U.S.Yahoo News'A flat-out lie': Breonna Taylor attorneys seek new prosecutor after jurors speak out
The two anonymous members of the grand jury in the Breonna Taylor case who spoke out this week about the deliberations had no agenda other than to pursue the truth, their lawyer told Yahoo News on Friday. But their disclosures have spurred calls for a new prosecutor who, attorneys for Taylor's family hope, will handle the case differently than Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, whose office took over the case from local prosecutors in May. Taylor, 26, was killed during a botched raid on her Louisville apartment on March 13.
PoliticsThe IndependentTrump refuses to donate to his own re-election, leaving his campaign with one third of Biden's war chest
Donald Trump went into the final sprint of the election with a funding war chest one-third the size of Joe Biden, but he has yet to open his chequebook to close the gap. The Biden campaign went into the home stretch with more than $177m in the bank compared to Mr Trump's $63.1m, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission. Despite saying in early September that he would spend "whatever it takes" if more money was needed, Mr Trump hasn't spent a dime to his re-election campaign and aides are reluctant to ask directly, according to The New York Times' reporting this week.
WorldAssociated PressCroatia accused of brutality, sexual abuse against migrants
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Danish aid workers stationed in the Balkans say dozens of migrants have alleged they were brutalized by Croatian law-enforcement officers when they tried to cross into the European Union nation, before being summarily expelled back to Bosnia. Nicola Bay, the head of the Danish Refugee Council in Bosnia, told The Associated Press Friday that 149 migrants of varying nationalities, independently interviewed by his staff in the country over the past 10 days, reported being exposed to “extremely abusive” treatment by Croatian police. The testimonies include allegations of brutal and prolonged beatings, of people being stripped naked and being forced to lie like logs stacked on top of each other, Bay said, adding: “In two cases, we have reports of severe sexual abuse.”
PoliticsThe WeekTrump quietly closed the U.S.'s vaccine safety office last year. Researchers are scrambling to replace it.
Developers will start rolling out their COVID-19 vaccines in the coming months, leaving U.S. health officials to test their long-term safety. But that won't be easy, especially given that the Trump administration quietly shut down the office responsible for ensuring the safety of vaccines last year, The New York Times reports. Before the late 1980s, vaccine safety relied on parents, doctors, vaccine makers, and hospitals to step forward and report symptoms they feared were connected to a vaccine.
- WorldReuters
Israel hails 'new era' with Sudan but Palestinians lament 'new stab in the back'
Israel hailed a new era in its relations with the Arab world on Friday after the announcement of plans to normalize ties with Sudan, an agreement the Palestinians described as a "new stab in the back". Israel reached normalization agreements last month with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. "In Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, the three principles of the Arab League were adopted in 1967: No peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, and no negotiations with Israel," said Netanyahu.
PoliticsUSA TODAYFact check: Biden owns 2 of the 4 homes pictured in a viral meme
Zillow estimates the home is now worth more than $1.9 million. DuPont mansion Biden bought the five-bedroom, 2.5-bath former DuPont mansion at 6 Montchan Drive, Wilmington, Delaware, in 1974. He nicknamed the home “The Station” and used it as campaign headquarters during his 1988 election run.
PoliticsAssociated PressIn October, SC's Graham rakes in $1M per day for Senate race
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham has continued to rake in campaign cash in the closing days of his bid for a fourth term, raising about $1 million a day for the first two weeks of October. As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Graham played a prominent role in the televised process, introducing members as they spoke and able to opine on her nomination and the legal process in general. Graham's comments on the third day of those hearings — and the last day of the fundraising period in question — prompted an ethics complaint against him from South Carolina Democrats, who claimed Graham had broken Senate ethics rules by making a campaign fundraising appeal while speaking with reporters on Capitol Hill.
WorldThe Daily BeastInside Putin’s Mysterious Purge of Top FSB Official General Sergei Smirnov
MOSCOW—President Vladimir Putin vowed on Thursday he would not be swayed by Western pressure over the poisoning of his most prominent domestic critic, Alexei Navalny. Speaking in front of Russian businessmen, Putin declared he had personally allowed Navalny to leave Siberia for Berlin for medical treatment, which saved the opposition leader's life. A few hours later, Putin fired the deputy director of Federal Security Service (FSB), General Sergei Smirnov, according to a report in a respected business newspaper, RBK.
- NewsFOX News Videos
Hunter Biden business partner confirms email ahead of presidential debate
Former House Oversight Committee chairman and Fox News contributor Trey Gowdy reacts on 'Bill Hemmer Reports'
WorldINSIDERArmenian-Americans have accused Azerbaijan of attempting to revive the 1915 Armenian Genocide as conflicts between the 2 countries persist in Nagorno-Karabakh
Armenian-Americans have called on the US government to condemn Azerbaijan and Turkey for the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijanis deny those claims in what is the latest chapter in a yearslong conflict. Clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh have prompted many Armenian-Americans to lobby the US government to condemn Azerbaijan, fearing the country is seeking to continue what was started in the 1915 Armenian Genocide.
PoliticsAssociated PressChina hopes for change if Biden wins, but little likely
Chinese leaders hope Washington will tone down conflicts over trade, technology and security if Joe Biden wins the Nov. 3 presidential election. Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers and their constituents seem disinclined to adopt a softer approach toward China, possibly presaging more strife ahead, regardless of the election's outcome. Despite discord on so many other fronts, both parties are critical of Beijing's trade record and stance toward Hong Kong, Taiwan and religious and ethnic minorities in Tibet and Xinjiang, where the ruling Communist Party has detained Muslims in political re-education camps.
WorldReutersPhilippines' Duterte promises payment as Red Cross stops COVID-19 tests
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Friday his government will pay the 931 million pesos ($19.25 million) it owes the Red Cross after the humanitarian agency stopped conducting COVID-19 tests. The Philippine Red Cross (PRC), which has conducted 1.1 million swab tests and accounts for quarter of the country's output, on Friday stopped providing testing services until it gets paid, prompting the country's limited number of laboratories to fill the gap. "The president has given his commitment that the government will pay its obligation to the PRC," Duterte's spokesman, Harry Roque, said in a statement.
PoliticsThe IndependentMitch McConnell’s hand is discoloured and bandaged – but he insists nothing is wrong
After photos showing his hand discoloured and bandaged went viral earlier this week, Mitch McConnell denied that he had any health issues. The Republican Senate Majority Leader was pictured reaching down to pick up a face mask he had dropped, showing the skin on his right hand much darker than the rest of his body, and a bandage around his thumb. The Independent has contacted Senator McConnell's office for comment but was yet to receive a response.
- PoliticsAssociated Press
Trump campaign sues in Nevada to stop Vegas-area vote count
The Trump campaign and Nevada Republicans asked a state judge on Friday to stop the count of Las Vegas-area mail-in ballots, alleging that “meaningful observation” of signature-checking is impossible in the state's biggest and most Democratic-leaning county. A lawsuit filed in state court in Carson City 10 days before the Nov. 3 election complains that observers haven't been allowed close enough to workers and machines at the busy vote processing center to see whether ballots that get second- and third-step validation should be rejected. It alleges that Clark County Registrar of Voters Joe Gloria failed to get proper approval in April from Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske for his plan to accommodate observers, and seeks an immediate decision on a court order to “prohibit ... processing and counting ballots until the proper procedures are in place."
WorldBBCChina warns UK not to offer citizenship to Hong Kong residents
China has told Britain to "immediately correct its mistakes" after the UK reaffirmed its plan to offer a route to British citizenship to almost three million people living there. The offer was made in July when Beijing imposed a strict national security law on the former British colony. Critics say it undermines the civil freedoms that China agreed to uphold when Hong Kong was handed back in 1997.
WorldBusiness InsiderNorth Korea told citizens to stay inside, claiming (with no scientific basis) that a storm of yellow dust coming from China was carrying COVID-19
North Korea has warned its citizens to stay indoors to avoid a yellow dust storm which it claims could carry the coronavirus over from China. The state-run KCTV network warned Wednesday that the storm would arrive Thursday. The Rodong Sinmun newspaper said the storm posed a "danger of invading malicious viruses."
WorldReutersExclusive: 'Dumb mistake' exposed Iranian hand behind fake Proud Boys U.S. election emails - sources
Government analysts and private sector investigators were able to rapidly attribute to Iranian hackers a wave of thousands of threatening emails aimed at U.S. voters because of mistakes made in a video attached to some of the messages, according to four people familiar with the matter. Those failures provided a rare opportunity for the U.S. government to identify and publicly announce blame for a malicious cyber operation in a matter of days, something that usually requires months of technical analysis and supporting intelligence. "Either they made a dumb mistake or wanted to get caught," said a senior U.S. government official, who asked not to be identified.
U.S.Associated PressWashington state discovers first 'murder hornet' nest in US
Scientists have discovered the first nest of so-called murder hornets in the United States and plan to wipe it out Saturday to protect native honeybees, officials in Washington state said. After weeks of searching, the agency said it found the nest of Asian giant hornets in Blaine, a city north of Seattle near the Canadian border. Bad weather delayed plans to destroy the nest Friday.
U.S.Miami HeraldGrandmother’s pill mills made millions in Tennessee, feds say. She’s going to prison
A 56-year-old grandmother from Miami is accused of pocketing millions selling oxycodone and other opiates at four pain clinics she operated in east Tennessee, according to federal prosecutors. Sylvia Hofstetter was also ordered to pay back $3.6 million after a jury found her guilty of racketeering, money laundering and other crimes during a lengthy trial earlier this year, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee said Wednesday in a news release. “This defendant reaped millions of dollars in personal profits by operating destructive opioid pill mills in multiple states, inflicting lasting harm on multiple communities,” Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian C. Rabbitt said in the release.
PoliticsReutersMore than 47 million ballots cast in U.S. election, eclipsing 2016 early turnout
U.S. voters have cast more than 47 million votes for the Nov. 3 presidential election, eclipsing total early voting from the 2016 election with 12 days to go, according to data compiled by the U.S. Elections Project. Some 47.5 million Americans have turned in ballots, roughly eight times the number of early votes cast at about same point before the 2016 presidential contest, and above the 47.2 million early votes that were cast before Election Day in 2016. The surge comes after many states have expanded mail-in voting and in-person early voting as a safe way to vote during the coronavirus pandemic and amid voter eagerness to weigh in on the political future of Republican President Donald Tru...
PoliticsThe WeekGet ready for Trump TV, America
Now, as the voters are about to weigh in on whether Trump gets a second term, Trump TV is back in the news. But the truth is that if Trump does not win re-election, it's because he has conducted his re-election campaign, and much of his presidency, like it was already Trump TV. While it is hard for his critics to believe, there are millions of Americans who not only support Trump because of his more or less conservative policies, but also actually like the qualities that set him apart from normal politicians: the tweeting, the belligerence, the political incorrectness, the adversarial relationship with a media they regard as partisan and biased to the point of being corrupt.
WorldAssociated PressAP Explains: Why are UK and EU still arguing over Brexit?
It's more than four years since Britain voted to leave the European Union, and almost a year since Prime Minister Boris Johnson won an election by vowing to “get Brexit done.” As negotiators from the two sides hunker down for their final weeks of talks on an elusive trade agreement, Britain and the EU still don't know whether they will begin 2021 with an organized partnership or a messy rivalry. “A deal is the likelier case now, but I wouldn't be banking the house on it yet,” said trade expert David Henig, U.K. director at the European Centre for International Political Economy.
NewsINSIDEREpstein accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre posted jubilant tweets after 418 pages of Ghislaine Maxwell's damning testimony was unsealed
Virginia Roberts Giuffre, a woman who has accused Jeffrey Epstein and his alleged madam Ghislaine Maxwell of underage sex trafficking, celebrated the release of Maxwell's 2016 deposition. In it Maxwell described her relationship with Epstein and dodged questions about high-profile figures like Prince Andrew and Bill Clinton. Attorneys for Maxwell had tried to prevent its release, arguing it would lead to her getting an unfair trial.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderA Colorado trailer park owner says he'll raise his tenants' rent if Biden wins the election, or freeze it if Trump wins
A Colorado landlord who manages a trailer park sent a letter to tenants saying rents would likely double if Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden wins the election, KUSA-TV reported. Tenants are calling it a form of voter suppression. A complaint was filed with Colorado's secretary of state's office.
PoliticsUSA TODAY OpinionWhy Donald Trump releasing his full '60 Minutes' interview is a major media miscalculation
After teasing it for a day or two, on Thursday President Donald Trump released an unedited version of the upcoming “60 Minutes” interview he did with Lesley Stahl. Trump spent most of the week complaining that the interview, which is scheduled to air during Sunday night's episode, was “FAKE” and “BIASED." In fact in the video, which Trump posted on his Facebook page, Stahl comes off as patient, if probing — exactly what she is supposed to do, in other words.
“Many are longtime Republicans wrestling with what they see as a choice between two lousy candidates.”
“Some undecideds turn out to be people who’ve long felt alienated from the two big political parties.”
“They’re not following the 24-hour news cycle. The election and politics are just not a high priority.”
“One common trait: at this stage of the game, the undecided voter doesn’t fit into an easy political profile.”
“More realistically...these voters may not be motivated to vote at all in the 2020 election.”