Damascus.
- WorldBusiness Insider
Germany will test all arrivals from 'risky' countries like the US as daily new cases top 1,000 for the first time in 3 months
Florian Gaertner/Photothek via Getty Images Germany recorded more than 1,000 daily new coronavirus cases for the first time in three months. There were 1,045 new infections in Germany on Thursday, according to the Robert Koch Institute. One in five new cases in Germany are believed to originate from abroad.
- 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.
- WorldThe Telegraph
Beirut explosion: Angry Lebanese mob Emmanuel Macron demanding 'revolution' against their leader
Angry Lebanese mobbed French President Emmanuel Macron in Beirut on Thursday, demanding his help in overthrowing their reviled leaders, as outrage grew over a devastating explosion caused by thousands of tons of dangerous chemicals that were stored in the capital for years despite repeated warnings. The visiting French leader warned that without structural reform the country would "continue to sink", as the death toll rose to 145 and over 5,000 injured by the port blast that damaged half of Beirut, the capital of a country already facing economic collapse. Touring a heavily damaged Beirut neighbourhood, Mr Macron was met by an angry crowd chanting "Revolution" and "The people want to bring down the regime," slogans used during nationwide protests last year.
- U.S.Associated Press
Utah protesters face charges with potential life sentence
Some Black Lives Matter protesters in Salt Lake City could face up to life in prison if they're convicted of splashing red paint and smashing windows during a protest, a potential punishment that stands out among demonstrators arrested around the country and one that critics say doesn't fit the alleged crime. Prosecutors said Wednesday that's justified because the protesters worked together to cause thousands of dollars in damage, but watchdogs called the use of the 1990s-era law troubling, especially in the context of criminal justice reform and minority communities. “This is so far beyond just the enforcement of the law, it feels retaliatory,” said Madalena McNeil, who is facing a potential life sentence over felony criminal mischief and riot charges.
- 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—founded by the Bolsheviks as 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.
- PoliticsBBC
US election 2020: What is the electoral college?
The US presidential election will take place in less than 100 days. This is because the president is not chosen directly by the voters, but what's known as the electoral college. When Americans go to the polls in presidential elections they're actually voting for a group of officials who make up the electoral college.
- U.S.TODAY
2nd-grade student tests positive for the coronavirus after 1st day of school
A second-grade student in Georgia tested positive for the coronavirus after attending the first day of school, leading the district to ask 20 other students and a teacher to self-quarantine for two weeks. The child, a student at Sixes Elementary School in Canton, about 44 miles north of Atlanta, did not begin to show symptoms until after school on Monday, the first day students returned. In a letter to parents, the school's principal, Ashley Kennerly, said the class will be taught remotely while the group is under quarantine.
“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.”