PoliticsINSIDERA former Department of Homeland Security official said Trump is letting right-wing extremists 'start a race war'
A former Department of Homeland domestic terrorism expert said the Trump administration is letting right-wing extremists "start a race war." Elizabeth Neumann stepped down in April from her role as an assistant secretary at the DHS. Neumann criticized speakers at this week's Republican National Convention portraying the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests as "lawless" when it is white supremacists instigating the violence.
PoliticsThe WeekAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez may have a lot to do with Joe Kennedy's primary struggles
Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D-Mass.) could soon be out of politics, and an unlikely colleague may have something to do with it, Politico reports. Kennedy is challenging Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) in the statewide Democratic primary for Markey's seat, which he's held since 2013. Politico notes that Kennedy tries to hit the 74-year-old Markey by criticizing his support for the 1994 crime bill and the Iraq War when he was in the House, both of which would seemingly put him in trouble with the progressive left.
PoliticsUSA TODAYFact check: Biden tax plan would raise rates for those who make more than $400K, corporations
The claim: Biden's and Harris' tax plans would raise rates on a family making $75,000 or $3,000 biweekly Viral posts on Facebook claim tax rates for some families would more than double if Democrat Joe Biden is elected president. Bidens tax rate on a family making 75000 dollars would go from 12% to 25%,” reads a post Aug. 16 that has been shared more than 126,000 times. LET THAT SINK IN ALL YOU RIDING WITH BIDEN SUPPORTERS.
HealthYahoo NewsFirst confirmed case of COVID-19 reinfection is ‘not surprising,’ doctors say
Researchers at the University of Hong Kong have confirmed the first instance of a patient being reinfected with coronavirus a second time, suggesting that immunity to the virus may be short-lived. The patient, a 33-year-old man, tested positive for the virus in March and then again in August after returning to Hong Kong from a trip to Spain. But it's not all bad news; this man's case demonstrates that the immune response, while not able to completely ward off a second infection, may be robust enough to prevent less serious illness the second time around.
PoliticsThe TelegraphTop US general says military will not escort Donald Trump from the White House if election disputed
America's most senior general has declared the military will not intervene if Donald Trump were to decline to leave the White House following a disputed US election. In a letter to Congress, Mark Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he did not envisage soldiers playing any role if Republicans and Democrats did not agree on the result. Mr Trump has repeatedly voiced concerns that the election will be undermined by fraud during widespread mail-in voting amid the coronavirus pandemic, and suggested that the result may never be known.
U.S.Business InsiderArkansas sheriff who was secretly recorded using racial slurs reluctantly resigned and insisted he's not racist
Desiree Middlebrooks secretly recorded the father of her children, Arkansas County Sheriff Todd Wright, going on a racist rant about a Black employee she talked to. Arkansas County Sheriff Todd Wright resigned Friday months after a recording revealed him going on a racist rant about a Black grocery store employee. In the five-minute recording, captured secretly by the mother of his children Desiree Middlebrooks and shared widely on social media, a man later identified as Wright is heard using a racial slur nine times.
U.S.Associated PressHome smashed: For one family, Hurricane Laura the 3rd strike
Bradley Beard calls Hurricane Laura his third strike. In 2005, Rita pushed a foot of floodwaters into his white, wooden home in Hackberry, Louisiana, a tiny Cameron Parish community 15 miles (24 kilometers) from the Gulf of Mexico. Next came Ike in 2008, which pushed water up to the floor of the long mobile home where his daughter and two granddaughters live on the same property.
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Bernie Kerik says surge in violence in American cities can be reversed with the right leadership
Major U.S. cities see increases in violent crime; reaction from former NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik.
PoliticsThe Daily BeastDems Turn Table on Post Office Sabotage
But out on the political battlefield, a throng of Democratic candidates and organizations have turned the USPS crisis around as a potent political tool to galvanize supporters—and raise money. Since the beginning of August, when nationwide mail delays and operational “reforms” at USPS exploded into public view, at least 100 Democratic candidates for federal office have sent communications that led to some kind of mail-related fundraising ask, according to a review of campaign emails and social media advertisements. Dozens of Democratic Party-affiliated organizations, outside liberal groups, and state-level candidates have made similar pleas, too.
WorldThe TelegraphFrench lieutenant-colonel stationed at a NATO base in Italy charged with spying for Russia
A senior French military officer has been charged with espionage for allegedly passing top secret documents to Russian intelligence, Florence Parly, the defence minister, said on Sunday. The lieutenant-colonel, who has not been named, is stationed at a NATO base in Italy. The officer was about to return to Italy after a holiday in France, Europe 1 radio reported, and is being held at La Santé prison in Paris.
U.S.INSIDERAn LA teacher said she and her daughter had to flee their home after she received threats for wearing a Black Lives Matter t-shirt to class
A teacher at a charter school in Los Angeles, California, said she faced harassment and was forced to flee her home after she wore a pro-Black Lives Matter t-shirt on the first day of classes, The Los Angeles Times reported. The teacher, who remained anonymous in several news reports over fears of further harassment, said the incident began when a student's father shared a picture of her on his social media and worsened when a conservative personality amplified the post on Twitter. The school's executive director told the LA Times that the teacher had not broken any school policies by wearing the shirt to class, which was conducted virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic.
BusinessBusiness InsiderSpaceX may attempt 3 rocket launches on Sunday
The aerospace company has scheduled two back-to-back Falcon 9 launches in Florida, just nine hours apart. SpaceX also reportedly intends to launch the Starship SN6 from Boca Chica, Texas, for a low-altitude test flight. Elon Musk tweeted that there was a "good chance something will slip, but, yeah, Sunday is intense."
WorldReutersJapan, U.S. defence chiefs oppose bid to alter status of Asian waters
Japan's Defence Minister Taro Kono said on Saturday he had agreed with his U.S. counterpart Mark Esper that both countries opposed any unilateral attempt to change the status quo in the key waterways of the South China Sea and the East China Sea. Kono shared his view with the U.S. defense secretary at a time when the United States and China are at loggerheads over issues ranging from technology and human rights to Chinese military activities in the disputed South China Sea. A thorny issue in China's ties with Japan is Beijing's claim to a group of tiny East China Sea islets controlled by Tokyo.
WorldAssociated PressGunmen kill 9 motorcycle riders in southern Philippines
Gunmen blocked a group of motorcycle riders then opened fire with assault rifles in a busy downtown area in the southern Philippines, killing nine people, police said Sunday, in the latest violence to roil the volatile region. Police officials said the attack on the victims, who were mostly farmers, at noon Saturday in Kabacan town in Cotabato province may have been sparked by a local feud and was likely not an act of terrorism. Cotabato lies in a poverty-wracked region where a decades-long Muslim separatist insurgency has eased largely due to a 2014 peace deal between the Philippines' largest Muslim rebel group and the government, although small armed groups aligned with the Islamic State group still pose a threat.
WorldThe TelegraphThe woman leading the fight against Putin '24/7' after poisoning of Navalny
Lyubov Sobol was already among the most visible dissidents in Vladimir Putin's Russia. At 32, she has fronted a protest movement, calling thousands to the streets when she and other opposition candidates were barred from standing in Moscow city elections last year. She staged a hunger strike and a sit-in at the offices of the Moscow election commission, eventually being lifted out of the building on a sofa after she refused to stand for police officers.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderTrump retweeted a message from the far-right OAN network calling anti-racism protests an attempted 'coup'
President Donald Trump shared a message from far-right news network One America News (OAN ) Saturday, branding ongoing anti-racism protests an attempted coup. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has accused Trump of rooting for violence at ongoing demonstrations, which have resulted in deadly clashes between rival protesters in recent days. Republicans though, have accused Democrats of ignoring violent unrest at protests.
U.S.INSIDERA group of college Republicans is raising money for Kyle Rittenhouse, the gunman suspected of killing 2 people in Kenosha
College Republicans United (CRU), a student group at Arizona State University, has announced that it will raise money for the legal defense of Kyle Rittenhouse, the Associated Press reported. Rittenhouse is accused of shooting and killing two people and injuring another at an anti-police-brutality protest in Wisconsin on Tuesday. Members of College Republicans United believe the shootings were an act of self-defense, but ASU College Republicans, a separate group from the CRU, have called for an administrative investigation into the group and do not support the raising of defense funds.
CelebrityUSA TODAY'World's oldest married couple' have lived a combined 215 years and are still in good health
Their families disapproved of the marriage nearly 80 years ago, but today they are recognized around the world as a record-breaking couple. Julio Cesar Mora Tapia, 110, and Waldramina Maclovia Quinteros Reyes, 104, have lived a combined 215 years – making them the world's oldest married couple, Guinness World Records reported Tuesday. There are longer marriages, but the record certifies the couple, who live in Ecuador's capital, Quito, as having the "highest combined age of a married couple," Guinness World Records reports.
U.S.Miami HeraldThree tropical disturbances are being watched in the Atlantic. Two are heading west
Forecasters are watching a new tropical disturbance in the Atlantic with a high chance of developing into a cyclone as two tropical waves are heading west with a third expected off the West African coast this week. As of the National Hurricane Center's Noon Tropical Weather Update Sunday, a system parallel with the Florida Panhandle has a 70% chance of becoming a tropical depression by Friday. The closest tropical wave is moving west across the Caribbean Sea away from the Lesser Antilles at 15 to 20 mph. It's got an 80 percent chance of developing into a tropical depression in the next five days.
U.S.INSIDERUniversity of Alabama told professors to not tell students about COVID-19 cases among their classmates
The University of Alabama told professors to not tell students about classmates who had tested positive for COVID-19, reported the Daily Beast. The university made headlines this week after more than 500 people tested positive for COVID-19 within 6 days of opening. Professors, staff, and students told the Daily Beast they worry for their safety, as students are quarantining on campus unsupervised.
U.S.USA TODAYDerek Chauvin, former officer accused in George Floyd's death, wants murder charges dismissed
Defense attorneys for Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer accused of killing George Floyd, have asked a judge to dismiss the murder charges against him, arguing that Floyd's alleged drug use, not the improper use of force by the officer, was to blame for his death. At the same time, prosecutors in the case against Chauvin and three other former Minneapolis police officers said they plan to seek stiff sentences if the men are convicted. "Despite Mr. Floyd's pleas that he could not breathe and was going to die, as well as the pleas of eyewitnesses to get off Mr. Floyd and help him, Defendant and his co-defendants continued to restrain Mr. Floyd," the prosecutors wrote.
ScienceMiami HeraldLightning strike blows off man’s shoes, giving him ‘new respect for Crocs’ in Canada
Awakened by a thunderstorm at his home on Bowen Island in British Columbia, Cal Misener remembered he'd left the windows rolled down on his truck. The 50-year-old slipped on a pair of camouflage Crocs and went out in his pajamas to remedy the situation, CBC News reported. “I reached in to turn on the ignition, and just as I had done that, bam!” Misener said, CTV News reported.
PoliticsBusiness Insider50,000 people in Iowa will need to request another absentee ballot after a judge sided with the Trump campaign and invalidated their requests
About 50,000 people in Iowa will need to submit another request for an absentee ballot, a judge ruled this week, siding with the Trump campaign, who challenged a local county's decision to pre-fill portions of the ballots. The Trump campaign filed three lawsuits against Linn, Woodbury, and Johnson counties in Iowa over their decisions to send absentee ballot request forms that had pre-filled information, including a person's voter identification number. President Donald Trump has been a vocal opponent of mail-in-voting and state efforts to expand it, though has himself voted by mail as recently as March 2020.
WorldAssociated PressIsrael responds to explosive balloons with tank fire on Gaza
The Israeli military said it struck militant targets in Gaza early on Sunday in response to continued launches of explosives-laden balloons out of the Hamas-run territory. There were no immediate reports of casualties on either side. But the violence comes at a time when Gaza is struggling with a worsening economic crisis and a new outbreak of the coronavirus.
WorldThe TelegraphAlexander Lukashenko brings his 16-year-old son onto frontline as protests endanger succession plans
Pictured last weekend sporting body armour and an assault rifle, Belarus's embattled dictator has shown the world that he does not plan to go down without a fight. By the age of 11, he had been pictured with everyone from Barack Obama and the Pope through to China's Xi Jinping. One picture showed him and his father disembarking from a helicopter, accompanied by the riot police Mr Lukashenko has used to crack down on protesters.
“Biden's commanding delivery could make it more difficult for Trump to paint him as staggering and senile.”
“The Democratic Party said almost nothing about its own platform or the policies Biden plans to implement if elected.”
“If the purpose of a convention is to lay out a vision for America, I don’t think Democrats could have done a better job.”
“Most of the speakers thought they had to beat the crap out of the country...The charges, direct and indirect, never let up.”
“Democrats have taken care to celebrate the kind of ideological diversity that is crucial to winning the White House on Nov. 3.”