- PoliticsUSA TODAY Opinion
Trump and Barr are making false claims about mail-in ballots to scare us out of voting
Nevertheless, last month, when he wasn't busy ineffectually trying to replace the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan with a Trump loyalist, Attorney General William Barr took out after voting by mail as rife with fraud. In this, he was echoing his master, President Trump. In an interview he gave to Fox News, the attorney general said voting by mail “opens the floodgates to fraud.
- U.S.USA TODAY
Judge grants bond to ex-Atlanta cop charged with murder in Rayshard Brooks shooting
ATLANTA – The former Atlanta police officer charged with fatally shooting Rayshard Brooks can be released on bond, a judge ruled Tuesday. Fulton County Judge Jane Barwick said she does not believe Garrett Rolfe is a flight risk or would intimidate witnesses. Barwick set Rolfe's bond at $500,000.
- U.S.BBC
Brain-eating amoeba: Warning issued in Florida after rare infection case
A case of a rare brain-eating amoeba has been confirmed in Florida, according to health officials in the US state. The Florida Department of Health (DOH) said one person in Hillsborough County had contracted Naegleria fowleri. The microscopic, single-celled amoeba can cause an infection of the brain, and is usually fatal.
- PoliticsCBS News
Biden evokes MLK and George Floyd in Fourth of July message
Evoking the names of Martin Luther King and George Floyd, Joe Biden said Saturday that the U.S. "never lived up" to its founding principle that "all men are created equal." In the Fourth of July video message, Biden said that even though America had fallen short of equality, the effort to live up to the nation's founding ideals continues. It survived the ravages of the Civil War, the dogs of Bull Connor, the assassination of Martin Luther King, and more than 200 years of systemic racism.
- 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.
- WorldReuters
Constitutional changes are the 'right thing' for Russia: Putin
President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday constitutional amendments approved in a nationwide vote created the conditions for Russia's "progressive development" for decades to come. One of the changes approved in the week-long vote that ended on July 1 makes it possible for Putin to seek two more terms as president and, if re-elected, to stay in power until 2036. Other changes grant former presidents immunity from prosecution, enshrine a reference in the constitution to God, offer pensions protection and define marriage as a union of a man and a woman.
- U.S.The Guardian
‘They feel invincible’: how California’s coronavirus plan went wrong
People began to fixate on individual liberties without understanding that one of the most fundamental civil liberties in the US is the right to health Lee Riley In Orange county, where more than 15,000 people have been infected, health director Nichole Quick resigned in mid-June after being confronted with a banner depicting her as a Nazi, protests outside her house and personal threats. Quick had issued an order requiring residents to wear masks in public, which the county sheriff insisted he wouldn't enforce. After she became the third high-level health official in Orange county to quit, the county quickly reversed Quick's order – recommending, but not insisting that residents wear masks.
- U.S.Business Insider
An asymptomatic coronavirus carrier infected an apartment neighbor without sharing the same space. A study blames the building's elevator buttons.
According to a new study, transmission likely occurred in the elevator, when the neighbor touched the same buttons that the quarantined traveler had. The neighbor was later linked to 70 other coronavirus infections in the local community. Coronavirus particles can live on surfaces like plastic and stainless steel, which are common in elevators, for up to seven days.
- LifestyleMiami Herald
Applebee’s employee dies in parking lot while celebrating July 4, Texas police say
A Fourth of July celebration in Texas came to a tragic end when a woman fell from a moving vehicle in an Applebee's parking lot and died early Sunday, officials say. Around 12:30 a.m., police said a 24-year-old Applebee's employee and some of her coworkers decided to set off fireworks in the Houston restaurant's parking lot after closing for the night, KHOU reported. The 24-year-old woman and an 18-year-old friend stood on the rear bumper, KPRC reported.
- PoliticsThe Daily Beast
Trump Uses Mount Rushmore Event to Sic Supporters on ‘Evil’ Protesters
President Donald Trump devoted his Fourth of July weekend speech at Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota on Friday night not to uniting the country for Independence Day, but to trying to own the libs who take issue with the Confederate statues he sees as vital to American culture. “There is a new far-left fascism that demands absolute allegiance,” Trump proclaimed to supporters who came out to see him in spite of the recent surge in coronavirus cases in the United States. “This left-wing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the American Revolution,” the president said, before repeatedly going on to compare himself and his supporters to Patriots during the American Revolution—and protesters to members of the British Army.
- U.S.NBC News
Police clear officer who appeared to flash white power sign at Oregon protest
The Oregon State Police on Sunday cleared a trooper who appeared to make a white power symbol during a Black Lives Matter protest in Salem, Oregon, over the weekend. In a statement, authorities said the trooper made the gesture after seeing a skirmish during the event at the Oregon Capitol on Saturday. The officer then walks towards one of the counter-protesters and flashes the "OK" hand gesture, which is used among extremist circles to signal "white power," according to the Anti Defamation League.
- WorldBBC
The Grand Old Man of India who became Britain's first Asian MP
How was an Indian elected to the British Parliament in 1892? What relevance could this historical event have for us today? Dadabhai Naoroji (1825-1917) is an unfamiliar name these days.
WorldAFPUS aircraft carriers conduct drills in South China Sea
Two US aircraft carriers have carried out drills in the South China Sea, a US Navy spokesman said Saturday, after the Pentagon expressed concerns over Chinese military exercises around a disputed archipelago. The USS Nimitz and USS Ronald Reagan conducted dual carrier operations in the waterway to "support a free and open Indo-Pacific," the spokesman said. The drills came as the Pentagon said it was "concerned" about Chinese military exercises in the South China Sea, warning the manoeuvres will "further destabilise" the region.
- WorldThe National Interest
This Chinese Submarine Could Drop a Nuclear Weapon on America
Here's What You Need To Remember: The nuclear submarine club is indeed a highly exclusive club—and those with nuclear ballistic missiles even more so. China's Type 094, or Jin-class nuclear submarines are capable, but they may be tools for promoting national prestige rather than true nuclear deterrence. The Type 094, or Jin-class as it is also known, is operated by the People's Liberation Army Submarine Force.
- ScienceReuters
Rocket Lab vehicle fails to reach orbit, loses payload of satellites
"An issue was experienced today during Rocket Lab's launch that caused the loss of the vehicle," the company said on Twitter, adding more information will be shared as available. Rocket Lab is one of a growing group of launch companies looking to slash the cost of sending shoebox-sized satellites to low Earth orbit, building smaller rockets and reinventing traditional production lines to meet a growing payload demand. It was aiming to send five tiny Earth imaging satellites from Planet Labs, one microsatellite from Canon Electronics Inc., and a cubesat from British company In-Space Missions into a sun-synchronous orbit 310 miles above Earth.
- U.S.The Independent
‘We didn’t knock politely’: Details emerge of FBI raid at Ghislaine Maxwell hideout
Ms Maxwell is currently being held in New Hampshire, where more than 20 armed FBI agents and police officers conducted a raid on her secluded 156-acre hideout – named Tucked Away – on Thursday morning. Spy planes are reported to have monitored the property for four hours prior to the 8:20am raid to ensure the daughter of late and controversial media mogul and MP Robert Maxwell was unable to flee. Armed law officers allegedly broke down the building's front door to find the former socialite “strangely” passive and subdued as she was placed in handcuffs, putting an end to a “high-stakes game of cat and mouse” which spanned the year following Epstein's death in a Manhattan jail cell and cost th...
- WorldBusiness Insider
Florida reports over 11,000 new COVID-19 cases, breaking its single-day record twice in one week
Joe Raedle/Getty Images Florida once again broke its record for new coronavirus cases, reaching at least 11,445 reported on Saturday morning. Thursday was the last time Florida set a new record for single-day COVID-19 cases at 10,109. Only New York has reported more than 10,000 new cases in a day, with the Empire State passing its peak back in April.
U.S.Yahoo News VideoPredominantly Black armed protesters march through Confederate memorial park in Georgia
A predominantly Black group of heavily armed protesters marched through Stone Mountain Park near Atlanta on Saturday, calling for removal of the giant Confederate rock carving at the site that civil rights activists consider a monument to racism.
- WorldUSA TODAY Opinion
To send a message to China, President Trump should visit Taiwan
Communist China has officially taken over Hong Kong. The passage on Tuesday of Beijing's so-called “national security law” effectively absorbs the formerly autonomous city in the totalitarian system of the Chinese mainland, threatening its freedoms with extinction. Everyone is now looking to the United States — the leader of the free world — for a strong and principled response.
- U.S.NBC News
2 California death row inmates die from coronavirus complications
Two California death row inmates, including one convicted of killing two children, have died from what appears to be complications of the coronavirus illness COVID-19, state officials said. Scott Thomas Erskine, who was sentenced to death for killing two boys, ages 13 and 9, in San Diego in 1993, and Manuel Machado Alvarez, who raped a woman and killed a man he tried to rob in 1987, died Friday, the state corrections department said. Erskine, 57, had been on death row since 2004 and Alvarez, 59, since 1989.
PoliticsYahoo News VideoTrump sows division at Mount Rushmore speech as U.S. grapples with crises
President Trump made a direct appeal to disaffected white voters four months before Election Day.
- WorldAssociated Press
Rocket fired toward US Embassy in Iraq injures child
The Iraqi military said Sunday that a rocket aimed at Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, home of the U.S. Embassy, struck a residential house and injured a child. Iraqi officials said the embassy's recently installed C-RAM air defense system may have attempted to intercept the rocket as the system was operational late Saturday. A recent spate of rocket attacks have struck close to the U.S. Embassy and targeted American troops in Iraqi bases.
- WorldBBC
Katsina: The motorcycle bandits terrorising northern Nigeria
Motorcycle-riding armed bandits operating out of abandoned forest reserves are ransacking communities in Nigeria's north-west. The groups are the latest to join Nigeria's lucrative kidnap for ransom industry, and are quite brazen in their operations. In the last decade more than 8,000 people have been killed in the states of Kebbi, Sokoto, Niger and Zamfara, according to the International Crisis Group.
- WorldThe National Interest
Iran's Military Is Armed to the Teeth with Lots of Missiles
Here's What You Need To Remember: Iran's missile collection is quite remarkable and draws on lessons gained during the Iran-Iraq war. During that conflict, Tehran learned that it's cheaper and easier to have a strong defense (many varied missiles) than a strong offense, such as airplanes that are expensive, require lots of maintenance, and could result in pilot deaths. Tehran's missile collection is among the most diverse in the Middle East because Iran relies on modifications to Soviet/Russian and Chinese designs—although there are some domestic improvements thrown into the mix.
- U.S.Military.com
Army Specialist Killed in Afghanistan Vehicle Rollover Accident
A 21-year-old soldier from Texas was killed Friday in southwestern Afghanistan, Pentagon officials announced Saturday night. Spc. Vincent Sebastian Ibarria, of San Antonio, died in a vehicle rollover in Farah, Afghanistan, near the Iranian border, officials said.
