- PoliticsYahoo News
Conspiracy-mongering Republican seeking John Lewis seat gets social media boost from Trump
On Thursday evening, amid a fairly typical burst of presidential Twitter activity, President Trump retweeted two recent posts from the account of Angela Stanton-King, a Republican congressional candidate who has repeatedly used her social media feeds to promote content related to QAnon and other fringe conspiracy theories, including wildly implausible internet rumors about sex trafficking of children. Trump has also flirted with QAnon memes on social media, although his retweets of Stanton-King were not related to the loosely knit group whose followers have been described by the FBI as “conspiracy theory-driven domestic extremists.” In the first tweet, which was originally posted last week, Stanton-King describes herself as “a proud Black woman who supports @realDonaldTrump” and is “done with the Democrat Party lying to my community.”
- U.S.INSIDER
The former Dallas police officer who killed Botham Jean in his own apartment is appealing her murder conviction
Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News via AP, Pool, File Amber Guyger, a former Dallas police officer killed Botham Jean in his own apartment in 2018 filed an appeal to her 10-year prison sentence. Guyger's lawyers argue in the appeal that "she had the right to act in deadly force in self-defense since her belief that deadly force was immediately necessary was reasonable under the circumstances," CBS reported. A lawyer for the Jean family said in a statement to CNN that filing the appeal reflects Guyger as "someone who is not repentant but instead was hoping to play on the families sympathies at the time that they were most vulnerable."
- WorldAssociated Press
Is France helping Lebanon, or trying to reconquer it?
It was almost as if Emmanuel Macron forgot that Lebanon is no longer a French protectorate. Visiting explosion-ravaged Beirut this week, France's leader comforted distraught crowds, promised to rebuild the city and claimed that the blast pierced France's own heart. “France will never let Lebanon go,” Macron said.
- PoliticsNational Review
Should Judge Sullivan Be Disqualified from Flynn Case? An Appeals Court Is Asking
At the time, that court's three-judge panel had not yet heard oral argument on Michael Flynn's mandamus petition — i.e., Flynn's request that the panel find that federal district judge Emmet Sullivan was acting lawlessly. Sullivan had not only failed to grant the Justice Department's motion to dismiss the criminal case against Flynn; he had appointed a former federal judge (the overtly anti-Trump John Gleeson) to posit the argument abandoned by DOJ — to wit, that Flynn should proceed to sentencing because he had pled guilty to a false-statements charge, waiving his right to contest the case any further in exchange for the government's agreement not to file any other charges.
- U.S.USA TODAY
80 million masks, 8,800 ventilators: How New York is spending $5B to fight COVID-19
On April 2, Gov. Andrew Cuomo feared New York, based on national models of COVID-19 spread, could run out of ventilators in six days, estimating the state needed as many as 30,000 ventilators to keep sick patients alive. A furious scramble for ventilators and BiPAP machines that could help patients breathe was underway. An order for 17,000 ventilators from China went largely unfilled.
- WorldBBC
Hong Kong pro-democracy tycoon Jimmy Lai arrested
Hong Kong business tycoon Jimmy Lai has been arrested and his newspaper offices raided by police over allegations of collusion with foreign forces. His case is the most high-profile arrest so far under the controversial security law imposed by China in June. Mr Lai has been a prominent pro-democracy voice and a supporter of protests that erupted last year.
- PoliticsYahoo News Video
Trump allows some unemployment pay and defers payroll tax
President Trump on Saturday claimed the authority to defer payroll taxes and replace an expired unemployment benefit with a smaller amount after negotiations with Congress on a new COVID-19 rescue package collapsed.
- U.S.Miami Herald
Injured cruise ship worker ‘forgotten’ after seven months in South Florida hotels
Though five repatriation flights for crew members have left since April, the company either did not respond to his pleas or said his repatriation was impossible at the time. After receiving questions from the Miami Herald on Friday about Córdova's situation, the company indicated it is going to send him home on Sept. We have been working with Mr. Córdova to get him home in a challenging international travel environment and currently understand the next opportunity to do so is on Sept.
- WorldAFP
New 'threat' against former Saudi spy in Canada: media
A former senior Saudi intelligence official who has accused Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of trying to have him assassinated in 2018 has been placed under heightened security after a new threat on his life, a Canadian newspaper reported. The Globe and Mail said Canadian security services had been informed of a new attempted attack on Saad Aljabri, who lives at an undisclosed location in the Toronto region. Aljabri served as a counterespionage chief under a rival prince, Mohammed bin Nayef, who was ousted in 2017 by Prince Mohammed.
- PoliticsBusiness Insider
The Trump administration reportedly quashed part of an intelligence report that showed Russia is helping him win the 2020 election
The Trump administration reportedly pressured the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to delete part of a report that concluded Russia was aiming to help Trump win reelection in 2020. When former director of national intelligence Dan Coats refused to delete that conclusion from the report, Trump forced him to retire earlier than planned, according to an investigation by The New York Times Magazine. Previous reports from the FBI, CIA, and NSA concluded that Russia attempted to help Trump win in 2016 — and Vladimir Putin said publicly he wanted Trump to win — but Trump has denied those reports' accuracy.
- WorldINSIDER
A stranded tanker carrying 4,000 tons of fuel has breached and is leaking oil into the pristine, azure waters of the Indian Ocean
A stranded Japanese-owned oil tanker, sailing under the Panamanian flag, has breached and is flooding waters of the Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius with fuel. Mauritius is famous for its coral reefs and abundant marine wildlife. Authorities are racing against the clock to secure a stranded tanker carrying 4,000 tons of oil leaking fuel into waters near a tropical Indian Ocean island.
- WorldAssociated Press
A father, a sister, a son: Beirut blast takes a heavy toll
A DOTING HUSBAND AND FATHER Soha Saade and her husband, Jihad Saade, were at Saint George Hospital, caring for their 6-year-old daughter, Gemma, who was being treated for Hodgkin lymphoma. The daughter had one more day of treatments left at the hospital before they were scheduled to leave. They saw smoke billowing outside and Soha went with nurses to see if there was any reason for worry.
- U.S.The Daily Beast
She Was Charged With Murder After Her Baby Was Stillborn. Now California’s AG Has Stepped In.
For more than nine months, five of them during a global pandemic, a 26-year-old woman named Chelsea Becker has been sitting in Kings County Jail, under a $2 million bail, for giving birth to a stillborn baby. Becker has been there since November, when police arrested her and prosecutors charged her with murder. The District Attorney argued that Becker's methamphetamine addiction had caused the stillbirth, citing a 50-year-old law that civil rights advocates say was never supposed to apply to pregnant women.
- U.S.USA TODAY
250 students and staff asked to quarantine in Georgia district after one week of school
After only one week of school, more than 250 students and teachers from one Georgia school district will be asked to quarantine for two weeks after several teachers and students tested positive for COVID-19, according to the district's website. Cherokee County School District, which is just north of Atlanta, is sharing regular updates on coronavirus cases in its schools on its website. As of Friday, at least 11 students, ranging in age from first to 12th grade, and two staff members from various elementary, middle and high schools, have tested positive for the virus, prompting the school to send almost 250 students and staff home for 14 days because of possible exposure.
- WorldBBC
Hong Kong: US imposes sanctions on chief executive Carrie Lam
The US Treasury has imposed sanctions on Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam and 10 other top officials from Hong Kong and mainland China. The sanctions were used to target those undermining Hong Kong's autonomy, said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. "The United States stands with the people of Hong Kong," Mr Mnuchin added.
- U.S.NBC News
Organizational changes at Postal Service come amid slowdown concerns
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who is facing pressure from Congress over mail delays and concerns about how the U.S. Postal Service would handle mail-in voting during the November presidential election, is shaking up the agency's organizational structure. New managerial appointments came with the removal or reassignment of nearly two dozen postal leaders, illustrated by a new list of executive leaders but not expressly noted by the U.S. Postal Service's statement on the shakeup. “This organizational change will capture operating efficiencies by providing clarity and economies of scale that will allow us to reduce our cost base and capture new revenue,” DeJoy said in the statement.
- WorldThe Telegraph
Explosives expert: It's only a matter of time before human error leads to another Beirut blast
One of the world's leading experts on ammonium nitrate told The Daily Telegraph: “It's only a matter of time before something similar happens again.” Vyto Babrauskas, a fires and explosives forensics expert based in New York, said that there were tens of thousands sites around the world where the chemical was stored unsafely. About 2,750 tonnes ignited to devastate Beirut on Tuesday. In the UK, it is legal to store up to 1,250 tonnes.
- U.S.INSIDER
A woman claiming to be from the 'Freedom To Breathe Agency' filmed telling a grocery employee that she could face legal action for making people wear face masks
In a viral TikTok video, a woman claiming to be from an anti-mask group told a grocery store supervisor in Orange County, California, that she could face legal action for asking people to wear face coverings. The mask-less woman, who claimed she was from the "Freedom to Breathe Agency", was filmed giving the employee a piece of paper that stated she could go to prison for up to three to five years for telling customers to wear a mask. The "Freedom To Breathe Agency" is not a real governmental agency and has previously received a warning from the Department of Justice after it distributed fake "face mask exempt" cards.
- U.S.Reuters
U.S. Attorney General Barr says the left wants to tear down system
U.S. Attorney General William Barr mounted a partisan attack on the Democratic Party in an interview that aired Sunday, claiming the left believes in "tearing down the system" and pursues absolute victory as "a substitute for religion." Barr also told a Fox News TV host he was worried that an increase in mail-in voting could lead to a contested presidential election in November, sounding in on an issue often raised by U.S. President Donald Trump. In an interview with conservative pundit Mark Levin, Barr said Democrats had pulled away from classic liberal values and now were akin to the "Rousseauian Revolutionary Party" aimed at destroying the institutions upon which the country was built.
- PoliticsFOX News Videos
Gov. Mike Huckabee weighs in on religious voters, 2020 election
Fox News contributor and former Arkansas Republican Governor Mike Huckabee joins 'Fox & Friends Weekend.
- WorldAssociated Press
Israeli military strikes Hamas target in northern Gaza Strip
The Israeli military said late Sunday that it struck a Hamas target in the northern Gaza Strip in response to the continued launches of explosives-laden balloons from the Palestinian territory into Israel. In a brief statement, the army said an aircraft struck a Hamas observation post in northern Gaza. Israel and Hamas have fought three wars and numerous smaller flareups since the Islamic militant group seized control of Gaza in 2007.
- U.S.The Independent
Man who was given life sentence for $30 marijuana sale to be freed
A man in Louisiana serving a life sentence for selling less than a gram of marijuana is due to be released from prison, his lawyer has said. Derek Harris, who is a military veteran, was arrested in 2008 for selling 0.69 grams of marijuana — an amount worth less than $30 (£23) — to an undercover officer who came to his door. Harris was initially convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
- BusinessMiami Herald
Wave in eastern Atlantic may develop into a tropical depression this week, forecasters say
The National Weather Service is monitoring a storm that has the potential to become a tropical depression in the eastern Atlantic this week. The storm, which was located a few hundred miles south-southwest of the Cabo Verde Islands as of Sunday afternoon, has a 40 percent chance of forming into a tropical depression within the next two days and a 50 percent chance of forming by Thursday. A tropical wave located a few hundred miles south-southwest of the Cabo Verde Islands could become a tropical depression during the next few days while it moves westward across the tropical Atlantic Ocean.
- WorldBBC
Niger attack: French aid workers among eight killed by gunmen
Gunmen have attacked a group of aid workers in Niger, killing six French citizens, their local guide and driver, officials say. The gunmen arrived on motorcycles and opened fire, the governor of Tillabéri region, Tidjani Ibrahim, told the French news agency AFP. They were in the Koure region, which attracts tourists who want to see the last herds of giraffe in West Africa.
- PoliticsThe Week
Susan Rice: Let Republicans use Benghazi as a 'political distraction'
The emergence of Susan Rice, a former national security adviser in the Obama administration, as a leading candidate to become former Vice President Joe Biden's running mate has led to a renewed focus on the 2012 attacks against U.S. government facilities in Benghazi, Libya, which resulted in the deaths of 11 people, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stephens. In an interview with The Atlantic, Rice did express regret about agreeing to represent the Obama administration on news shows where she announced that the attacks were part of a spontaneous protest in response to an anti-Muslim video. Rice told The Atlantic her mother warned about going on the shows, especially since then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declined, but said she ultimately accepted the task because she consider herself a "team player."
“It may be a campaign tactic, but older workers, be forewarned. Ageism runs deep in our culture.”
“Genuine concerns about the capacities of people who want the world’s most powerful job mingle bizarrely with insults.”
“Joe Biden and Donald Trump are both old. But the media should not be making mental illness a campaign issue, on either side.”
“The Trump campaign is now betting his reelection’s already slim chances on Biden proving Trump’s diagnosis is right.”
“The nightmare scenario for Democrats is that, at a pivotal moment, Biden will struggle to put together a coherent thought.”